Longtime Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Cheryl Blackburn has announced that she will retire at the end of May. She has held the position for 29 years, having been originally appointed by the late Gov. Don Sundquist in 1996. Blackburn, whose current term is set to end in 2030, is the longest serving criminal court judge in the county, having presided over tens of thousands of criminal matters and hundreds of trials. Blackburn earned her undergraduate and master's degree in clinical psychology from Vanderbilt University. While working in the mental health field, she attended Nashville School of Law at night. Upon graduation, she was hired as an assistant district attorney in Nashville and later was appointed one of two deputy district attorneys. She says that serving on the bench has been the greatest honor of her professional career. The Tennessean has tributes from lawyers and judges who have worked with Blackburn over the years.

The Tennessee Bar Foundation has launched a new IOLTA Capital Improvement and Technology Enhancement (CITE) Grant, a one-time grant to help legal aid and civil legal services providers strengthen operational capacity and technology. Funding can be requested for capital improvements, projects that enhance efficiency and improving client service with technology, or projects that drive innovation through technology. Applications should be submitted by 11:59 p.m. CDT on April 23. The foundation will hold webinar on March 20 at 2 p.m. CDT to demonstrate the application portal and answer any questions. Sign up for the webinar. Read more in a press release from the foundation or access detailed guidelines — including eligibility requirements, application standards and evaluation criteria — and frequently asked questions on the foundation’s website.

The Washington County Bar Association is asking for volunteer lawyers to help residents of northeast Tennessee with legal needs following Hurricane Helene. The Advocacy Committee of the Washington County Long Term Recovery Group is a group of volunteers continuing to assist residents affected by the hurricane. Those interested in helping with intake or assisting with pro bono representation should contact Melissa Reading, 423-794-4009. The next meeting of the committee is March 19 at noon EDT via Zoom.

The U.S. Senate last week confirmed President Donald Trump's former criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche to serve as deputy attorney general, the number two role at the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ). Blanche was confirmed on a party line vote of 52-46, Reuters reports. The Senate also approved Gail Slater to lead the department’s antitrust division. She was approved on a bipartisan vote according to Bloomberg Law. The Senate Judiciary Committee also recently advanced the nominations of three to key roles at the department. The panel approved D. John Sauer to be U.S. solicitor general, Harmeet Dhillon to lead the Civil Rights Division and Aaron Reitz to head the Office of Legal Policy. Bloomberg Law reports on those votes.

The TBA’s Immigration Section will host a one-hour webcast on March 31 exploring what attorneys need to know in this period of enhanced immigration enforcement to counsel clients and be on the look out for notario fraud, which can be prevalent in immigrant communities. Make plans now to join Edith Johnson with Catholic Charities of East Tennessee in Knoxville to learn more. The webcast will run from noon to 1 p.m. CDT. Immigration Section members get registration discounts. Not a section member? Join here.

According to the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), law firm summer associate hiring hit an all-time low in 2024. Reuters reports that it appears that law firms are taking a "conservative" recruiting approach and new figures show that on-campus interviews are no longer the primary means of summer associate hiring. The median number of second year law students hired as summer associates dropped to six in 2024 from seven the year prior — the lowest since NALP began tracking that figure in 1993.

Question: In Tenn. Att’y Gen. Op. 06-102 (June 21, 2006) (“the 2006 opinion”), the Office of the Attorney General concluded that no state law requires a county school system to enroll students who are residents of a municipality with a separate school system. The Office also concluded that, “as a general rule,” a county school system would not have to continue providing services for students who are enrolled in municipal school systems. Is that opinion still valid?

Opinion: Op. 06-102 requires supplementation. Local public school systems generally retain discretion over the enrollment of students that live outside of their districts. But in some circumstances, a public school system cannot deny services to a student simply because the student lives in an area served by another system.

Question 1: Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-603(b)(1) or § 67-5-1601(a)(3), can a property assessor conclude that the contributory value of miscellaneous construction—like remodeling, replacing a roof, or upgrading an HVAC—to an existing structure requires a reappraisal of the property as a whole between reappraisal years, and conduct a reassessment based on that conclusion?

Opinion 1: Tennessee Code Annotated § 67-5-1601 does not authorize reappraisals of property as a whole outside the statutorily prescribed appraisal schedule. Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5- 603(b)(1), however, if an improvement or new building is completed between January 1 and September 1 of any tax year, the property assessor should make a new assessment or issue a corrected assessment based on the value of the improvement at the time of its completion. In doing so, the assessor should value the improvement as similar improvements were valued during the last revaluation period for the assessor’s county as required by Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-1601(a)(3).

Question 2 Does a reappraisal of an existing structure with miscellaneous construction completed between reappraisal years, as described in Question 1, violate the Equal Protection Clause of Article 11, Section 8, or the Equal and Uniform Clause of Article 2, Section 28, of the Tennessee Constitution, or another provision of the Tennessee or United States Constitutions?

Opinion 2: No, the issuance of a new or corrected assessment under Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-603(b)(1) does not violate equal protection or uniformity protections. The assessor is required by Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-1601(a)(3) to value new improvements as similar improvements would have been valued during the last revaluation year.

Question 3: In such a reappraisal, is there legal authority to support a property assessor’s professional opinion that the cost of modifying an existing improvement, standing alone, is insufficient to determine a value change as required by Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-603(b)(1)? 2

Opinion 3: Not all modifications will constitute improvements to real property requiring a value change. What matters is the nature of the changes, not the cost. For example, mere repairs or replacements to a structure generally will not constitute improvements triggering a new or corrected assessment.

Question 1: Does Tenn. Code Ann. § 68-201-112 allow Tennessee to enforce Tenn. Code Ann. § 68- 201-122 when there is injection, release, or dispersion of the prohibited material into federally controlled airspace, or airspace that is otherwise under the jurisdiction of the federal government?

Opinion 1: It depends. A court would likely find some attempts to enforce Tenn. Code Ann. § 68- 201-122 expressly or impliedly preempted, but not others.

Question 2: If not, in what other manner, if any, can Tennessee enforce Tenn. Code Ann. § 68-201-122 when there is injection, release, or dispersion of the prohibited material into federally controlled airspace, or airspace that is otherwise under the jurisdiction of the federal government, for the purposes of the release of chemicals, chemical compounds, substances, or other apparatus?

Opinion 2: See Response to Question 1. Tennessee can likely enforce Tenn. Code Ann. § 68-201-122 to ground-based activities that involve injection, release, or dispersion of material into the air. But to the extent the question contemplates enforcement of § 68-201-122 to emissions, the federal Clean Air Act may preempt enforcement. And for releases occurring in navigable airspace, a court may find § 68-201-122 impliedly preempted depending on the facts.

The Petitioner, Latosha Starks-Twilley, appeals the Shelby County Criminal Court’s denial of her post-conviction petition, seeking relief from her conviction of first degree premeditated murder and resulting life sentence. On appeal, the Petitioner claims, and the State concedes, that the post-conviction court erred by summarily denying her pro se petition without appointing counsel or holding an evidentiary hearing because the petition alleged a colorable claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. Based on our review, we reverse and vacate the judgment of the post-conviction court and remand the case to that court for the appointment of counsel and for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.