Civil Rights activist and pioneer in nonviolent protest, James Lawson, died yesterday at the age of 95, according to the Tennessean. Lawson inspired a generation of activists in the earliest days of the Civil Rights Movement, including helping to organize the movement to desegregate lunch counters in Nashville. Imprisoned as a conscientious objector during the Korean War in the early 1950s, Lawson was also kicked out of Vanderbilt University and arrested for organizing student demonstrations. During his incarceration, he said he learned about the nonviolent protests led by Mohandas Ghandi in India. In 1960, Lawson drafted the first purpose statement for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), an organization led by Nashville students. In 1961, he was arrested during a freedom ride and held in a Mississippi prison for weeks. Lawson was working on the sanitation strike in Memphis in 1968 and called Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to participate, then leading marches in the wake of King’s death. In 2006, Vanderbilt invited Lawson back to the school as a divinity professor. The university later purchased his writings and photographs, and in 2021, launched the James Lawson Institute for the Research and Study of Nonviolent Movements.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has permanently disbarred Christopher Shawn Roberts from the practice of law and ordered him to close his law firm IOLTA account, pay restitution to his former client and pay all costs incurred to the Board of Professional Responsibility. The court took the action after finding that Roberts failed to diligently represent a client, provide competent representation, turn over client materials after termination of representation and reasonably communicate with his client. He also was found to have knowingly violated court orders, charged an unreasonable fee, concealed documents meant for others, advised his client to lie to a court officer, provided false information to the court, and engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, deceit, and misrepresentations. His actions were determined to violate Tennessee Rules of Professional Conduct: 1.1, 1.2(a) and (d), 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.16, 3.2, 3.3(a), 3.4(c), 4.1(a) and 8.4(a)(c)(d).

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman today urged a federal judge in Kentucky to block the Department of Education’s new Title IX rule from taking effect on Aug. 1. The pair, supported by four other state attorneys general, argued the rule would harm Tennessee students, families and schools and asked the judge to issue a temporary injunction. The same group sued in April over the new rule. Of the 26 states that have sued in other venues, this is the first case to be heard in federal court.

The U.S. Justice Department today announced a settlement agreement with Hawkins County Schools to resolve allegations of race-based harassment and other discrimination of Black students. The investigation, conducted with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee, found that incidents of harassment — including a mock “slave auction” to sell Black students to their white counterparts — created a racially hostile environment. Under the agreement, the school system will take several concrete steps, including hiring a compliance officer and a consultant to help create a discrimination-free learning environment, creating an online portal to track complaints, updating its racial harassment and school discipline policies, and conducting training and educational events for staff and parents. Read more from the department.

Week of June 3, 2024 - June 7, 2024

Eleven residents of Sumner County have been charged with illegally registering to vote and illegally voting. While performing a routine check of registered voters in the county, officials found 15 individuals who had registered to vote after felony conviction but four of them have since died. District Attorney Ray Whitley says the individuals committed a felony crime when filling out the voter registration form and when voting. “On those papers the question is: Have you ever been convicted of a felony in the state of Tennessee? … And they had apparently checked the box that they were not convicted of any felonies when in fact they were,” said Whitley. Nashville Public Radio has more on the story.

The trial court furloughed the Defendant, Brady O’Brien Holmgren, to a mental health court program following his convictions for domestic assault and aggravated assault. The furlough was later revoked, and he was ordered to serve his sentence. Nearly a year later, the Defendant filed a motion to modify his sentence. The trial court denied the motion, and the Defendant appealed. Upon our review, we hold that the Defendant has waived any issues by failing to properly prepare his brief in accordance with Tennessee Rule of Appellate Procedure 27. Accordingly, we respectfully affirm the trial court’s judgment.

Nashvillians gathered last week to weigh in on the city budget, and there was one proposal — the Varsity Spending Plan — that received more support than any others, WPLN reports. The plan, developed by the Black political organizing group Southern Movement Committee, calls for more than $10 million to be spent for restorative justice and violence prevention efforts for young people. The funding includes $4 million to increase community center programming, which includes adding a restorative justice staff member at centers, $2 million to add designated restorative justice personnel in impacted high schools, and $4 million to establish a new “Office of Youth Safety" to stop escalation from becoming violent.

This year's Federal Practice Forum, presented virtually via Zoom, will offer three sessions beginning at 9 a.m. CDT on July 26. Topics will include ADR in federal district court, ramifications of the Chevron decision and more! Be sure to sign up by 8:15 a.m. CDT the morning of the program to receive the link to watch by email.

CHAD A. READLER, Circuit Judge. In state court, Richard Whitman stood trial for the shooting death of David Eadie. The trial court instructed the jury on self-defense but did not provide Whitman’s requested instruction on the castle doctrine. A jury convicted Whitman. Finding no relief on direct appeal, Whitman turned to federal habeas proceedings. The federal constitutional issue Whitman asks us to resolve in his favor, however, was not properly preserved in state court and is now barred from further review there. On that basis, Whitman has procedurally defaulted his claim. We thus affirm the district court’s judgment in the warden’s favor.