The Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands will hold two clinics next week. On Tuesday from 4-6 p.m. EDT, the group will hold a clinic at its Oak Ridge office, 575 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Ste. 201, Oak Ridge 37830. On Saturday, a general advice clinic will be held from 8:30-10:30 a.m. CDT at Belmont University, 2005 12th Ave. S., Nashville 37204. To volunteer for these clinics, contact Kendra Cheek, 615-780-7131. See all June clinics.

Five Memphis education advocates have filed suit against the Shelby County Board of Education and the district’s chief safety and security officer, alleging their First and 14th Amendment rights have been violated after they were banned from attending school board meetings. The Tennessee Lookout reports that the group, known as the “School Board Five,” was prohibited from school board meetings following a May 9 meeting focused on the search for a new superintendent of Shelby County schools. Banning the group members for an indefinite time period without giving them the opportunity to appeal violates their constitutional rights, lawyers for the group say.

Two main candidates are emerging to succeed the late state Rep. Bill Beck, D-Nashville, who died earlier this month. The Nashville Post reports that former Metro Council Member Anthony Davis could be appointed by the council as soon as next week to temporarily fill the vacancy, a move deemed necessary in the event that a special legislative session on gun control moves forward as planned in August. Davis also will run in the special election to fill the remainder of the term while Nashville organizer Aftyn Behm also has declared her candidacy. The Democratic primary is scheduled for Aug. 3, on the same ballot as the mayoral and Metro Council elections. The general election will be held Sept. 14, when Metro runoffs are scheduled. The qualifying deadline for the race is June 22.

The process of decertifying Memphis police officer Preston Hemphill for his role in the death of Tyre Nichols has been suspended, but he may not serve as an officer in Tennessee in the interim. According to the Daily Memphian, Hemphill, one of the officers involved in the Jan. 7 traffic stop that led to Nichols’ death three days later, appeared before the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission (POST) Thursday. The panel was considering decertifying Hemphill at the request of the Memphis Police Department, but put the matter on hold pending completion of a federal investigation.

The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld decades-old federal standards that give preferences to Native Americans and tribal members in the adoption or foster care placement of Native American children, rejecting a challenge that claimed that parts of the law were racially biased against non-Native Americans. Reuters reports that the 7-2 ruling threw out a lower court's decision that had struck down — as a violation of the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law — a requirement that "other Indian families" receive preference in adoption and foster care after members of a child's extended family or tribe members.

The American Bar Association will award the 2023 ABA Medal to Fred D. Gray, who was described by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as “the chief counsel” of the civil rights movement. Gray will accept the award at the ABA’s Annual Meeting in Denver in August. Gray played a crucial role in many of the movement’s key moments including representing Rosa Parks, serving as the chief legal strategist during the Montgomery bus boycott and representing marchers in Selma in 1965.

The Tennessee Department of Revenue will hold a free webinar on June 27 at 9 a.m. CDT for people interested in state tax issues for the hospitality industry. Participants will discuss how taxation affects food/beverage, lodging and recreation businesses in Tennessee. The webinar is one in a series of educational sessions held by the department each month. Learn more or register.

The annual 2023 TBA Convention in Knoxville kicked off Wednesday evening at the Downtown Marriott. If you’ve already registered for the convention, you may pick your badge in the lower level/pre-function area. Walk-up registrations are welcome. See our full schedule for convention events and CLE programming. See photos from our first day. 

The Nashville office of Maynard Nexsen will relocate from Edgehill Village to the Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood, the Nashville Post reported today. The firm, which was formed when Birmingham-based Maynard Cooper & Gale merged with Nexsen Pruet of Columbia, South Carolina, is home to 17 attorneys in Nashville. It will lease about 7,600 square feet at Nashville Warehouse Co. starting in July. The address of the building is 1131 Fourth Ave. S., Nashville 37210.

Following the Tennessee Supreme Court’s decision striking down a $50 cap on TennCare reimbursements for emergency room non-emergency health conditions, the state agency says it is “considering next steps.” The cap, which has been in place for more than a decade, was originally set to help cut costs as the agency was facing a $100 million shortfall. At the time, the agency promised to go through a standard rule-making process to put the cap in place, but that never occurred, Tennessee Lookout reports. The court ruling now potentially opens up taxpayers to years of back claims from hospitals and doctors in the state.