Legal
Food City agrees to $44.5 million settlement with Tennessee over opioid role
Food City, a grocery chain with 130 stores in Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky, has agreed to a $44.5 million settlement with the state over the role its in-store pharmacies played in fueling the opioid crisis, Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced Thursday. The settlement brings to an end a 2021 lawsuit that accused the privately-owned chain […]
Tennessee Attorney General, ACLU, agree to end suit over House sign ban
This story was updated Thursday to reflect the entry of an order dismissing the case. In a coda to a bruising special session of the Tennessee Legislature that wrapped up last month, lawyers representing three women who silently defied a House ban on signs and attorneys for the state have agreed to bring a First […]
Tennessee defends GOP measure that protects Confederate monuments
Five years ago — as part of a backlash against efforts in Memphis to remove a statue of Ku Klux Klan-founder Nathan Bedford Forrest from a city park — a Republican majority in the Tennessee Legislature enacted a new law aimed at preventing the removal of Confederate monuments from public spaces. The GOP amendment to […]
A new challenge to Tennessee’s abortion ban
Two doctors and three women filed a lawsuit against Tennessee’s abortion law, arguing it prevents the implementation of life-saving medical care. “Pregnant people in Tennessee have suffered needless physical and emotional pain and harm, including loss of their fertility,” said lawyers in suit’s filing documents. “These pregnant people are not imagined. They are not ideological […]
Controversial Murfreesboro landfill loses court fight to expand
Owners of Middle Tennessee’s biggest landfill lost a legal bid to expand their site by nearly 100 acres, with a court ruling on Friday that regional officials had correctly followed the rules in rejecting the plan. The order from Judge Russell Perkins brings to a close a two-year legal fight in Davidson County Chancery Court […]
Former Tennessee Wildlife and Resources Agency biologist: agency manipulated data on deer disease
A state biologist claims he was confronted in his home by law enforcement officers with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency on the same day he sent his boss’s superiors evidence that the state was falsifying data on wildlife diseases. After his cell phone, laptops and other items were confiscated, the biologist said he was then […]
Appeals Court clears the way to allow Jewish couple to sue Tennessee for discriminatory adoption law
An East Tennessee Jewish couple can move forward with their lawsuit challenging a discriminatory adoption law passed by state lawmakers in 2020. The Tennessee Court of Appeals reversed a three-judge panel ruling that determined Elizabeth and Gabriel Rutan-Ram did not have standing to sue the Department of Children’s Services. In January 2021, the couple was […]
6th Circuit Court of Appeals promises swift ruling on Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for minors
A federal appeals court has promised a swift decision in a legal challenge to Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming healthcare for minors. At issue during Friday’s oral arguments, held before a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals: whether to set aside a lower court’s temporary block of the law. The appeals court has […]
Appeals court rules against Waste Management, Inc. in Nashville landfill expansion
A publicly-traded company’s bid to expand its landfill in a historically Black Nashville neighborhood has suffered another — and perhaps fatal — legal setback. The Tennessee Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a lower court’s decision to deny the proposed expansion of the Southern Service Landfill in the Bordeaux neighborhood. The landfill’s corporate owner is […]
Former senator seeks bail while challenging prison sentence
Despite admitting he is a convicted felon, former state Sen. Brian Kelsey is trying to avoid reporting to prison by Oct. 1 as he appeals a 21-month term for breaking federal campaign finance laws. Kelsey, formerly a Germantown Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, filed a request for bail this week to stay […]
Tennessee’s anti-drag law faces another suit, this time in Blount County
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee filed a lawsuit Wednesday to block enforcement of the Adult Entertainment Act, which critics have called a ban on drag shows. The ACLU filed its suit on behalf of organizers with Blount County Pride after the local district attorney sent the group a letter warning them he planned […]
State of Tennessee seeks to dismiss challenge to suit over the banning of protest signs
State lawyers are seeking to dismiss a legal challenge to a Tennessee House of Representatives rule banning protest signs at the Legislature, arguing that since the rules applied only to a special session that has now ended the case is moot. “The special session has now adjourned,” the motion, filed Wednesday in Davidson County Chancery […]