In February, the legislature adopted the state’s first official food: hot slaw, a dish popular in the Cleveland area of East Tennessee. But its second official state food is Memphis-based. 

The Tennessee bill says law enforcement agencies and officials “shall” cooperate in various immigration tasks already spelled out in state law, instead of saying they “are authorized” to do so.

The 2024 session is nearing its end, and most of those post-Covenant gun-safety bills still have not been debated.

A slate of bills targeted specifically at Memphis and sponsored by Republican state Sen. Brent Taylor have been progressing through the state Legislature. Gov. Bill Lee has signed two into law.

The Tennessee House of Representatives cast a 75-2 vote Thursday on the bill after the Senate previously approved it without any opposition.

The bill almost mirrors almost the same language from a so-called “anti-abortion trafficking” proposal that the Senate approved just a day prior.

At least 75% of an opportunity charter school’s students would have to be classified as at risk, and the school also could include a residential setting.

Voting rights advocates have argued the elections office’s legal interpretations have been way off-base and a lawsuit over Tennessee’s restoration process has been ongoing for years.

Republican lawmakers in Tennessee advanced a proposal Tuesday to allow some teachers to carry handguns on public school grounds.

The state’s push to remove two judgeships in Memphis faces resistance locally and from some Tennessee legislators who say Shelby County still needs the seats, particularly Division 9 of the Criminal Court.

Nine women and two doctors have launched a legal battle alleging current law violates pregnant patients' right to life as guaranteed by the state’s constitution. They want the judicial panel to clarify the circumstances that qualify patients to legally receive an abortion.

The bill says the video, produced by an anti-abortion group, must be shown as part of a school’s family life curriculum.

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Black lawmakers and community leaders said state leaders, a majority of whom are white, are unfairly targeting Tennessee State University.

Bill Lee signed a law that nullifies a Memphis ordinance that banned pretextual stops, which was passed in 2023 after Tyre Nichols’ death.

Polling by Voices for a Safer Tennessee suggests most Tennesseans support the moderate gun laws they are proposing, like universal background checks.

Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Melissa Boyd, who had been out on a $5,000 bond since Dec. 13, was taken into custody Wednesday.

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Vote on embattled judge’s removal set for April

The bill that would help fund FedExForum renovations by allowing Shelby County to reallocate hotel-motel tax dollars to the project cleared its first legislative hurdle on Wednesday, March 27.

“We kind of have a volume problem,” OUTMemphis executive director Molly Quinn said of the at least 18 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in the Tennessee General Assembly this year.

The Volunteer State is just one of three states where name, photographs and likeness are considered a property right rather than a right of publicity.

The local government audit unit of the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office issued its report Thursday, March 21, on incorrect revenue figures from the Shelby County Clerk’s office after a three-week investigation that included a week in Memphis.

At issue are concerns that the state’s franchise tax violates a U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause provision, which bans states from passing laws that burden interstate commerce.

State lawmakers advanced legislation Tuesday that would put fewer fourth graders at risk of being held back this year under Tennessee’s 2021 reading law.

State Sen. Brent Taylor told The Daily Memphian Monday morning that he is working on a bill allowing Shelby County to reallocate hotel-motel tax funding to cover the public financing gap for the Downtown Memphis arena’s renovations. 

The weighted caseload study could impact the amount of resources or number of judges Shelby County’s judicial district could have.

The bill comes amid heightened scrutiny of Shelby County’s criminal justice system by Republican lawmakers and the Board of Judicial Conduct.