Sen. Brent Taylor Helping with Avoiding Elimination of Two Shelby County Judgeships

Miles Mason, Sr. with Sen. Brent Taylor

Senator Brent Taylor is helping our Memphis Bar.  I was able to catch up with our Senator this Friday at The Capital Grille.  He shared,

I thought I would provide an update on the two judgeships in Shelby County being moved elsewhere in Tennessee.

I worked the committee ahead of time and there simply were not enough votes in the Judiciary Committee to save the judges.

However, given our current crime crisis in Memphis, I did produce an amendment that would have saved the criminal court judge while allowing the circuit judgeship to go. I was able to pick up a vote with the “split-the-baby” strategy which amounted to giving up a judge to keep a judge.

I alerted the Democrats on the committee to my amendment and they were supportive.

Unfortunately, Senator Sara Kyle, who is a committee member, was not present as she was in Memphis dealing with a family matter. Without Senator Kyle’s vote in the Judiciary Committee, my amendment failed by one vote and the committee approved relocating the judgeships.

However, the measure now goes to the Finance Committee for consideration.

I would recommend reaching out to any members of the finance committee that you may have a relationship with to stress the importance of at least keeping the criminal court judgeship while we are in the midst of a crime crisis. (Please note: Senator Haile is in a tough re-election battle and a judge will be going to one of his counties, so keep that in mind as you discuss this with him as he will have split loyalties.)

The whole issue could be resolved by simply funding two additional judgeships in the budget then there is no need to move our judges.

I will continue to work the senate in an attempt to prevent the loss of the judges.

Again, thank you for trusting me enough to serve Memphis in the senate.

As always, please call me with any questions.

The following are members of the Finance Committee:

Bo Watson
John Stevens
Joey Hensley
Ferrell Haile
Jack Johnson
London Lamar
Bill Powers
Page Walley
Dawn White
Ken Yager
Jeff Yarbro

Sen. Brent Taylor.

Thank you, Brent.  We appreciate your help and candor.

On Friday, Adam Johnson, MBA President, sent out the following e-mail to the Memphis Bar:

MBA Members,

We write to you with great urgency regarding a bill advancing through the Tennessee Legislature (SB 2517 / HB 2002) to eliminate two courts in Shelby County. The two seats in question are Circuit Court Division 7 held by Judge Mary Wagner, who will join the Tennessee Supreme Court on September 1, 2024, and Criminal Court Division 9, held by Judge Melissa Boyd, who resigned on April 3, 2024. The Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts requested four new judgeships in other counties for the next fiscal year, and Governor Bill Lee’s proposed budget only allows for two new seats. This bill effectively seeks to fund the remaining two new judgeships by removing two judicial seats from Shelby County and assigning them to the two unfunded judicial judgeships. The proponents of the bill argue that no judge will lose her job as these seats will be vacant once this law takes effect, and that Shelby County has been “over-judged” for years. This last argument is based on a weighted case study from 2019, which uses a formula from 2014. We believe this case study is outdated and insufficient to support this.

The MBA Board voted unanimously two weeks ago to oppose the bill. We sent a statement to the House Civil Justice Subcommittee opposing the bill. Board Member Justin Joy testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee (1:50:45) on April 2, 2024, vociferously arguing that Shelby County needs its judges and noting the flaws from the weighted case study. Shelby County legislators from both the Democratic and Republican Party stand against the bill as well. Sen. Brent Taylor, R-Memphis, offered an unsuccessful amendment to the Senate bill to keep at least the criminal court position in Memphis, but he added a successful amendment stating that if the bill becomes law, criminal cases could be distributed to circuit court judges with concurrent jurisdictions when there is a backlog.

This bill is quickly making its way to the House and Senate for a vote, so your help is needed now. Next week, the bill will be heard in the Senate Finance, Ways, and Means Committee and the House Finance, Ways, and Means Subcommittee before heading for a final vote on the full Senate and House floors. We encourage you to contact not only your own representatives but any other Tennessee legislator you know as well, and let them know you oppose SB2517/HB2002. Our courts need your help!