Constitution Day CLE Package: Constitutional Principles in Practice

Courses Included

• Federal Practice Forum 2026 - First Amendment Update: Court Records, Gag Orders & Free Speech Trends
  
  

  This session will analyze the First Amendment principles underlying access to court records and gag orders. The discussion will also encompass emerging First Amendment issues, including litigation involving government employee speech, social media use by elected officials, and press freedoms.

  Course Information

  Format:Online VideoDual Credits:0.00General Credits:1.00

  Speakers/Producers

  

  • Jennifer Safstrom, Vanderbilt Law School, Nashville
    Jennifer Safstrom teaches the Stanton Foundation First Amendment Clinic at Vanderbilt Law School. Before joining Vanderbilt's law faculty, Professor Safstrom worked as counsel at the Institute for...
• TBA Convention 2026: From CCTV to AI: Surveillance, Safety, and the Cost of Privacy
  
  

  This joint session will examine the balance between governmental interests in public safety and individuals’ constitutional rights to privacy. The discussion will address legal considerations under the Fourth Amendment, including protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, as well as the potential implications of surveillance technologies on First Amendment rights, particularly freedom of speech.

  Topics are expected to include the use and regulation of technologies such as automatic license plate readers, facial recognition systems, and residential surveillance devices, along with considerations of accuracy, oversight, and potential bias. The program will feature a panel of speakers with expertise in civil rights, constitutional law, and artificial intelligence.

  Course Information

  Format:Webcast - Archived VideoDual Credits:0.00General Credits:1.00

  Speakers/Producers

  

  • Bianca White, Lincoln Memorial University, Knoxville
    After graduating law school in 2009, Bianca practiced labor and employment law for 2 years with a firm in Knoxville, Tennessee. In 2011, Bianca transitioned into her current role as a research...
• LGBT Law Forum 2026: The Declaration at 250 – Liberty, Equality & Pride
  
  

  In honor of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this CLE presentation traces the constitutional line from the nation's founding to today's LGBTQ equality cases, following the right to marry through Loving, Lawrence, Windsor, and Obergefell v. Hodges. Drawing on presenter Maureen Truax Holland's role on the Tennessee plaintiffs' team in Tanco v. Haslam (consolidated into Obergefell), it connects the founding promises to the present-day legal landscape.

  Course Information

  Format:Online VideoDual Credits:0.00General Credits:1.00

  Speakers/Producers

  

  • Maureen Holland, Holland & Associates, PC, Memphis
    Ms. Holland graduated from Vermont Law School, cum laude. She is licensed to practice law in Tennessee and Vermont state courts, the U.S. District Court for Western Tennessee, and the Fifth and Sixth...
• Federal Practice Forum 2026 - Immigration Habeas Petitions
  
  

  This CLE program provides attorneys with a practical guide to using federal habeas corpus petitions to challenge unlawful immigration detention amid major recent shifts in enforcement policy. Presenters will cover the legal foundations of habeas practice, including procedural due process and Fourth Amendment claims, along with the remedies and procedural steps needed to file effectively. The session concludes with a real-world case study illustrating these strategies in action.

  Course Information

  Format:Online VideoDual Credits:0.00General Credits:1.00

  Speakers/Producers

  

  • Julio Colby, Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, Nashville
    Julio Colby is the Worker Rights Attorney and Skadden Fellow at the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition. He earned his JD in 2024 from Harvard Law School, where he was a clinical...
  • Lorne Hiller, Johnson Evans & Headrick PC, Nashville
  • Michael Holley, Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, Nashville
    Michael Holley is the Senior Litigation Counsel at the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition. Before joining TIRRC, he practiced criminal defense as a federal public defender in Nashville...
• Recent Developments in Administrative Law - The Demise of Chevron Deference and Other Ways Executive Branch Agencies Have Lost Power in 2025
  
  

  In 2024, the Supreme Court released a decision that substantially impacted executive branch agencies by overturning a long-standing doctrine known as “Chevron deference.” In this decision, which addressed powers of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Supreme Court offered “deference” to executive branch officials interpreting their powers as granted by congressional statutes. That type of deference evaporated with the high Court's 2024 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce. In this presentation, we will discuss the origins of the Chevron doctrine, the rationales underlying its overturn, and the ramifications of this monumental shift for future court cases involving administrative agencies. Finally, we also will take some time to address other ways that the influence of administrative agencies might wane in the coming years.

  Course Information

  Format:Online VideoDual Credits:0.00General Credits:1.00

  Speakers/Producers

  

  • Hemant Sharma, University of Tennessee,
    Hemant Sharma is a graduate of Cornell University, where he was a member of the Dean's List and winner of the prestigious James E. Rice Writing Prize, granted annually to the top essays composed in...