Category: Uncategorized

  • The Court Must Keep Kennedy: The Future of Kennedy v. Louisiana in the Face of State Legislative Developments By: Ashlyn Doane In 2008, the United States’ Supreme Court held in Kennedy v. Louisiana that the death penalty should not be applied to child rape or any other crimes against individuals where the victim’s life is…

  • A Different Kind of Gamble: Tennessee’s Approach to Collecting Taxes on Sports Betting Handle By: Eli Milligan[1] The Start of Sports Betting in Tennessee             Tennessee recently made some changes to its sports betting laws by adding revisions which “strengthen player protections and build on ongoing efforts to eliminate fraudulent activity by patrons on the…

  • Lost Without Translation: The Plight of Non-English Speakers in Tennessee Courts By: Adrian Mayagoitia* For a second, imagine that you’re on vacation abroad and enjoying what the French countryside has to offer. Despite your lack of French skills, you have a wonderful day of vineyard-touring and decide to close the day with dinner at a…

  • Pixels to Property: Copyright in an Era of AI-Generated Art By: Christina Williams Introduction Intellectual property (“IP”) rights are a cornerstone to innovative progress because of the many protections they offer including trademarks, patents, and more. In an era when technology is rapidly advancing, they serve an especially prominent role in securing ownership over non-tangible…

  • Tennessee’s New Halo Law By Meg Parent On May 9, 2025, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed the Protecting Everyone Against Crime and Extremism Act (PEACE Act).[1] This Act has stirred up significant discourse, getting pushback on the Tennessee House floor from key representatives of the Democratic party, Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and Justin Pearson (D-Memphis).[2] The…

  • You Practice How You Play: How Over Relying on AI in Law School Can Lead to Diminished Critical Thinking Skills By: Riley Walker Our greatest skill as attorneys will be problem solving. Our clients will pay us to solve their legal problems, and law school teaches us to do that through understanding the facts and…

  • Caught Between A.R.O.C. and a Hard Place: The Role of the Tennessee General Assembly By: Sara Andersen Rape of a child is one of the most severely punished criminal offenses in Tennessee: the statute mandates that convicted adult offenders must receive a sentence of either death, life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, or life…

  • Dear Tennessee Law Review Community, It feels like yesterday that I found out I was stepping into a new role as the Editor-in-Chief of Tennessee Law Review. Serving in this role has been the greatest honor of my law school career, and I am extremely grateful for the journey this role has afforded me. When…

  • From Dictionaries to AI: The Evolution of Statutory Interpretation

    By: Austin Gergen* Snell v. United Specialty Ins. Co. is a relatively routine case coming out of an insurance dispute in the Eleventh Circuit.[1] However, Judge Newsom wrote a concurring opinion where he proposed a thought-provoking idea: the potential use of AI-powered large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude in…

  • Is Overhead the Enemy? Reevaluating the Concern of Internal Expenses in Tax Exempt Organizations By: Myles A. Roth In 2022, Americans gave $499 billion to charity.[1] The largest source was from individuals, who donated $319 billion, or 64% of total charitable giving.[2] This giving was provided to countless tax-exempt entities with a majority going to…