Tennessee: Senate votes to increase judicial oversight

April 1, 2012

The senate voted unanimously to replace the existing judicial disciplinary body—the court on the judiciary—with a new entity known as the board of judicial conduct. The state bar and the supreme court would no longer have a role in selecting members of the disciplinary body, and greater transparency in its work would be required. Concerns have long been expressed that judicial misconduct claims are not investigated aggressively enough and that the process is too closely tied to the supreme court.