The Tennessee Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the historic State Capitol last week in the chambers where the Court regularly convened from the 1850s until the Supreme Court Building was completed in 1937. These pictures show the courtroom that was restored to a 19th Century-era style in 1988. Besides the historical significance of the
Davidson County Judge Hamilton “Kip” Gayden ruled last week that the Tennessee Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, a panel set up to review the performance of Tennessee’s appellate judges, was unconstitutional because its members did not “approximate the population of the state with respect to race and gender,” as required by state law. However, Judge Gayden