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Frank L. Slaughter, Jr. v. Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tennessee

Paid petition · Supreme Court of Tennessee, Eastern Division, No. E2023-01567-SC-R3-BP · judgment February 6, 2025

Certiorari denied · October 6, 2025
Pre-decision estimate: 1% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Question presented

  1. Whether the Tennessee Supreme Court erred in failing to hold that Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 9, the enforcement provision for alleged ethical violations of attorneys, violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. A. Whether this Court should exercise its supervisory authority to cull Tennessee’s Supreme Court, which has a history of misapprehending federal Due Process in licensure cases, out of its unconstitutional morass to proper adherence with long-standing holdings of this Court. B. Whether this Court should exercise its discretion to grant certiorari to consider a novel question of law as to Rule 9’s facial unconstitutionality in that it confers plenary power on one person, determining without review or a written standard to apply as the sole decision-maker, whether or not to initiate disciplinary actions against an attorney when the issuance of the license to practice law in the first instance confers a federal Due Process liberty and property interest to the holder.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Robert Deno Cole
R. Deno Cole

For respondent
James Patrick Urban
Office of the Tennessee Attorney General

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 2 conferences

Linked docket
24M89

Proceedings

  1. Oct 06 2025
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Jun 17 2025
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/29/2025.
  3. Jun 13 2025
    Waiver of right of respondent Bd. of Prof'l Responsibility of the Supreme Court of TN to respond filed.
    Main Document
  4. Jun 02 2025
    Motion (24M89) Granted.
  5. May 13 2025
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/29/2025.
  6. May 07 2025
    Motion (24M89) of petitioner for leave to file a petition for a writ of certiorari with the supplemental appendix under seal filed.
  7. May 07 2025
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due July 3, 2025)
    PetitionCertificate of Word CountProof of Service