Schuchardt Requests Supreme Court to Mandate Neutral Judge for State Ethics Board
September 3, 2026, 10:22 p.m.

Elliott Schuchardt, a former candidate for the Tennessee General Assembly, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to require Tennessee to use a neutral judge in attorney ethics cases.

According to Schuchardt’s petition, Tennessee allows state attorneys to select their own judge in cases involving lawyers’ licenses. Tennessee is the only state in the United States that does not use a neutral judge in these cases. Until 2016, Tennessee chose the fact-finder in such cases by means of a rotating system. Under such a system, neither the state nor the respondent attorney chose the judge. Tennessee abandoned the rotating selection system in 2016 because the state ethics board could not prove that it was complying with the rules.

Now Tennessee simply allows one party – the prosecutor – to choose the judge. Schuchardt says the system is illegal under federal law. “Imagine if your ex-spouse could choose the judge in your divorce case. That wouldn’t be fair. And it’s not permitted under the Constitution,” he says.

Schuchardt says the lack of due process has led to abuses at the Board. He says that Tennessee is filing ethics cases against attorneys who run for political office.

Schuchardt has a list of nearly 60 attorneys who were sued by the Board after they announced their candidacy.

In 2025, Schuchardt sued a lawyer at the Board of Professional Responsibility for allegedly fabricating evidence. Schuchardt says that he was not permitted to talk to witnesses, testify, or present exhibits opposed to the state. “They get away with this stuff because they get to choose the judge,” he says. Schuchardt is seeking $2 million in damages in the case.

Schuchardt complained about the lack of due process at the Board to his State Representative, Elaine Davis.

Davis represents much of Knox County in the Tennessee General Assembly. For the past two legislative terms, Davis was responsible for supervising judges in Tennessee through the Judiciary Committee.

Schuchardt says that Elaine Davis is not doing her job. According to Schuchardt, “Elaine Davis keeps saying that she’ll look into it. But nothing ever happens.”

Davis is running for re-election this fall in the November election, against Democrat Bryan Goldberg.

Schuchardt studied law at Columbia Law School and government at Cornell University. He practiced law for nearly thirty years before running for office in 2026. He focused his legal practice on civil liberties issues in the courts.

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