Tennessee Candidate Takes Ethics Battle to the U.S. Supreme Court

Elliott Schuchardt has an axe to grind with the Tennessee court system.

He says that Tennessee is using the state's ethics system to attack lawyers who run for political office.

Schuchardt is engaged in an eight-year legal battle with lawyers working at the state's ethics board. The board, known as the Board of Professional Responsibility, is supposed to investigate complaints against lawyers, and ensure that lawyers treat their clients fairly.

Schuchardt says the system works very differently. He says the Board is being used for political purposes, to help court-insiders engage in self-dealing. Schuchardt says that the Board has filed dozens of ethics complaints against him, to aid his adversaries in a civil lawsuit. His adversaries are court-insiders, who used the attacks on his law license to obtain a $200,000 payment for themselves.

When Schuchardt tried to dispute the allegations, the Board refused to allow him to talk to witnesses. When Schuchardt tried to present evidence in his own defense, the Board refused to give Schuchardt a hearing. After years of harassment, Schuchardt filed a lawsuit against the chief lawyer at the Board of Professional Responsibility, Sandra Garrett. The case is pending in federal court in Nashville.

Schuchardt says the problem starts with how the Board chooses judges in attorney ethics cases. According to Schuchardt, 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 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.

In July 2026, Schuchardt asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review Tennessee's ethics system. In his petition, Schuchardt said that Tennessee's system of allowing the state prosecutor to choose its own judge violates the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. He is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to find Tennessee's system unconstitutional, and to require the appointment of a neutral judge.

Schuchardt says the lack of due process in Tennessee 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 for office. Many of these people are highly qualified. Two of them were presidents of their county bar associations. One was a former law clerk for the U.S. Supreme Court. In other words, they are community leaders, who typically run for judge.

In 2025, Schuchardt sued the senior lawyer at the Board of Professional Responsibility, for allegedly fabricating evidence.  Schuchardt says that the Board of Professional Responsibility refused to allow his to dispute the fabricated evidence. 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 compensatory damages of $2 million 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, Tennessee 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.”   

In 2026, Schuchardt took matters into his own hands. He went door-to-door, gathering signatures to get on the ballot in Tennessee. By March, he had enough signatures to challenge Davis in the Republican primary in Tennessee. Another lawyer, Brent Jones, also threw his hat in the ring, and ran against Davis in the primary.

The local media did not address the scandal at the election board in its coverage of the election. At the end of the day, Elaine Davis won the primary. She is now running in the general election, against the Democrat. Bryan Goldberg. 

Meanwhile, Schuchardt is continuing his political fight through the court system. The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether to take up the case later this year. In addition, the federal court in Nashville is considering whether to grant a preliminary injunction against defendant, Sandra Garrett, in the civil lawsuit.

Schuchardt studied law at Columbia Law School and government at Cornell University.  He is the author of America's Achilles Heel: How to Protect Your Family When America Loses the Reserve Currency. Schuchardt practiced law for nearly thirty years before running for office in 2026.  He focused his legal practice on civil liberties issues in the courts.