Entertainment Law

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Essay
The Wonder of Two: Elvis Presley's Influence on Tennessee's Common Law and Statutory Postmortem Rights to Publicity
John Rowe
John Rowe is a J.D. Candidate at The University of Chicago Law School, Class of 2027.

In 2024, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed the Ensuring Likeness, Voice, and Image Security Act (the ELVIS Act). The law offers expansive protections for a living or dead person’s name, image, likeness, and voice. Tennessee state courts have found an independent common law protection for the same right. While a federal district court held that the statutory protections offered by the Tennessee General Assembly supplanted the common law protections, this Case Note argues that Tennessee’s arrangement gives plaintiffs two distinct avenues to vindicate the right—giving litigants more opportunities to innovate in this area of law.