The NCAA admitted defeat — for now — in Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia’s bid for additional eligibility. In response to an injunction handed down last week, the NCAA agreed to a waiver that grants an additional year or more of competition to all student-athletes who, like Pavia, previously spent time at a junior college and otherwise would have exhausted their NCAA eligibility this academic year. The Tennessean also reports that the NCAA submitted an appeal to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to overturn the injunction from U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell. In that ruling, Campbell found that counting time spent at junior college against collegiate eligibility likely violates U.S. antitrust laws. The Associated Press has more on that decision.

The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) has found that two Tennessee agencies — the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners and the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program — discriminated against a lawyer who was denied his law license for nearly three years and forced to pay thousands of dollars for evaluations because he was using a medication to treat his opioid use disorder. According to NBC, the detailed public letter lays out how the organizations violated the Americans with Disabilities Act with “burdensome” actions based on “speculation and stigma” when they “forced [Derek Scott] to choose between his law license or continued treatment as prescribed as necessary by his treating physician.” Scott, who first passed the bar exam in 2021, was sworn into the Tennessee bar in January. The DOJ also found the agencies discriminated against another lawyer, identified as C.B., who had undergone addiction treatment more than 10 years before he passed the bar exam. NBC has been reporting on the stigma surrounding medication-assisted treatment. 

President Joe Biden vetoed legislation that would have expanded U.S. trial courts for the first time in decades, despite pleas by federal judges that their courts are short staffed, Bloomberg Law reports. The legislation, known as the JUDGES Act, would have added 66 federal trial court judgeships in courts across the U.S., in stages over the next decade. In comments explaining the veto, Biden cited the U.S. House’s “hurried action” on the legislation, which he said “seeks to hastily add judgeships with just a few weeks left in the 118th Congress.” The director of the Administrative Office of the Courts criticized the veto, saying the bill was “the product of careful and detailed analysis."

The Tennessee Board of Parole once again granted parole to a smaller percentage of people who came before it this year than the year before, continuing a trend of lengthier sentences of incarceration with fewer chances for early release. A new analysis by the Tennessean found that the board granted parole in just 22.3% of hearings in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which ended June 30. It also held fewer hearings than the previous year. The number of prisoners granted parole in Tennessee has been declining since 2019. The board attributes the decline in part to normal fluctuation over time, saying it, “Remains committed to minimizing public risk and the prudent, orderly release of adult offenders into the community when they become parole eligible ...”. Wanda Bertram, spokesperson for the Prison Policy Initiative, says the drop is more likely explained by changing attitudes toward parole.

A federal appeals court this week reinstated a looming deadline for businesses to comply with a new law aimed at cracking down on money laundering, Bloomberg Tax reports. The U.S. 5th Circuit on Monday lifted an injunction that had blocked enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act, which requires an estimated 32.6 million entities to disclose who owns and controls their businesses by Jan. 1, 2025. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network had pushed back the deadline to Jan. 13, 2025, after the injunction was imposed earlier this month.

Nashville Judge I'Ashea Myles granted a temporary injunction Monday, stopping the Tennessee Department of Agriculture from enforcing a rule that would have drastically altered hemp sales across the state, reports WKRN. The rule was set to take effect on Dec. 26, prohibiting sales of THCA products that could convert to 0.3% or more THC, with some exceptions for licensed sellers. The injunction, granted until Feb. 18, 2025, follows a lawsuit from the Tennessee Growers Coalition, which argues the ban could harm local hemp businesses. The coalition plans to return to court in February to seek a permanent injunction, WBIR reports.

President Joe Biden granted commutations to nearly every individual on federal death row Monday morning, replacing 37 of the 40 death sentences with life without the possibility of parole. Biden's administration imposed a moratorium on federal executions, and the President said he is “more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.” He did however let three death sentences remain in place: Robert Bowers, convicted for the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue; Dylann Roof, convicted of the shooting at the Mother Emanuel AME Church; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for the Boston Marathon bombing, CBS reports.

From August through November of this year, Belmont College of Law’s public interest and pro bono clinics provided $35,150 in free legal services –– calculated based on a standard rate of $250 an hour. Across 10 clinics, these services led to transformative outcomes for clients, including 24 powers of attorney for care of a minor child completed, 405 non-conviction expungement filings, 30 estate planning documents prepared, over 110 clients assisted and more than half a million dollars in court fees waived. This year, the law school set a goal of expanding its clinic offerings into new practice areas to better serve its Nashville neighbors. By also expanding its network of partnering organizations, Belmont Law’s public interest program is able to more readily identify communities in need, which were not previously on its radar, the school reports.

A new study from Belmont Innovation Labs, “Every Child Tennessee: Foster Youth in Tennessee 2024 Landscape Study — Transitioning into Adulthood,” highlights the crisis in Tennessee youth who are aging out of foster care. According to the study, 70 to 80% of children aging out of the state’s foster care system without proper support are facing challenges such as homelessness, addiction, imprisonment or trafficking by the age of 21. The research found that one “critical factor” that determined successful outcomes for those aging out of the system was “the presence of a stable adult relationship.” WSMV has more on the study, which drew on research over the last few decades.

Regional grocery chain K-VA-T Food Stores, known as Food City, has agreed to settle government allegations under the False Claims Act (FCA) related to its dispensing of opioids and other controlled substances. The lawsuit alleges that, from 2011 through 2018, 24 Food City store pharmacies dispensed opioids and other controlled substances that were medically unnecessary, lacked a legitimate medical purpose or medically accepted indication, and/or were dispensed to invalid prescriptions, and that, as a result, Food City submitted false claims to federal health care programs. Under the settlement, Food City will pay the United States $8,488,378, and will pay an additional $78,621 to the states of Virginia and Kentucky for claims paid to Food City by state Medicaid programs. Food City reached a similar settlement with Tennessee in 2023. Read more in a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee.