Law school data about fall 2022 admissions and other matters from American Bar Association-approved law schools is now available from the ABA. The data shows that total law school enrollment for 2022 was down 0.66% from the previous year, while first-year enrollment decreased by 4,698 students or 10.98%. The release also includes information about admissions, tuition, living costs, financial aid, class and faculty demographics, employment outcomes and bar passage rates. The data can be searched and sorted, allowing for school-by-school comparisons and analysis.

President Joe Biden was blocked from enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for government-contractor workers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Indiana after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found that he overstepped his authority. The government had sought to vacate a lower court’s order blocking the mandate but the judge authoring the majority opinion said, “To allow this mandate to remain in place would be to ratify an ‘enormous and transformative expansion in’ the President’s power under the Procurement Act.” A similar case that would impact workers in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee is still pending before the Sixth Circuit. Bloomberg Law has more on the pending litigation.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced last Friday that the independent review into the state’s lethal injection procedure has been completed, but the findings will not be immediately released. According to the Associated Press, Lee promised that the review will be released before the end of the year. “I think it’s important that I get a chance to read the report and that we internalize it and absorb the information,” Lee said. Executions in Tennessee have been paused since May after reports surfaced that the state had failed to ensure its lethal injection drugs were properly tested.Lee appointed Memphis lawyer and former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton to review circumstances that led to the failure. Stanton was tasked with reviewing the clarity of the state’s lethal injection manual and looking at the Tennessee Department of Correction’s staffing.

The U.S. Senate has confirmed Henry C. Leventis as the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, Knox News reports. Leventis, until now a partner at the Nashville law firm Spencer Fane, served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the district from 2010-2015. He previously worked as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division. President Joe Biden's pick for the western district of Tennessee, Kevin G. Ritz, was confirmed on Sept. 22. Current Assistant U.S. Attorney Casey T. Arrowood has been tapped for the eastern district but has not yet been confirmed.

Memphis attorney Andre Mathis was sworn in to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals this week. He is replacing Judge Bernice Bouie Donald, who is retiring and joining national mediation firm Resolute Systems. Donald conducted the ceremony. Mathis, a partner at Butler Snow, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in September. He will be the first Black male and second Black person from Tennessee to sit on the Ohio-based 6th Circuit.

A portrait of attorney, civil rights advocate and former Shelby County commissioner Walter L. Bailey Jr. recently was unveiled at an event at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. The portrait, by internationally acclaimed artist Carl F. Hess, will be installed in the Walter L. Bailey Jr. Criminal Justice Center at 201 Poplar, the Tri-State Defender reports. That facility was named after Bailey in 2018. Bailey was a young attorney who challenged the racial and economic inequities in Memphis and Shelby County more than 50 years ago. He gained national prominence when he took on the case desegregating Shelby County Public Schools, and handled the legal defense of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

Legal Aid of East Tennessee (LAET) has been awarded a $20,000 grant from the Pat Summitt Foundation. The funding will be used to address the needs of East Tennesseans suffering from Alzheimer’s and help caregivers establish power of attorney or conservatorships. “The Legal Care Project is a vital new resource for caregivers to ensure their ability to care for their loved ones who are suffering from a debilitating disease,” said LAET Executive Director Debra House. Read more about the grant in this release from the organization.

East Tennessee Lawyers’ Association for Women (ETLAW) recently held its annual toiletry drive benefiting the Knoxville YWCA’s housing program, which provides holistic support and education for 54 women. ETLAW Outreach Chair and LMU Law Professor Bianca White reports that 185 toiletry kits were prepared. The group also recently honored Knoxville attorney and Bernstein, Stair & McAdams partner Heather Anderson with its 2022 Spirit of Justice Award. The award celebrates an ETLAW member who provides support for women lawyers and the advancement of women in the community. See photos from the events.

A federal judge in Texas yesterday ruled that the Biden administration wrongly ended a Trump-era policy that makes asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court, the Associated Press reports. The move comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in June that Biden could end the policy but asked the lower court to determine whether the action was “arbitrary and capricious.” The judge said it was because the administration did not consider the benefits of the policy or the impact of unmeritorious asylum claims. The “Remain in Mexico” policy kept some 70,000 asylum-seekers out of the United States until President Joe Biden suspended it on his first day in office. The ruling comes as border agents and policymakers prepare for the end of another Trump-era immigration policy: the use of public-health rule Title 42 to limit asylum. That policy is set to expire on Dec. 21, NPR reports.

Charges have been dropped against four Chattanooga activists who blocked a road and burned a Hamilton County Sheriff's Office flag during protests against police brutality in 2020. Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Boyd Patterson dismissed the charges yesterday after activists agreed to pay restitution for the flag, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. All four activists were charged with misdemeanors while two were also charged with vandalism and reckless burning.