The Trial Court Vacancy Commission has sent three candidates to Gov. Bill Lee for his consideration to fill a vacancy in the 11th Judicial District Criminal Court. They are: Robert Davis, Amanda B. Dunn and Alexander K. McVeagh. The commission met earlier today for a public hearing, interviews and vote. The vacancy in Hamilton County was created by the confirmation of Judge Tom Greenholtz to the Court of Criminal Appeals, Eastern Section. Read more about the candidates from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

The U.S. Justice Department today charged four current and former Louisville, Kentucky, police officers for their roles in the 2020 raid that killed Breonna Taylor, Reuters reports. Former Louisville Metropolitan Police Department Detective Joshua Jaynes and current Sergeant Kyle Meany were charged with civil rights violations and obstruction of justice for using false information to obtain the search warrant that authorized the raid. Current Detective Kelly Goodlett was charged with conspiring with Jaynes to falsify the warrant and then cover up the falsification, and former Detective Brett Hankison was charged with civil rights violations for allegedly using excessive force. Taylor, a Black woman, was in killed in her home during a nighttime raid in March 2020 as police looked for her former boyfriend.

The Beck Cultural Center in Knoxville is calling on Gov. Bill Lee to exonerate Maurice F. Mays — a Black man the center says was wrongfully executed in 1922. Mays was accused of killing a 27-year-old white woman during a home invasion in 1919. He was identified by the victim’s brother in a quick police lineup, convicted of the crime one month later, and executed in 1922 at the age of 35. The Beck Center is working with a legal team to ask the governor for a formal exoneration. Beck Center President Renee Kesler would like to acknowledge Mays “and his death in a proper way.” The Beck Center will open a permanent exhibit devoted to Mays at the end of the month. Read more from Knoxville’s WBIR.

The Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Bus has now offered free legal services to clients in all three grand divisions of the state, the Administrative Office of the Courts reports. The Justice Bus made its way to East Tennessee with a visit to the American Jobs Center in Chattanooga last month where the Chattanooga Bar Association Young Lawyers Division helped provide assistance with civil legal issues and criminal law on expungement cases. It stopped in Middle Tennessee where it visited the Murfreesboro Day Reporting and Community Resource Center for its job and resource fair and helped 10 clients with issues ranging from expungement to family law. Recent events also included trips to an expungement clinic in Memphis, a Smyrna job fair, and an event with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition Clinic in Nashville. Trips to Sullivan, Knox and Obion counties are scheduled for this month.

The Germantown Board of Mayor and Aldermen will decide next week whether to appoint a municipal court judge to temporarily replace Judge Raymond Clift Jr., the Daily Memphian reports. Clift is guaranteed an eight-year term as he runs unopposed on today’s ballot, but he is currently on a temporary leave of absence. In Clift’s absence, Judge Robert Brannon has been filling in, but the board on Monday will consider naming Kevin Patterson as temporary judge to help with Brannon’s workload. Patterson is a local attorney with more than 30 years of experience and has previously served the city as judge when a substitute has been needed.

More than one month after its first lawsuit was dismissed, national LGBT organization the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is taking the state back to court over its trans bathroom law, WPLN reports. HRC is suing on behalf of a Williamson County family and their 8-year-old child who, according to the Associated Press, was assigned male at birth but identifies as female. State law prohibits the student, identified as D.H., from using the girls' bathroom at school. The school allows D.H. to use one of four single-occupancy restrooms, which “reinforce the differential treatment” of D.H., violating her constitutional rights, the suit claims. HRC originally filed suit earlier this year on behalf of two Wilson County families with transgender children, but both families moved out of state before the lawsuit made its way through the court. The suit seeks an injunction against the bathroom law.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned the death sentence of Clarksville man William Glenn Rogers, the Tennessean reports. Rogers, who was sentenced to death for the 1996 rape and murder of a nine-year-old Clarksville girl, raised claims of possible ineffective assistance of counsel and questions regarding the sufficiency of evidence against him. Judges Karen Nelson Moore and Jane Branstetter Stranch and Senior Judge Helene N. White heard the case. Moore wrote in the majority opinion that Rogers's counsel during the sentencing phase "makes us doubt whether this phase of trial produced a fair result." The opinion did not rule on innocence or guilt, but leaves the door open for the trial court to review claims of ineffective assistance on Rogers's motion for a new trial after his initial conviction.

Law school applications for the 2022 enrollment year have decreased by 11.7%, compared to 2021, according to data recently released by the Law School Admission Council. The review looked at the applicant pool over a three-year period. According to the American Bar Journal, the data shows there were 62,624 law school applicants, compared to 70,904 in 2021. Scores for the LSAT test also have declined. For the top band (175 to 180 range), there was an 11.7% decrease between the 2021 and 2022 school years. For the 170 to 174 range, there was a 14.4% decrease.

Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III has filed a lawsuit against Walgreens in Knox County Circuit Court for violations of the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act, violating Tennessee’s public nuisance statute, and creating a common law public nuisance through the unlawful sale and distribution of opioids. The suit argues that the company’s failure to maintain effective controls against abuse and diversion has directly contributed to the ongoing opioid crisis in the state. “Walgreens did not flood the State of Tennessee with opioids by accident,” Slatery said. Rather, it “was the result of knowing — or willfully ignorant — corporate decisions.”

President Joe Biden today signed a second executive order intended to improve access to abortion services, the Associated Press reports. In remarks at the signing, Biden reiterated his call for Congress to protect the right to abortion access in federal law. The order directs the Health and Human Services Department to consider actions to help patients travel outside their states for abortions using funds from Medicaid. The order also directs the department to ensure health care providers comply with federal non-discrimination laws. The order follows a July executive order that directed the department to identify ways it can help expand abortion access.