Cocke County Circuit Court Judge Ben Hooper said his ability to waive court costs in his Driver’s License Court – designed to help defendants who have lost their privilege to drive – has been restricted and complicated due to Tennessee legislation, WNPC reports. “We have passed so many laws that we have trapped people, and it's almost impossible for people to get their license', so I came (to court) see what we have done in Tennessee that was wrong and what we possibly could do to fix it," Rep. Jeremy Faiser, R-Cosby, said.

The New York Times writes on what it calls the law school “death spiral” – a consequence of increased free federal loans and lowered admission standards to maintain enrollment in a stalled legal job market. “The government must require accountability from law schools that live off student loans,” the editorial board writes. “Even as law schools are churning out unqualified graduates stuck under hopeless mountains of debt, millions of poor and lower-income Americans remain desperate for quality legal representation."

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., filed a bill to remove J. Edgar Hoover’s name from the side of the FBI headquarters building in Washington, D.C., The Commerical Appeal reports. "J. Edgar Hoover did some awful, terrible things in his life and as FBI director," Rep. Cohen said.

Gov. Bill Haslam said that he hopes to appoint a new Supreme Court judge by the end of this year, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. The Governor's Council for Judicial Appointments chose the three nominees -- Thomas Radcliffe “Skip” Frierson of Morristown, Robert H. Montgomery Jr. of Kingsport and Roger Amos Page of Medina -- last Tuesday. "Obviously these folks are going to have a lot of weighty decisions so we're going to see their legal knowledge, their judicial temperament and their judicial philosophy to make certain that they fit,” Haslam said. The Supreme Court seat was vacated by the September retirement of Justice Gary R. Wade.

Chattanooga attorney Tonya Kennedy Cammon, with the firm of Grant, Konvalinka & Harrison PC, was named a fellow of the Federal Bar Foundation, the Chattanoogan reports. There are currently 216 fellows of the Foundation across the country. Cammon’s practice focuses primarily on employment matters, health care and litigation.

Former U.S. Senator and attorney Fred Thompson died on Sunday in Nashville after a reoccurrence of lymphona. He was 73. After working as an attorney in Tennessee and later as an attorney and lobbyist in Washington, D.C., Thompson won a special election in 1994 to fill Al Gore’s vacated U.S. Senate seat. “Very few people can light up the room the way Fred Thompson did. He used his magic as a lawyer, actor, Watergate counsel, and United States senator to become one of our country’s most principled and effective public servants,” Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said. Read more on Thompson’s life from The Tennessean.

WZTV reports Airbnb signs can remain in Nashville yards while a couple’s lawsuit over Airbnb rules is pending, according to a circuit court judge’s ruling Friday. A Nashville couple sued the city after an ordinance went into effect earlier this year banning Airbnb signs and limiting the number of people who can rent their homes as Airbnbs while they are living out of town.

Knoxville attorney Sam Doak of Arnett, Draper and Hagood writes in the Knoxville News Sentinel that Tennessee’s relatively new workers’ compensation law – effective July 1, 2014 – is causing some confusion when it comes to how medical and other temporary benefits are addressed. “The point is that the parties need to think ahead, be smart about what issues they dispute and be prepared to appear before a judge to justify their position with admissible evidence if they cannot reach a compromise,” Doak writes. 

The U.S. Supreme Court today looked at racial discrimination in the selection of jurors as multiple prosecutors have filed a friend-of-the-court brief siding with Timothy Foster, who was sentenced to death for killing an elderly woman in Georgia. "Numerous studies demonstrate that prosecutors use peremptory strikes to remove black jurors at significantly higher rates than white jurors,” attorneys for Foster said. NPR reports that it is unlikely the court will establish new rules to prevent "systematic discrimination." 

Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich filed a motion Friday asking Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Carolyn Wade Blackett to recuse herself from all cases on her docket due to concerns about the judge’s impartiality, The Commerical Appeal reports. The request comes after Blackett granted a new trial in a case after meeting with jurors. "Judge Blackett's conduct after hearing the jurors' comments reasonably could have been viewed as evidencing a personal bias or prejudice against members of the staff of the Shelby County District Attorney General," Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Alan Glenn said.