Alberto Gonzales, the former Attorney General who is now dean of Belmont University’s College of Law,  made his first trip to MTSU yesterday to speak on "Law School and the Legal Profession." Gonzales' White House tenure, which was marked by controversy related to the war on terrorism and his personnel decisions, prompted a peaceful protest of his visit outside the Honors Building by members of the MTSU branch of the national organization Solidarity. His talk was briefly interrupted by students inside who disagreed with his views. They were escorted out of the room by MTSU Police. WGNSRadio has the story.

A federal appeals court today overturned one of five federal convictions against former Knox County Judge Richard Baumgartner, Knoxnews reports. The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld four misprision of a felony convictions Baumgartner suffered in an October 2012 federal trial. The court overturned a fifth, ruling there was not adequate proof the ex-judge’s pill-supplying mistress was involved in a drug conspiracy when she first engaged in a deal with him to provide him prescription painkillers in May 2009.

The Tennessee Conference of the NAACP has endorsed a proposed constitutional amendment that would change the way appellate judges are chosen, Gavel Grab reports. “We want fair and impartial judges who will protect the rights of all people, not just the special interests with their campaign contributions,” said Gloria Sweet-Love, president of the Tennessee State Conference of the NAACP, according to a press release by a pro-Amendment 2 group. “We encourage all of our members to support Amendment 2.”

The Tennessee Supreme Court denied hearing an appeal from Shanterrica Madden who was convicted of murder in 2012 in the stabbing death of a Middle Tennessee State University basketball player. In March, the Tennessee Court of Appeals denied an appeal that argued Madden deserved a retrial because of presiding Judge Don Ash's ties to MTSU and relationships with witnesses on social media, among other issues. Madden's attorney Joe Brandon is prepared to take it to the nation's highest court, he tells The Tennessean.

A new study finds that nearly $3 million has been spent on broadcast TV advertising for state-level races in Tennessee this year, WRCB reports from the Associated Press. The report by the Center for Public Integrity has found that 8,565 ads have run for and against judicial, gubernatorial and legislative candidates. Supreme Court Justices Connie Clark, Sharon Lee and Gary Wade and their supporters spent $929,000 in the August retention election campaigns, while opponents spent about $538,000. The study found that Gov. Bill Haslam spent $666,000 on about 1,900 TV ads despite not facing any serious opposition for the Republican nomination, and that advertising in state legislative races ran at about $799,000.

Plaintiffs who filed a securities fraud case against HCA Holdings Inc., the Nashville-based hospital giant, on Monday were granted class-action status in a suit stemming from the company’s $4.3 billion initial public offering in 2011, the Tennessean reports. The claim, brought by New England Teamsters & Trucking Industry Pension Fund as lead plaintiff, alleges HCA failed to disclose the company was experiencing a decline in Medicare and Medicaid revenues and had improperly accounted for previous reorganizations in a “false and misleading” initial public offering registration statement. The list of defendants includes HCA’s top executives as well as several high-profile investment banks and a private equity group.

A Harriman lawyer who paid a 14-year-old girl for sexual encounters he then videotaped walked away from a Loudon County courtroom Tuesday with probation, Knoxnews reports. Kent Booher struck a deal to plead guilty to lesser charges of statutory rape. As part of the plea bargain, Booher received a three-year probationary sentence and must be listed on the state’s Sex Offender Registry for 13 years. He will pay no fines, but was assessed court costs. Under the agreement, records of his conviction will also be sent to the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility for consideration of disciplinary action.

The attorney for 22 plaintiffs seeking to oust Anderson County law director Jay Yeager has filed notice that he will appeal Senior Judge Don R. Ash’s decision to dismiss the group's lawsuit, Knoxnews reports. Ash said Yeager doesn't fall under the guidelines for ouster because he's appointed, not elected, and appointed officials can't be ousted. Also, the judge said in his four-page order, "petitioners can prove no set of facts that would entitle them to relief." Ash, who was appointed to preside over the case by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Gary Wade, also ruled that the plaintiffs are responsible for all courts costs.

The federal prison population has dropped this year by roughly 4,800 inmates — the first decline in decades, Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday at a criminal justice conference in New York City. ?With more population drops expected in the future, Holder says law enforcement needs to measure success by more than just prosecutions and convictions, WRCB has more.

The Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) is blazing the way in free legal information by offering the largest free legal database in the country, the ABA Journal reports. The concept for CanLII came about at a time when digital legal information was sparse and rarely available to the general public. The Canadian legal establishment worried that this information would be too rare or too expensive and wanted it to be free. To keep more than 1 million primary law materials free for the more than 10 million visitors expected to the site this year, the 14 legal societies in the Federation of Law Societies of Canada built relationships with courts all over the country at both the provincial and federal levels to get access to caselaw, statutes and regulations.