The Governor’s Commission for Judicial Appointments will consider six applicants for the circuit court vacancy in the 21st Judicial District, which serves Hickman, Lewis, Perry and Williamson counties. The applicants are: Joseph D. Baugh Jr., Stacey Michelle Brackeen Edmondson, Deanna B. Johnson, Connie L. Reguli, David Henry Veile and Terry E. Wood. The vacancy was created by the appointment of Judge Timothy Easter to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, effective Sept. 1. The Administrative Office of the Courts has more on each candidate.

Legal Aid of East Tennessee will celebrate the grand reopening of its Bradley County office tomorrow at noon. The new office is located at 166 North Ocoee, directly across from the Bradley County Courthouse. Thursday’s celebration will begin with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, followed by tours of the new office. Local dignitaries, United Way leadership, judges, members of the Bradley County Bar Association, and a representative from Gov. Haslam’s office are expected to attend. “In 2010, LAET’s budget was devastated by deep cuts in our federal appropriation, and we were forced to close our Cleveland office,” Russell Fowler, associate director for LAET’s Southern Region said in a press release. “But civil legal needs for low-income Bradley Countians have continued to increase. United Way recognized those needs and worked to form a partnership with LAET. The reopening of the Cleveland office is due in large part to that partnership.”

Death row inmate Billy Ray Irick is asking the Tennessee Supreme Court to postpone his Oct. 7 execution pending the outcome of a challenge to Tennessee's execution protocol, WRCB reports. Last December, the court moved Irick's execution date from January to October because of the pending lawsuit. Irick and nine other death row inmates are challenging the state's new one-drug lethal injection protocol, which replaces a three-drug protocol. The attorney general's office argues that other states have found similar one-drug protocols to be constitutional.

A state appeals court has upheld the conviction and sentence of Letalvis Cobbins, one of the men convicted of participating in the kidnapping, torture and killing of Knoxville couple Channon Christian and Chris Newsom in 2007. Cobbins claimed his trial was tainted by the drug use and misconduct of former Knoxville Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner, who resigned from the bench and pleaded guilty to official misconduct in March 2011. A three-judge panel of the Court of Criminal Appeals found that the Tennessee Supreme Court already ruled that Baumgartner's conduct outside the courtroom did not prevent Cobbins from receiving a fair trial. The Chattanooga Times Free Press has more.

Gordon Ball, the Democratic challenger to Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, is basing his uphill challenge on his specific definition of being a moderate Democrat and where that intersects with tea party followers. The Memphis Daily News reports that Ball hopes to get tea party followers who backed state Rep. Joe Carr in the Republican primary this past August to vote for him in the November statewide general election. Tennessee Republican leaders are responding with a new ad and website linking Ball to President Barack Obama. 

Longtime Chattanooga attorney Shields Wilson died on Sept. 11. He was 93. Wilson received his bachelors and law degrees from Vanderbilt University. Prior to law school, he served in the Navy and attended Officer’s Candidate School at Northwestern University. Wilson was director of the Corporate Tax Division of the Tennessee Department of Revenue before joining the Witt Gaither Law Firm, where he was a partner for many years. Wilson practiced law, at least on a part-time basis, until he was 91. A private military burial will be held, followed by a memorial service at Rivermont Presbyterian Church on Saturday at 3 p.m. with Reverend Clay Thomas officiating. Afterward there will be a reception to celebrate Wilson's life. Memorials may be made to Rivermont Presbyterian Church, 3319 Hixson Pike in Chattanooga or Hospice of Chattanooga, 4411 Oakwood Dr.

John Arnold Fitzgerald was temporarily suspended from the practice of law on Sept. 10 for misappropriating funds to his own use. The court found his continued practice of law poses a threat of substantial harm to the public. View the BPR notice.

Pat Cooley, the attorney for Circuit Court Judge Mike Pemberton, has filed a motion to dismiss Tom McFarland's complaint that seeks to declare void the recent race for circuit court judge of the 9th Judicial District in which Pemberton defeated McFarland. Less than a week after the Roane County results were certified, McFarland filed a complaint in Roane County Chancery Court claiming the results of the election should be void because Pemberton didn’t meet the one-year residency requirement to run for judge. “There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever of fraud or illegality that so permeated the election that it cannot be said to fairly reflect the will of the voters,” Cooley said in the motion. The 9th Judicial District is made up of Roane, Loudon, Meigs and Morgan counties. Roane County News has more.

Gov. Bill Haslam and former Gov. Phil Bredesen will discuss Amendment 2 Wednesday at a 2 p.m. program at the University of Tennessee's Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, Knoxnews reports. The proposed amendment will appear on the Nov. 2 ballot and affects the way judges to the appeals and supreme courts are chosen. Baker Center Ambassadors will also conduct a voter registration drive all day Wednesday. Oct. 6 is the final day to register for November election.

The Tennessee Lawyers’ Association for Women, the Women’s Political Collaborative and the League of Women Voters of Tennessee have announced their support of Amendment 2, the judicial selection amendment to the state constitution that will appear on the November ballot. "Fair and impartial judges are needed to protect the rights of all Tennesseans, regardless of gender, race or station in life," former Judge Barbara Haynes of Nashville said in a press release. "Passing Amendment 2 will help ensure we get the best and most qualified appellate judges to apply our laws equally and fairly."