The Supreme Court has passed up an early chance to review a contested North Carolina election law that opponents say limits the ability of African-Americans to cast ballots. The high court intervened in October to order that the law remain in effect for the fall elections after a lower court ruling blocked part of the law. A trial is set for July in the lawsuit filed by civil rights groups. The Daily Times has more from the Associated Press.

The 5th Annual Joint Conference on Juvenile Justice will be held Saturday at Austin Peay State University from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Montgomery County Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) Task Force, Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth and the MerryInGOD Foundation will sponsor the conference. The event is free and open to the public. Business Clarksville has more.

The Montgomery County Veterans Treatment Court will have its graduation ceremony on April 21 at 1 p.m., hosted by the Honorable Judge Kenneth R. Goble Jr. and the treatment court team. The ceremony will take place at the Montgomery County Court Complex, Court Room 210 in Clarksville. Business Clarksville has more.

Learn more about the Tennessee Bar Association’s new animal law section at the first animal law CLE on May 22. This year’s hot topics include pet trusts, service animals, pet protection agreements, and horse lobbying and liability. Visit TBA CLE for more information.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz are among 57 Republicans in Congress who are calling on the Supreme Court to uphold state bans on same-sex marriage, WATE reports from the Associated Press. The congressional Republicans said in a brief filed at the high court Friday that the justices should not impose “a federally mandated redefinition of the ancient institution of marriage” nationwide. The court will hear arguments on April 28 in cases from McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, as well as Tennessee, Michigan and Ohio.

Gov. Bill Haslam said today there are “major concerns” about the guns-in-parks bill and its Senate amendment allowing handgun-carry permit holders to go armed in the State Capitol, Knoxnews reports. He also said there’s a lot of confusion about the bill’s application in local parks that are used but not owned by schools. The governor has not said whether he will veto the bill if the House approves the Senate amendment.

The Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference is seeking an Executive Director to fill an unexpired term from July 1 through June 30, 2016. Applicants with a Tennessee law license, prosecution experience and state government knowledge are preferred. Resumes with references will be accepted until May 1. Send to Laurie Steen, Director of Human Resources, TNDAGC, Suite 800 226 Capitol Blvd., Nashville TN 37243 or by email at executivehire@tndagc.org. For more information please visit the TNDAGC website.

Smartphone apps for immigrants, the indigent, those who face arrest and the lawyers who help them have been popping up with increasing frequency, the ABA Journal reports. “People talk a lot about digital technologies revolutionizing legal practice,” says Tanina Rostain, a law professor at Georgetown Law Center who teaches a course on the potential of Internet-based technologies for legal practice and pedagogy. “This is the area where the revolution is happening.” The Journal reviews 20 apps that are aiming to help close the access to justice gap.

The U.S. legal services sector shed 1,200 jobs in March, dipping slightly below employment levels at the start of the year, the Labor Department said today. The total number of legal jobs now stands at 1,119,400, a preliminary and seasonally adjusted figure. That is around where it’s hovered over the past year and still tens of thousands short of where the sector stood from 2003 to 2007, before the last recession, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports.

The 13th Judicial District Recovery Courts recently hosted a graduation ceremony for four participants who have completed its drug court program. The drug court program is a comprehensive, court-supervised treatment program for non-violent felony offenders and takes a minimum of two years to complete. The Herald Citizen has more.