The National Rifle Association would violate state ethics laws if it offers lawmakers free tickets to a show featuring Alan Jackson and Jeff Foxworthy when the national gun organization's annual convention comes to Nashville in April, the Tennessee Ethics Commission wrote in a draft opinion. Any company that employs a lobbyist can't give a gift "directly or indirectly" to any "official in the legislative branch," according to the state Comprehensive Ethics Reform Act of 2006. The NRA has three registered lobbyists in the state. The Tennessean has the story.

High school teams from across Tennessee will put their legal skills to the test during the Tennessee Bar Association's 35th Annual State High School Mock Trial Championship in Nashville this weekend. The event will be held at the historic Davidson County Courthouse. To reach the state championship, 16 teams had to win district competitions by playing the roles of attorneys and witnesses in a fictitious case developed by the Tennessee Bar Association Young Lawyers Division. Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Bivins will preside over the championship round, and dozens of Tennessee lawyers, law students and judges are volunteering to help throughout the weekend.

Employers can't ask employees who use company technology to access personal social media accounts for their passwords, according to the Employee Online Privacy Act of 2014. The law, which went into effect the first of this year, provides clear guidelines to help employers navigate the numerous scenarios involving employees' personal Internet activity. The Tennessean outlines guidelines for adhering to the new law.

Justice Elena Kagen sent some bloggers into a frenzy over her use of the word “way” as an adverb, writing in an opinion that pharmaceutical company Omnicare “way overstates” a mandated congressional inquiry. A University of California at Los Angeles law professor says the phrase “way overstates” has never been used in a published United States court opinion, the ABA Journal reports. Others pointed out that the word had appeared as an adverb before, citing a 1998 federal court opinion that used the phrase “way overreacted."

FedEx Corp. said it shouldn’t be prosecuted for delivering drugs dispensed through Internet sales without prescription because its actions are protected under federal law, the Commercial Appeal reports. The Memphis carrier is fighting money-laundering and drug-trafficking charges that it delivered drugs for online pharmacies, supplying pills to customers who were never examined by doctors. FedEx is also accused of knowing its actions violated federal and state drug laws.

Moneyed special interests are trying to take away from Tennesseans the right to a jury trial in civil lawsuits, attorney Mark Chalos writes in an opinion piece in the Tennessean. He cites the “Civil Justice Act of 2011” as an example. “By setting arbitrary damages limits, the law overrules a jury's unanimous decision to hold wrongdoers accountable for the full harm they have caused,” Chalos says.

Ret. Col. David F. Bautista died Saturday (March 21). He was 75. Bautista earned his law degree from the University of Tennessee after serving 30 years in the U.S. Army. He had a private practice in Elizabethton and was later appointed by then Gov. Ned McWherter to be Public Defender for the First Judicial District. Services will be Sunday at 4 p.m. in the Sunset Chapel of Hathaway-Percy Funeral and Cremations Services. Visitation will be at the funeral home from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Graveside service and inurnment will be Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the Mountain Home National Cemetery.

Charles Grant has been elected to the board of directors of Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz, the Nashville Post reports. Grant has been with the Nashville office of Baker Donelson since 2004, representing companies in complex employment litigation as well as conventional business cases.

The Senate Health and Welfare Committee passed Insure Tennessee legislation Wednesday evening by a 6-2-1 vote. Senate Joint Resolution 93, which would authorize Gov. Bill Haslam to proceed with plans to use federal dollars to help working people buy into employer-sponsored health plans and expand Medicaid eligibility to poor Tennesseans, now goes to the Commerce and Labor Committee. The Tennessean has more.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has granted a new trial to a Memphis man convicted of rape due to multiple trial court errors. The Court employed a legal principle called the “cumulative error doctrine,” which represents the idea that multiple errors, while individually harmless, when combined, create a cumulative effect that is prejudicial to the defendant. The AOC has more.