Six Sevier County courthouse staffers have been evaluated and released from a local hospital after an employee opened a letter containing a suspicious substance yesterday, a spokesman said. Authorities are continuing to investigate the incident in the Fourth Judicial District Attorney General's office in downtown Sevierville. Knoxnews has more. 

A federal judge today ruled that American Express’ rules for merchants violate antitrust law, the Wall Street Journal reports. The case stems from a 2010 lawsuit in which the Justice Department contended that AmEx’s rules for merchants inhibit competition and drive fees higher for consumers. The government wasn’t seeking monetary damages in the case, but instead was trying to force AmEx to drop its restrictions.

After three years of planning, Shelby County officially launched its Blueprint for Safety, a multi-layered collaborative response to domestic violence. Shelby County is one of three communities to take part in the U.S. Justice Department initiative with a plan for handling domestic violence beginning with the 911 call, following through the police investigation and prosecution, protecting the victim and rehabilitating the offender. The collaboration includes city and county governments, the district attorney general’s office and law enforcement, all of whom signed the finalized Blueprint, the Commercial Appeal reports.

The rate at which federal judges have pursued mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders is at a record low, Attorney General Eric Holder said at a National Press Club luncheon this afternoon. Federal prosecutors have not only prosecuted fewer nonviolent drug trafficking cases overall, they’ve pursued mandatory minimum sentences at a dramatically lower rate than the year prior. Between 2013 and 2014, the number of defendants charged with drug trafficking offenses declined by nearly 1,400 individuals — a reduction of more than 6 percent, the Hill reports.

Increasing partisanship in Congress makes it harder to address important civil rights issues, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said during an interview that aired yesterday on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show. “The current Congress is not equipped really to do anything, so the kind of result that we got in the Ledbetter case is not easily achieved today,” Ginsburg said. The Hill has more on Ginsburg’s interview, which also touched on gender equality, abortion rights and the 81-year-old justice’s health.

A federal judge in Texas has temporarily blocked President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration, which has also drawn opposition from 26 states. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled late last night to block executive actions Obama took late last year to shield as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, ruling that the administration had failed to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act. The White House said in a statement today that the president's actions "are well within his legal authority" and that the Justice Department has indicated "that it will appeal that decision.” CNN has more.

Baker Donelson is partnering with East Tennessee State University's Innovation Laboratory and the Northeast Tennessee Valley Regional Industrial Development Association to recruit international companies to the area and provide market entry assistance, the Chattanoogan reports. The Innovation Laboratory is a full service small business incubator that offers an array of business services for foreign firms entering the U.S. market.

Challenges by religious nonprofits to the contraceptive coverage requirement in the Affordable Care Act have reached the U.S. Supreme Court and more are expected as federal appellate courts soon will rule on a wave of pending cases, according to the National Law Journal. A ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Feb. 11 was the most recent appellate decision on the fundamental claim that the government's means of accommodating nonprofits' religious objections to contraceptive insurance violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Supreme Court justices will take their first close look at one potential vehicle during their Feb. 20 conference.

Rutherford County has allocated $5 million and already spent about $860,000 on a projected $73 million judicial complex on the block bound by Maple, Lytle, Church and Bell streets, according to a Feb. 9 progress report. The county has spent $50,624 on architectural services, $173,370 on consulting work, $15,159 on legal fees and $626,590 for land for a parking lot. The entire project is estimated to be completed by 2018, The Murfreesboro Post has more.

Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Rebecca Stern yesterday officially announced her retirement in a letter to Gov. Bill Haslam, becoming the fourth area judge to announce plans to leave his or her post, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. By summer’s end, Chattanooga could see new judges appointed to replace U.S. District Court Judge Curtis L. Collier, Magistrate Judge William Carter,  Bankruptcy Court Judge John C. Cook and Stern.