Gary Housepian, executive director of the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, is among 16 civil legal aid leaders selected for the second annual Where Health Meets Justice Fellowship. Hosted by the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership at the George Washington University and the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, senior level staff from civil legal aid agencies in 13 states and the District of Columbia met recently in Washington, D.C., to kick off the 10-month program. Housepian is a member of the TBA's Access to Justice Committee and is currently serving on the TBA's Medical-Legal Partnership Working Group, which is working to support and promote these unique collaborations in Tennessee.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner announced today that Pope Francis will become the first pope to address Congress on Sept. 24, RollCall reports. Francis will be in Philadelphia in late September for a global conference on Roman Catholic family values. The speech to a joint session will be the day after Yom Kippur, even though the House is scheduled to be in recess surrounding the Jewish High Holy Day.

Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Mike Lee of Utah have introduced a resolution to change U.S. Senate rules governing the approval of presidential nominations, Chattanoogan.com reports. According to a joint statement, the resolution “would establish by rule the Senate tradition of approving presidential nominations of Cabinet members and judges by a simple majority vote, which existed from the time Thomas Jefferson wrote the rules in 1789 until 2003, when Democrats began filibustering federal circuit court of appeals nominees.”

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said if she could overturn any of the decisions made by America’s highest court in the past 10 years, it would be the Citizens United ruling—the sweeping 2010 decision that expanded corporate personhood. “I think our system is being polluted by money,” Ginsburg said during a presentation at Georgetown University Law Center. She said she is optimistic that “sensible restrictions” on campaign financing will one day be in place, the Guardian reports.

More than half of the candidates running for Nashville mayor either support or are receptive to the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana, the Tennessean reports. Their stances were revealed last night at a mayoral forum hosted by WPLN, the Nashville Bar Association and other lawyer-related organizations. The conversation comes on the heels of a petition drive to hold a public referendum on whether local dollars should go toward the prosecution of adults for possession of 2 ounces of marijuana or less.

President Barack Obama has nominated Waller partner Waverly Crenshaw to replace retiring District Court Judge William Joseph Haynes Jr. on the federal bench in Nashville, the Nashville Post reports. After graduating from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1981, Crenshaw worked as an assistant attorney general. He became Waller's first African-American attorney and partner in 1990. Crenshaw focuses his practice on employment law and, according to the firm, has grown that practice from two to more than 15 attorneys. His was one of four judicial appointments announced by the Obama administration yesterday.

Waller has continued its 2015 growth push with the hiring of J. Bryan Echols – a prominent Nashville real estate attorney. Echols joins Waller as a partner after working for more than four years at the local office of Dickinson Wright, which he joined after spending almost a decade at Stites & Harbison. The Nashville Post has more on Waller’s series of growth moves.

Three men graduated yesterday from the Davidson County Veterans Court, the first under Judge Melissa Blackburn’s tenure. Veterans court is an alternative supervision program designed to help veterans who are charged with non-violent offenses. Davidson County has had a veterans court for about five years, but last fall the program got its first federal funding when the U.S. Department of Justice committed $140,000 annually for the next three years. The Tennessean has more.

A federal court has thrown out a suit by Tri-Cities Holdings that claimed the state and Johnson City were violating federal law by refusing addicts access to methadone, the Johnson City Press reports. Tri-Cities Holdings, which operates opiate addiction treatment centers across the Southeast, is seeking to open a methadone clinic in Johnson City. The company attempted to lease property within the city, but the location did not meet zoning requirements. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit dismissed the suit, reaffirming an earlier ruling and citing that plaintiffs had not identified any harm by the state, the city or the Board of Zoning Appeals.

A portion of the Justice A.A. Birch Building in downtown Nashville was evacuated yesterday afternoon after a suspicious white powder was discovered. The Nashville Fire Department later deemed the threat “not credible.” The building houses the Metro Nashville courts. News 5 has more.