Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Sharon Lee today issued a letter to Tennessee Bar Association members urging them to consider the importance of the judicial selection amendment on the Nov. 4 ballot. “Amendment 2 strikes the right balance between preserving an independent, diverse, and qualified judiciary, while ensuring it is accountable to the people it serves,“ Justice Lee writes. The TBA supports Amendment 2. "When adopting the resolution in support of Amendment 2, the board recognized that the decision to support the amendment would not be an easy one for everyone," TBA President Jonathan Steen said. "And we are gratified by the level of interest." Visit the TBA website for more information about Amendment 2.

The YWCA of Nashville & Middle Tennessee is partnering with the Marion Griffin Chapter of the Lawyers’ Association for Women (LAW) to engage the broader legal community in Nashville to become more aware of the epidemic of violence against women during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The second annual Legal Challenge seeks to engage attorneys who are not normally on the front-lines of domestic violence issues to learn more and become involved in solving the problem. “Being able to understand the complexities of domestic violence situations is the first step any attorney can take toward assisting the victims,” said Davidson County District Attorney General and YWCA Board Member Glenn Funk.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg today issued a revised version of her dissent in the Texas voting rights case to fix an error about one kind of ID card that voters can use to qualify to vote. In ticking off her objections, Ginsburg wrote that Texas would not even accept “photo ID cards issued by the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs.” On Wednesday, the Justice conceded that that comment was incorrect and that kind of ID card, issued through the Court’s public information office, is an acceptable form of photo identification for voting in Texas. SCOTUSblog has more.

The Board of Law Examiners has released the passage rates for the July Tennessee bar exam. Of the 810 test takers, 66.3 percent passed the exam. Vanderbilt University topped the list of Tennessee law schools, with a first-time passage rate of 86 percent followed by University of Tennessee Knoxville (82.76 percent), University of Memphis (73.33 percent), Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law (77.14 percent), Belmont University (70.75 percent) and Nashville School of Law (45.16 percent).

The Nashville woman who was arrested while nine-months-pregnant during a routine traffic stop in 2008 then shackled to a hospital bed during labor and after giving birth has been granted a U-visa. The visa allows victims of violent crime to live and work in the country. Juana Villegas’ case drew national attention to the issue of how pregnant women are treated while incarcerated and to Nashville’s 287(g) program. Now repealed, the divisive program let local police enforce federal immigration law. The city now leaves immigration status checks to federal agents, Nashville Public Radio reports.

Tennessee's first five days of early voting was down by 32.8 percent compared to the 2010 midterm election, state figures show. According to Secretary of State Tre Hargett's website, 136,880 registered voters took advantage of early voting from its start last Wednesday through Monday, compared to the 203,793 people who voted during the first five days of early voting in the 2010 midterm election. Voter interest in this year's midterm has been described as low in many parts of the country, especially among Democrats. The Chattanooga Times Free Press has more.

Knoxville attorney Bruce Poston died Tuesday afternoon when his car ran off the road and struck a tree. He was 66. According to the Poston Law Firm website, Poston has done over 150 jury trials, with more than 35 being first degree murder cases. Many of these cases were high profile covered extensively by both local and national news outlets. Services pending. WBIR has more.

Waller law firm has launched a comprehensive online resource to help healthcare leadership navigate diverse issues pertaining to the arrival of the Ebola virus in the United States. The site serves as a go-to source of information for executives and board members who are asking what Ebola means for their organization, employees and patients.

On Oct. 20, Kenneth Scott Williamson was suspended by the Tennessee Supreme Court for two years retroactive to Sept. 6, 2013. Williamson shared fees with a non-lawyer, facilitated the unauthorized practice of law by a non-lawyer, failed to properly terminate his relationship with clients and failed to communicate with clients in a reasonable manner. View the BPR notice.

Crystal Michelle Goan was publicly censured on Oct. 17 for improperly using methods of obtaining evidence and attempting to gain an advantage against her husband for their divorce proceeding. View the BPR notice.