The Kroger mob attack trial is the first high-profile case since Judge Dan Michael took control of Shelby County Juvenile Court back in September, and he made it clear Tuesday he is taking this case very seriously, WREG reports. Michael explained to the 10 facing charges of aggravated riot, their families and the prosecutors that he plans to be meticulous in this case.

The Justice Department says federal defendants who plead guilty will no longer have to give up their right to future claims that they had bad lawyers, the Daily Times reports from the Associated Press. In a directive announced yesterday, the department says federal attorneys across the country must no longer ask defendants entering guilty pleas to waive future claims of ineffective counsel. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement that the new policy is intended to "bring our system of justice closer in line with our most fundamental values and highest ideals."

A federal appeals court has temporarily reinstated a voter ID law in Texas that requires voters to produce one of seven specified forms of photo identification. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the law may be enforced to avoid confusion before early voting begins on Oct. 20. The panel opinion by Judge Edith Brown Clement said the law should be reinstated “based primarily on the extremely fast-approaching election date.” She did not indicate, however, whether the law would likely be upheld on the merits on appeal. The ABA Journal has more. 

The U.S. Supreme Court has partly stayed a Texas abortion law that had closed all but eight of the state’s abortion clinics, the ABA Journal reports. As a result of the Court's order on Tuesday, 13 abortion clinics can reopen. One of the law’s requirements said abortion-clinic doctors in Texas must have admission privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinic. A second requirement said abortion clinics must upgrade their facilities to be equipped as hospital-style ambulatory surgical centers, even when they only use drugs to perform abortions. The stay will remain in effect while the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules on a constitutional challenge to the law.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Vanita Gupta today was named as the acting head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, WKRN reports from the Associated Press. Gupta, who has served for the past four years as deputy legal director of the ACLU and director of its Center for Justice, starts at the Justice Department next week. She previously worked as a lawyer at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

While most Vanderbilt University students are heading home for fall break, Matthew Huffer is hitting the campaign trail. The 21-year-old college junior, who is majoring in political science and economics, is running for a seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives. Huffer knocked on about 1,000 doors over the summer, and he's continued to campaign this semester, even though his voter base is across the state. He scheduled his classes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so he could have long weekends in Tennessee House District 39, which includes parts of Moore, Franklin and Marion counties. He admits the pressures of juggling a campaign with a full slate of exams and coursework hasn’t been easy. Despite the challenges, Huffer, who is running as a Democrat, believes he has a chance to beat the incumbent in his district, Rep. David Alexander, R-Winchester. Read more at WBIR.

After 19 years on the bench, U.S. District Judge Curtis L. Collier was ushered into senior status last week with the unveiling of his portrait by Jamie Lee McMahan and a reception, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. President Bill Clinton appointed Collier to the bench in 1995, when he became the first, and remains the only, black judge to serve in Tennessee’s Eastern District. Collier will manage a much-reduced caseload from now on, and his spot will be filled by someone who is, in his words, “younger and more energetic.” 

A Brentwood couple has filed a lawsuit against the state of Tennessee for the right to choose the last name of their newborn son, Brentwood Homepage reports. Carl Abramson and Kim Sarubbi married in 2001, and decided "for personal and professional reasons" they would give their children a surname that combined both their last names— "Sabr." When the family moved to Tennessee in 2014 and had their third child, Abramson and Sarubbi were denied their request to use the hybrid name and instead were issued a birth certificate for the child with the last name Abramson. Citing a violation with First Amendment rights, the couple turned to the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, which filed a lawsuit in federal court last week.

The TBA’s survey on court-appointed work and the filing of related fee claims with the Administrative Office of the Courts closes tonight at midnight. Your feedback is crucial; don’t miss your chance to weigh in. Please take a few minutes to fill out the SurveyMonkey questionnaire about your experience with court-appointed work. All responses will be kept anonymous. If you would like to be a part of the TBA's effort to change the rate of compensation for court-appointed attorneys by speaking to your legislator, email TBA Public Policy Coordinator Josie Beets at jbeets@tnbar.org.

An analysis by the Government Accountability Office found that voter turnout dropped by at least 2.2 percentage points in Tennessee in 2012, the first election after passage of new voter ID requirements, the Nashville Scene reports. The Washington Post has parsed the report, which also analyzed turnout in Kansas and includes breakdowns of the law's effect on turnout generally — as compared with other states — as well as a demographic breakdown, which found a particular impact on African Americans and new voters. According to the Post's calculations, based on the data in the report, 88,000 more Tennesseans likely would have voted if not for the new law.