Law schools admitted 39,675 first-year students last year, the smallest incoming class since the 1970s. That number represents an 11 percent drop from the prior year and a 24 percent drop in three years. According to figures from the Law School Admission Council, the number of applicants for the first-year class in 2014 has dropped nearly 8 percent from last year. Bucking the trend are Harvard Law School and students who score high on the Law School Admission Test. More high-scoring students are applying to law school, and applications to Harvard’s law school are up significantly this year, the ABA Journal reports. At least one school -- Thomas M. Cooley Law School's Ann Arbor, Michigan, campus -- is not enrolling any first-years this fall.

Civil rights groups filed a lawsuit today in federal court against Attorney General Eric Holder and other U.S. officials. They contend it is "fundamentally unfair" to require children facing deportation hearings to proceed without legal representation and are seeking a court order requiring the Department of Justice to arrange to provide defense counsel for juveniles throughout the country. Recently the Obama Administration said that protections for unaccompanied immigrant children in a sex-trafficking law are partly responsible for tying the government’s hands in dealing with the current influx of children crossing the border alone. The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, signed into law by then-president George W. Bush, was originally pushed by a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers as well as by evangelical groups to combat sex trafficking. The bill gave substantial new protections to children entering the country alone who were not from Mexico or Canada by prohibiting them from being quickly sent back to their country of origin. The ABA Journal has more from the New York Times.

Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Gary Wade called an effort by Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey to have him unseated from the bench in the upcoming August election “different and disconcerting” during an interview with the Bristol Herald Courier yesterday. Ramsey has led a public campaign urging voters not to retain Wade and fellow justices Connie Clark and Sharon Lee. Wade, who was appointed by Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen, said the legislation providing for a retention system for Supreme Court justices was designed to remove partisan politics from the appellate court system, but Ramsey’s tactics have changed the process this year. “I guess we are getting a lesson in hardball politics,” Wade said.

The city of Chattanooga has filed notice that it plans to appeal a decision by Circuit Court Judge Neil Thomas on the issue of wording on the Domestic Partners Benefits Ordinance referendum, the Chattanoogan reports. Judge Thomas ruled Monday morning that the referendum will proceed as drafted by the group that gained signatures to put it on the ballot.

The federal director of Medicaid programs is giving Tennessee 10 days to submit a correction plan after failing to provide services for people as required by the Affordable Care Act. The Tennessean reports that the crux of the problem concerns delays with bringing a $35 million computer system online. Tennessee is also criticized for not providing people with face-to-face help in applying and for not setting up a program that allows hospitals to temporarily enroll people in Medicaid if they are presumed eligible.

Jon David Rogers was suspended by the Tennessee Supreme Court for one year and one day, all of which is to be served on probation subject to the conditions that he engage in a practice monitor and pay restitution and costs. Rogers allegedly committed several errors in Bankruptcy Court including accepting clients who did not qualify for bankruptcy protection, failing to advise clients to obtain credit counseling, paying filing fees in installments when the client had paid him the fee in full, as well as other errors that a competent bankruptcy practitioner should not make. View the BPR notice. 

The Tennessee Supreme Court has granted review in six cases. Civil cases involve powers of attorney, comparative fault in Claims Commission cases, arbitration agreement enforceability, and motions for new trial. Criminal cases involve jury selection and impeachment by prior conviction. The Raybin Perky Hotlist offers a forecast of each case.

Wednesday marked the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson's signing into law of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, one of the most significant civil rights achievements in U.S. history. The new law made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It ended school, work and public facility discrimination, and barred unequal application of voter registration requirements. In observing the law's 50th anniversary, President Barack Obama said "few pieces of legislation have defined our national identity as distinctly, or as powerfully." WKRN has more from the Associated Press. Learn about lawyers’ roles in the Civil Rights Movement in Tennessee from this 2010 issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal.

The Tennessee Bar Association will be closed tomorrow for Independence Day. The office will reopen Monday at 8 a.m. As you celebrate the holiday and the rights we enjoy as citizens, remember the words of President Andrew Jackson, “All the rights secured to the citizens under the Constitution are worth nothing, and a mere bubble, except guaranteed to them by an independent and virtuous Judiciary.”

On June 30, Mary Jeanette Clement was suspended from the practice of law based on four counts of misconduct. She was suspended for a period of two years with nine months of the suspension to be served as an active suspension and 15 months probated with conditions. View the BPR notice.