Maury County General Sessions Judge Bobby Sands and Circuit Court Judge Stella Hargrove talk to the Columbia Daily Herald about the difficulty of handling an overwhelming docket of domestic violence cases. The county had more domestic violence cases per person in 2011 than any other city in Tennessee, the paper reports. “Our dockets are so overwhelming that we’re apt to let domestic violence slip just to get it off the docket,” Hargrove said. “I guess we feel like we have to do something with this docket out here staring us in the face, when we really should slow down, like I try to do on revocations, try to slow it down and try to get some justice out of this.”

A federal judge ruled today that the Department of Justice’s lawsuit to block the proposed merger of American Airlines and US Airways will start Nov. 25, WKRN News 2 reports. The timetable is favored by the airlines, which said a long delay would threaten their merger. The Justice Department had wanted the trial to start in March, saying it needed more time to prepare for the complex case.

Claude Orion Ramer II died Monday (Aug. 26) at his home in Knoxville. He was 69. A graduate of the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University Law School, Ramer served in the U.S. Air National Guard as a pilot and enjoyed a long career in private and corporate law. Services were held today at 12:30 p.m. with a private graveside service at Highland Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Alzheimer's Tennessee Inc., 5801 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Knoxnews has more on his life.

The line up of candidates seeking to fill the state House seat held by the late Lois DeBerry now includes 10 Democrats and one Libertarian, the Memphis Daily News reports. After DeBerry’s death in July, Gov. Bill Haslam ordered a special general election for District 91. The Shelby County Election Commission has set Oct. 8 for a primary and Nov. 21 for the special general election.

Two constitutional scholars debated whether President Barack Obama must first get approval from Congress to legally launch a military attack against Syria during a conference call organized by the Federalist Society. John Yoo, a professor at the University of California Berkeley School of Law and prominent conservative, argued that the idea that lawmakers must preapprove any attack is “a misinterpretation of the Constitution.” Yoo pointed out that the United States has used force abroad at least 130 times, but Congress has only formally declared war five times in American history. “If President Obama wants to use force in Syria, constitutionally I think he can,” he told the National Law Journal. Yoo faced off against University of Virginia School of Law Professor Saikrishna Prakash, who took the opposite position, arguing that the “declare war clause takes away any implicit grant of executive power that the president would otherwise have.”

According to U.S. News, being a lawyer is ranked fourth among dream jobs that are not so dreamy: lawyers have to make it through three years of law school and a “daunting” bar exam and then face a market that "is not expected to boom over the next decade.” Ironically, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports that survey results from the American Lawyer magazine show a surge in contentment among junior lawyers. The magazine polled third-, fourth- and fifth-year associates at major firms on issues such as job satisfaction. The study found that junior lawyers gave their firms “the highest composite scores...in almost 10 years,” the magazine said. The ABA Journal links to other stories on the issue.

Former Republican U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker and former federal appeals court Judge Deanell Reece Tacha, a Republican appointee, are speaking out in support of merit selection in their home state of Kansas. The pair authored an opinion piece published in the Kans Hays Daily News arguing that Kansas “should not abandon” a merit-based process for choosing top judges. The Republican-controlled Kansas legislature earlier this year dismantled that state's nonpartisan judicial screening commission. “One has only to look at events around the world right now to know that one of the cornerstones of the rule of law upon which public trust depends is the open and transparent selection of judges who will model unbiased, impartial, ethical, and informed decision making,” Baker and Tacha write. Gavel Grab has the story. 

The idea of shortening law school to two years is getting a fresh look after President Barack Obama casually endorsed the idea at an event in upstate New York last week. The Wall Street Journal Law Blog chronicles the debate on the proposal, which dates back to the late 19th century. (subscription required).

State Rep. Kent Williams, I-Elizabethton, announced today he will not seek a fifth term to instead run for Carter County Mayor next year, the Memphis Daily News reports. Williams, who unsuccessfully lobbied to have his right to run as a Republican restored by the state party after his contentious election to the House speaker post in 2009, said he will challenge the GOP nominee for mayor in next year's general election.

Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton and 17 other mayors met with President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. on Tuesday to discuss strategies to reduce youth violence. In 2012, Wharton’s office reported 904 people 24 and younger were arrested for gun violence in Memphis. “This was one of the most in-depth, meaningful meetings I’ve ever attended at the White House,” Wharton told the Commercial Appeal. “It was probably over an hour with the president asking the questions. It’s clear that he gets it. This is not something he’s received a briefing paper on. He wanted specifics on some of the things we’re doing, such as Operation Safeways in Memphis. We’ll be working to beef up that program and expand it.”