The Ford Foundation is funding a special public interest fellowship at four law schools, the ABA Journal reports. First and second year students at Harvard, NYU, Stanford, and Yale will be eligible to apply for a 10-week summer program. Stanford fellowships will offer a focus on international as well as domestic public interest practice.

Tennessee Bar Association President Jackie Dixon was featured today in the Tennessean for her work with the TBA Civility and Free Expression Initiative. The public forums will be held in Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville, with each program focusing on a different, local topic of interest within the overall theme of civility and free speech. The Memphis event is Tuesday. "It just takes some things we all learned in kindergarten: being polite and listening, being courteous and being open to new ideas," Dixon says in explaining civility. "If we just plant the seeds in the minds of 100 people in Memphis and 100 here in Nashville and in Knoxville and in a wide variety of people, maybe they might start thinking about ways to be more civil and other ways to teach the young people they encounter as well."

Recognized by Congress in 2004 as an official holiday, Constitution Day commemorates the signing and adoption of the U.S. Constitution in 1787. On Monday, several events will celebrate the day:

• University of Tennessee Knoxville students will hold a voter registration drive and public speech forum called SpeakoUT. For more information on events, visit Tennessee Today. 

• The Memphis Lawyers’ Chapter and University of Memphis Law Students’ Chapter of the Federalist Society will present  "The Road to Ratification: The Founders Debate the Proposed Constitution," with Pepperdine University Professor Dr. Gordon Lloyd. The event will be 11:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. at the law school, and is free to the public. To register, email Greg Grisham  or call 901-462-2616.

• Also on Monday, Middle Tennessee State University will host a citizenship ceremony in conjunction with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, USCIS, and the U.S. Marshals Service. Judges Joe E. Brown and E. Clarence Knowles will conduct the official proceedings and Supreme Court Chief Justice Gary R. Wade will give the keynote address. The ceremony begins at 2 p.m. at Murphy Center, with a public reading of the Constitution at 12:30. The proceedings will also be simulcast online

Circuit Court Judge Michael Sharp explained the role of the Board of Judicial Conduct to the Bradley County Bar Association this week, the Cleveland Daily Banner reports. In July the General Assembly created the board to replace the Court of the Judiciary in handling complaints against Tennessee judges. “There have been several complaints that went unanswered from the public’s perspective.” Sharp said. “Legislators began to look into that and decided there had to be more transparency.”

Money for groups that help domestic abuse victims will be drastically cut if legislation to renew the 1994 Violence Against Women Act does not pass, WATE.com reports. Amy Dilworth, a representative from the Knoxville Family Justice Center, said the group would lose “several hundred of thousands of dollars” used to help local abuse victims unless Congress acts.

Washington County Attorney John Rambo says he expects the state to recertify the Washington County Detention Center after the jail rectified its overcrowding issue by transferring 86 inmates to state correctional facilities. Learn more in the Johnson City Press

The 10-year legal battle over ownership rights to the 1993 hit song “Whoomp! (There It Is)” finally concluded with a $2 million award, The Tennessean reports. A Texas jury found in favor of Alvertis Isbell and his attorney Richard Busch of the Nashville firm King & Ballow over ownership rights to the composition.

For the second time this year, the Tennessee Court of Appeals has rejected an appeal to recall Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield. The court ruled that the petition seeking recall was invalid due to an insufficient number of dated signatures. Read the full court ruling at WRCBtv.com.

Karla Brenner -- a biological male, female impersonator -- filed a lawsuit with the city of Nashville and the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), which operates a local correctional facility, for sending him to a female prison for three years, reports WSMV-TV Nashville. Convicted of felony theft, Brenner says he was examined by doctors and officials from the Metro Health Department who authorized his placement. Metro and CCA officials have not commented. 

Tennessee Safety Commissioner Bill Gibbons says the state needs to look into streamlining the DUI laws, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal. “Right now our DUI law is 58 pages long. That's compared to an 18-page first-degree murder death-penalty statute. So it's very complicated,” he says. Gibbons believes an updated, revamped DUI law will be easier for prosecutors, defense attorneys and citizens to understand. The department plans to submit a proposal to the state legislature in January 2013.