Despite a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) moratorium, many landlords are continuing to press for residential evictions, the Nashville Post reports. For actions brought by private landlords, renters must show up for their court date to assert the CDC protection. If residents do not show up, the Davidson County General Sessions Court is granting some default judgments, with evictions possibly following in as few as 10 days. Additional confusion has been caused by the presence of Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA) residents, who do not need to appear because the agency is halting evictions for failure to pay through the end of the year. To help get control of the situation, the court yesterday decided to limit the number of cases it will hear each day and prohibit outside observers, including housing advocates, from watching the sessions. In addition, tenant advocates are praising the addition of Bass Berry & Sims attorney Marc Tahiry as a temporary law clerk in the court. Tahiry is tasked with informing tenants of their rights and helping them navigate eviction proceedings. In response to the growing eviction crisis, the Tennessee Supreme Court will host a virtual eviction summit on Oct. 1 for stakeholders to learn more and explore solutions.

The Governor’s Council for Judicial Appointments is now accepting applications for an upcoming vacancy on the Court of Criminal Appeals, Middle District. Judge Thomas T. Woodall will be retiring on Jan. 1, 2021. Interested applicants must be licensed attorneys who are at least 30 years of age, residents of the state for five years, and residents of the Middle Tennessee Grand Division. Applications are due by noon CDT on Oct. 6. A date for a hearing on applicants is pending. Access details and the application here.

Vanderbilt Law School Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs Susan Kay has been appointed to a three-year term on the American Bar Association’s Council of the Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, the school announced this week. The council is the national accrediting agency for law degree programs. It also advises the section, which works to improve legal education and lawyer licensing. Kay has headed the school’s clinical and experiential legal education program since 2001. She joined the faculty in 1980. She also is president of the Clinical Legal Education Association, a national association that represents more than 600 law faculty.

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III announced today that his office has secured nearly $15 million in loan forgiveness on 2,068 loans for former ITT Tech students in the state. The agreement is part of a settlement with 43 attorneys general and the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Nationally, the settlement will result in $330 million of debt relief on about 43,000 loans. The relief will be provided by PEAKS Trust, a private loan program run by ITT and affiliated with Deutsche Bank entities. ITT filed bankruptcy in 2016 amid investigations by state attorneys general and following action by the U.S. Department of Education to restrict its access to federal student aid. The settlement puts an end to PEAKS loan collection and requires it to stop doing business, the attorney general said.

Six applicants have applied for the circuit court judge vacancy in the 6th Judicial District, the Trial Court Vacancy Commission announced today. They are: Joshua J. Bond, Toby Ray Carpenter, E. Jerome Melson, J. Myers Morton, Welsey D. Stone and Joshua R. Walker. The commission will hold a hearing via video conference on Oct. 28 at 9 a.m. EDT. It will be livestreamed on YouTube as well as at the Knoxville Supreme Court Building, 505 Main St., Ste. 200, Knoxville, TN 37902. Those who would like to address the commission to express support or opposition to an applicant should contact Ceesha Lofton, 615-741-2687 by 4 p.m. CDT on Oct. 14. The commission is expected to vote immediately following the interviews and forward three names to the governor for his consideration. The candidate selected will fill a vacancy created by the appointment of Judge Kristi Davis to the Court of Appeals, Eastern Section.

A Kentucky grand jury announced today that it is not recommending any criminal charges related to the death of Breonna Taylor, instead announcing three lesser counts of wanton endangerment against one police officer who shot into an adjacent apartment. Each count could carry up to five years in prison. The grand jury found that the other two officers who entered Taylor’s apartment were justified in firing their weapons because Taylor’s boyfriend shot at them first. Taylor was shot six times but investigators could not say with certainty which officer fired the fatal shot. The Hill has more on the developing story. During a press conference announcing the decision, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said he would form a task force to look at the search warrant process.  A video of the press conference is available here. Last week, the city of Louisville announced a $12 million civil settlement with the Taylor family that also included a range of criminal justice reforms the city agreed to implement.

A federal appeals court has ruled that the Trump administration can move forward with a plan to end temporary protected status (TPS) for immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan. The ruling could affect 300,000 immigrants nationwide, including 3,500 in Tennessee, according to a story by the Nashville Scene. If the administration moves forward with the plan, people may be forced to leave the country as early as March 2021. The Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) is not a plaintiff in the case but has national partners that are part of the effort and says it is monitoring developments closely.

For the first time since 1925, Dickson County court will now be held in the City of Dickson, the Tennessean reports. Health requirements related to the COVID-19 pandemic and a backlog of 1,200 cases prompted the venue change and trials will now take place at the War Memorial Building in downtown Dickson. Dickson County court was last held in the City of Dickson in 1925, the same year the state condemned the county’s courthouse on Main Street. Then, in April 1927, the county “quarterly court,” which was the previous name for the county commission, voted to move the Dickson County seat and courthouse to Charlotte. Dickson County Circuit Court Judge David Wolfe got the idea to use the 87-year-old War Memorial Building, noting that the courtrooms in Charlotte didn’t have enough space for jury members to stay six feet apart in the jury box. Wolfe said an improved sound system has been set up for the War Memorial Building space, and a YouTube channel has been created to view trials. Everyone who enters the court is also required to wear masks, including those who testify. 

Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a frontrunner to fill the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy created by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is a Rhodes College graduate, the Daily Memphian reports. Barrett, who was also a favorite in 2018 to fill a SCOTUS vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, is a member of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. President Donald Trump met with Barrett yesterday and tweeted that he planned to nominate a woman to the post by the end of the week. Others on the short list are Appeals Court Judge Allison Jones Rushing and White House Deputy Counsel Kate Todd, according to reports. If selected, Barrett would be the second Rhodes College graduate to hold a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, following Justice Abe Fortas, who graduated in 1930 from Rhodes when it was called Southwestern.

ABA Free Legal Answers, the online pro bono website modeled as a virtual legal clinic, has experienced significant growth in the past six months due to limitations on in-person support for low-income clients in need of legal assistance. The program is actively launched in 41 states and multiple international jurisdictions; New Jersey and 44 of California’s 58 counties joined earlier this year. The American Bar Association is adding a federal page for the website to provide assistance to military personnel and veterans in need of legal assistance, as well those facing immigration issues. Free Legal Answers was established 10 years ago as a joint project of the TBA, Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services (TALS) and Baker Donelson. Over 7,000 volunteer attorneys are registered to help, and the program answered its 100,000th question in March. More information is available in a brief promotional video produced by the ABA.