Legal organizations in Knoxville will hold a virtual Veterans Legal Advice Clinic on April 14 from noon to 2 p.m. EDT. The clinic is a general advice and referral clinic that serves between 20 and 30 veterans each month with a wide variety of legal issues. To volunteer, sign up online. For questions, contact Access to Justice Committee Co-Chairs Spencer Fair or Luke Ihnen.

Former TBA President Cynthia Richardson Wyrick was recently recognized as an “Accomplished Alumna” by the University of Tennessee College of Law. The profile of Wyrick highlights her time as a law student, as a young attorney working as city attorney for Pigeon Forge, and then as an attorney for nearly 25 years at the Sevierville law firm of Ogle, Wyrick and Associates. Wyrick now serves as a U.S. magistrate judge in the Eastern District of Tennessee. As both a law student and practicing attorney Wyrick has been a strong advocate for the UT library system, serving on the Library Friends Advisory Board. A common theme throughout all these experiences has been a commitment to serving others. As Wyrick says in an interview with the law school, “You will never be sorry for the hours you spend giving back.”

Just in time for the final rounds of March Madness, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a high-stakes battle between the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and a legal class of student-athletes from the top revenue-producing sports of football and men’s and women’s basketball. At the heart of the case is whether the NCAA will be allowed to preserve the amateur nature of college sports and distinguish it from pro sports, the ABA Journal reports. The NCAA argues that lower courts have erroneously redefined amateurism to find antitrust violations with restrictions on education-related compensation of student athletes. The student athletes argue the NCAA is seeking “nothing less than an outright exemption” from federal antitrust law. The case is set for argument on March 31.

The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled today that a sentence imposed in accordance with a statute that later was declared unconstitutional is voidable, but not illegal, within the meaning of Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36.1. The rule allows defendants or the state to file a motion at any time to correct an illegal sentence, which is defined as a sentence that is not authorized by law or directly conflicts with the law. By contrast, the court said voidable sentences must be challenged through the post-conviction process, which has set time limits. The court said it based its reasoning on the fact that the law in question (a criminal gang enhancement statute) was presumptively constitutional and did not directly conflict with any other law at the time the sentence was imposed, though it was later found to be unconstitutional. The unanimous opinion was authored by Justice Cornelia A. Clark.

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged 474 people over the past year with trying to steal more than $569 million through criminal fraud schemes connected to the coronavirus pandemic, the Washington Post reports. The department said it has seen fraud attempts connected to several government aid programs including the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loans program. Schemes include inflating payroll expenses to get larger loans than what otherwise would have been approved and reviving defunct corporations or purchasing shell companies to apply for large loans. Most of those charged, the department said, spent the government aid on houses, cars, jewelry and other luxury items.

A bill named for a slain toddler is headed for Gov. Bill Lee’s desk after receiving unanimous approval from the state House of Representatives yesterday. The state Senate had approved the bill on Monday. HB384/SB327 would require parents who know or suspect their child is missing to report that information to local law enforcement or the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation within 24 hours. The bill applies to children 12 years or younger. Failure to notify law enforcement would result in a fine of up to $2,500 and up to 11 months and 29 days in jail. If the child is found with bodily harm, a parent who failed to report could face up to $10,000 in fines and 15 years in jail. The bill is named for Sullivan County toddler Evelyn Boswell, who was found dead after her disappearance went unreported for roughly two months, Mainstreet-Nashville reports.

Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and Tennessee Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty recently held a virtual forum about the future of the death penalty in Tennessee. Both groups are questioning the alignment of capital punishment with conservative principles, WATE reports. During the event, one leader said that anyone who values limited government and individual liberties should take a hard look at ending the death penalty. The state put seven inmates to death in the 18 months leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. There are currently 49 inmates on death row in Tennessee. On Wednesday, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed a bill into law abolishing the death penalty, the first state in what was the Confederacy to stop using the punishment.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a woman shot by police while fleeing has the same Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable seizure as a person who is detained, the ABA Journal reports. The 5-3 ruling saw Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justice Brett Kavanaugh join with the court’s more liberal justices. In the majority opinion, Roberts wrote, “The application of physical force to the body of a person with intent to restrain is a seizure, even if the force does not succeed in subduing the person.” However, he stressed the decision is narrow and does not apply to every physical contact between a government employee and a member of the public. “A seizure requires the use of force with intent to restrain. Accidental force will not qualify … Nor will force intentionally applied for some other purpose,” Roberts wrote.

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday unanimously approved Lisa Monaco, the Biden administration’s nominee for deputy attorney general nominee, by voice vote without debate. If confirmed by the full Senate she will serve as the second ranking official at the Department of Justice. The committee then turned its attention to the nomination of Vanita Gupta as associate attorney general, the third ranking official at the department. After a “bitterly divided” debate, the committee forwarded the nomination to the full Senate on a tied vote, Reuters reports.

Legal educators are decrying what they see as multiple missteps by U.S. News & World Report in its handling of the upcoming law school rankings, Law.com reports. U.S. News announced yesterday it is removing a new stand-alone diversity ranking from the annual law school rankings, which are set to be released March 30. The decision comes after deans from 162 law schools asked for revisions to the “Most Diverse Law Schools Ranking,” citing the exclusion of students of more than one race from the calculation of “underrepresented minorities.” The deans requested that the ranking be recalculated to include multi-ethnic students. The change would be the second revision to the diversity rankings in the last week. U.S. News had already recalculated rankings after initially failing to include Asian students. The news source says it will rework the diversity ranking and release it at a later "undetermined date,” Reuters Legal reports.