Law school

Florida's attorney general race pits Republican James Uthmeier, a former chief of staff to Gov. Ron DeSantis seeking his first elected office, against Democrat José Javier Rodríguez, a Miami lawyer and former state senator. Uthmeier has faced scrutiny over the Hope Florida controversy, legal fights with institutions including the Catholic Church and The New York Times, and questions about campaign-connected contracts. Rodríguez, who lost a 2020 state Senate race amid an illegal "ghost candidate" scheme that led to criminal convictions, is campaigning as an anti-corruption reformer and has drawn a $5 million late infusion from the Democratic Attorney Generals Association. A win would make him the first Democrat elected attorney general in Florida since 2002.

Cuyahoga County voters face one contested race for the Ohio 8th District Court of Appeals, which hears appeals from the county's common pleas and municipal courts. Incumbent Democrat Anita Laster Mays is seeking a third six-year term against Republican newcomer Anthony Alto, a Cleveland criminal defense attorney admitted to the bar in 2020. The seat carries a 2027 salary of $196,364.

Laster Mays, first elected in 2014, previously served 11 years as a Cleveland Municipal Court judge and held roles as a deputy clerk of courts, assistant city prosecutor and private attorney. Alto, a Cleveland State law graduate who worked for the county Board of Elections before founding his own firm, ran an unsuccessful write-in campaign for county prosecutor in 2024 and declined an editorial board interview. Alto faces long odds in a court where 11 of 12 judges are Democrats. Four other appeals court seats on November's ballot are uncontested, with all candidates running unopposed as Democrats: Jeffrey Crossman, Ashley Kilbane, Michael Ryan and Emanuella Groves.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's office announced that his Expedited Pardon Project has resulted in 323 pardons since launching in December 2019, with another 340 applications currently in progress. The program fast-tracks clemency for people with low-level criminal records who have maintained law-abiding lives for years after their convictions.

Staff and students at Ohio law schools, including Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law, provide free legal help preparing applications submitted to the Ohio Parole Board, whose recommendation is required before the governor can grant a pardon. The expedited track typically takes 12 to 18 months, compared to several years under the standard process. Eligibility requires at least 10 years since completing a sentence, no new convictions in that span, efforts to meet sentencing obligations, employment history, and community involvement. Violent and sexual offenses, including murder and rape, are automatically disqualifying. Moritz College of Law reported more than 1,600 applications received from 84 Ohio counties as of early February.

Judith "Judy" G. Bainbridge, the longtime Furman University English professor widely regarded as Greenville, South Carolina's foremost historian, died Sept. 17, 2026, two weeks short of her 90th birthday. A service is planned for Oct. 17 at the Garden Room at Furman Chapel.

Bainbridge joined Furman in 1976 after teaching in Charlotte, later retiring in 2007 but continuing to write. For 22 years she authored a biweekly history column for The Greenville News, producing more than 500 installments between 1999 and 2022, and wrote seven books, including "Greenville's Heritage" and "A Short History of Greenville." Her work frequently linked the city's past to present-day issues, from a 2019 column on the 1918 Spanish flu republished during the COVID-19 pandemic to reporting on the historically Black New Washington Heights neighborhood. Colleagues and former students, including South Carolina Supreme Court Justice Letitia Verdin, credited Bainbridge with shaping careers and correcting long-held myths about Greenville's founding figures and institutions. Mayor Knox White opened a Sept. 28 City Council meeting with a moment of silence in her honor.

A new national free speech ranking from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression found the average campus climate score is 61.36 out of 100 — a seven-year high, but still a D-. Of 261 schools ranked, 121 received an F and only 24 earned a C or better. The University of Chicago topped the list for the third time in seven years, followed by Claremont McKenna, Georgia Tech, Michigan Tech and Vanderbilt; New York University ranked last. In Minnesota, the University of Minnesota and Macalester College both flunked, with Macalester criticized for restrictive speech policies and intolerance of opposing views, while Carleton College earned a D- but was praised for improved political tolerance.

The University of Arkansas scored 56.6 amid controversies including the rescinded hiring of a law school dean over her support for transgender athletes and discipline against a professor over pro-Palestinian posters. Nationally, students report high self-censorship, most often on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, followed by Trump, Charlie Kirk's assassination, abortion, immigration and transgender rights. Some schools lost points for firing professors over posts about Kirk's death; Utah Valley University fell sharply after dropping a commencement speaker. The findings arrive as the Trump administration pressures universities over protests, funding and diversity programs.

Denham Springs City Court Judge Jerry Denton Jr., a Republican, is running for reelection in the Nov. 3 election, with early voting set for Oct. 20-27. Denton, a former homicide detective, worked as a special prosecutor for the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney's Office and later served as Assistant Attorney General Special Legal Counsel and Director of the Louisiana Attorney General's White Collar Public Corruption Section. He is licensed to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Before becoming judge, Denton served as Denham Springs marshal from 2009 to 2016, earning Law Enforcement Officer of the Year honors, and as a city council member from 2006 to 2009, when he helped bring Bass Pro Shops to Denham Springs and worked on a new wastewater treatment plant. He has held leadership roles in Livingston Parish's Republican Party organizations and numerous legal and civic associations.