PSJD Public Interest News Digest – October 20, 2017
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello there, interested public! There’s been a fair amount of noteworthy news this week, particularly in relation to criminal justice issues (both for the prosecution and for the defense). That’s all I’ll say for now; Pro Bono Week starts Monday, and there’s much to be done! If you find yourself with some reading time, though, the list below should give you plenty of places to start.
Until next week,
Sam
Legal Education & Student Loans
- FiveThirtyEight.com used recent oral arguments in Gill v. Whitford as a launching point to argue that “The Supreme Court is Allergic to Math”–a shortcoming related to what Professor Sanford Levinson of UT Austin Law referred to as a “professional pathology of legal education.”
- The Baltimore Sun profiled a program at the University of Baltimore Law School to recruit top undergraduates from historically black colleges.
Pro Bono
- The Philadelphia Bar Association released its 2017 Pro Bono Task Force Report; among its findings the report emphasizes the importance of emphasizing pro bono work in law school.
- Pro Bono Students Canada’s Windsor chapter launched a project to help homeless people get identification documents.
Law & Technology
- In Minnesota, a legislative data privacy panel heard a bill that would provide stronger protections for student data collected via technology in the classroom.
- The Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid Office released an advisory alert suggesting that school districts take a number of steps to protect sensitive student data from cyberattack.
- New York City’s Legal Aid Society filed a Freedom of Information Law request for an explanation of how NYPD chooses to classify individuals as gang members, claiming their database includes “too many minority men whose only crime is having tattoos, living in high-crime neighborhoods or knowing someone with a criminal record.”
Disaster Legal Aid & Environmental Law
- The State Bar of California set up a legal aid hotline to provide assistance to fire victims.
- The Houston Bar Association extended its legal hotline for Harvey victims for a second time, to October 27th.
- Environmental lawyers asked a federal district court to designate the Colorado River as a legal person, asserting “next friend” rights to represent the river in court. In the San Diego Free Press, one of the advocates discussed the rationale behind the suit.
Access to Justice – Civil Legal Aid
- Harvard Magazine published a lengthy examination of the Justice Gap.
- The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project sued the Department of Justice, contesting a cease-and-desist order it received from the DOJ informing them that their practice of offering limited representation in immigration cases violates a 2008 anti-fraud regulation; a judge in the case has stayed the cease-and-desist order temporarily.
Criminal Justice
- MacLean’s profiled the state of use of Gladue reports–a mechanism for calling judicial attention to the circumstances of indigenous defendants in Canadian courts which the paper calls “an unfulfilled and underappreciated aspect of the criminal justice system.”
- Lawyers in British Columbia called attention to court staffing issues and low rates for legal aid cases.
- A judge in Baton Rouge allowed a lawsuit alleging that indigent defense in Louisiana is unconstitutionally ineffective to proceed.
- Public Defender-related drama continued in Missouri, where the Supreme Court ruled that the Missouri Public Defender System can not refuse to take all incoming cases without providing supporting evidence as required by statutory procedure.
- Efforts in Michigan to respond to new statewide rules concerning indigent defense continued, as Wexford County, Kalamazoo County, Huron County, and Houghton County worked on their indigent defense plans as required by the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission. Prosecutors in Emmet and Charlevoix Counties praised the new standards.
- In Clallam County, WA, commissioners decided to restructure indigent defense arrangements against the recommendations of an ad-hoc committee of experts.
- Judge Tinder, formerly of the 7th Circuit, accepted the Indiana Public Defender Commission’s invitation to lead a new group tasked with recommending improvements for the state’s public defender system.
- Investigative reporting in The Nation found that “DA associations are thwarting changes to the death penalty, sentencing, and more.”
- The ACLU sued a New Orleans DA, alleging his office routinely seeks to jail witnesses and victims who refuse to speak with prosecutors.
- In Cook County, IL, the prosecutor’s office released a first-ever data report of felony cases providing a detailed breakdown of more than 30,000 felony cases handled by that office in 2016
Music Bonus!
And now, the coolest thing I’ve heard in a good while: