PSJD Public Interest News Digest – June 8, 2018
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives 
Hello there, interested public! The past week has been an eventful one, particularly concerning Federal agency action (and responses to such action by other government and civil institutions). Additionally, the Movement Advocacy Project (MAP) released a report on the changing dynamic between state legislatures and local authorities. You’ll find these tidbits first, ordinally, below. Along, of course, with other news of interest.
See you around,
Sam
Federal Government
- The Washington Post reported that “Mick Mulvaney, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, fired the agency’s 25-member advisory board Wednesday, days after some of its members criticized his leadership of the watchdog agency.“
- According to Waterworld.com, a broad coalition of interest groups, “including public health, environment, faith-based, farming and ranching, and legal advocacy groups” signed a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services “calling for the immediate release of a suppressed federal study that says perfluorinated chemicals in drinking water are hazardous at much lower levels than the [EPA]’s guidelines state.”
- Courthousenews.com reported that “[a] host of legal advocacy organizations, human trafficking survivors, attorneys and prosecutors called on the Justice Department Wednesday to reinstate funding for post-conviction relief to expunge trafficking survivors’ criminal records.“
State & Local Government – Civil Rights
- The Movement Advancement Project published a report chronicling the efforts “many state legislatures” are taking to limit local governments’ authority to “protect their residents on a range of issues, including workers’ rights and benefits, the minimum wage, nondiscrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, pro-immigrant policies, environmental efforts, and more.”
- Governing.com profiled efforts within state governments to reduce barriers to hiring individuals with disabilities into government positions.
Legal Employment
- In Brooklyn, NY, “staff attorneys at CAMBA Legal Services…announced that they have won union recognization after a card check agreement was reached.“
Immigration
- The Mayors of Los Angeles, CA; Houston, TX; Tucson, AZ, and Albuquerque, NM sent a letter to Attorney General Sessions condemning the Department of Justice’s policy of separating children from their families at the border as “cruel,” “morally reprehensible,” “not an appropriate use of taxpayer resources,” and “utterly inconsistent with our values of decency and compassion.”
- Meanwhile, Vice reported that the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement–“a federal program that for over a decade has funded organizations representing unaccompanied minors in immigration court…told the groups [it funds] to stop taking new cases just days after the family separation policy began.”
- In New York, NY, Human Rights Watch released a report criticizing New York City’s “criminal carveout” excluding immigrants with certain criminal convictions from city-funded immigrant legal services.
- Haaretz profiled the joint efforts of faith communities across the country to provide sanctuary to immigrants within their spaces of worship.
Access to Justice – Civil
- In San Francisco, CA, “[a] ballot measure to give tenants facing eviction lawsuits the right to taxpayer-funded legal representation won Tuesday…with nearly 56 percent in favor[.]“
- In Quebec, legal aid eligibility thresholds increased by 6.67%, as a result of minimum wage increases implemented on May 1st.
- In the Northwest Territories, the Court of Appeal ruled that a Legal Aid Commission policy against funding human rights complaints is not discriminatory.
Access to Justice – Criminal
- In Texas, reporting out of Austin decried the fact that indigent defense, “a program that’s supposed to be fully funded by the state[,] now has local tax dollars covering about 90 percent of the costs.”
- In Maryland, the Court of Special Appeals ruled that “[c]onvicts have a right to counsel when being resentenced after a determination that their original sentence was illegal.”
- In Livingston County, NY, the Public Defender Office announced plans to hire new attorneys in order to comply with a new state mandate providing a right to counsel at arraignment.
Criminal Justice Reform
- In Minneapolis, MN, the Minneapolis Police Department announced plans to stop conducting stings of low-level marijuana sales due to their disproportionate racial effects.
- In California, “voters appeared to reject liberal challengers in three closely watched district attorney races on Tuesday, delivering a sharp defeat to a national network attempting to reshape the criminal justice system by electing left-leaning prosecutors.”
- In Kansas, the Federal Public Defender’s Office said it has discovered that the Core Civic prison in Leavenworth, a Federal holding facility, recorded over 1,300 conversations between public defenders and their clients over a two-year period.