Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! It’s been an eventful couple of weeks.

First, the elephant in the room: Operation Varsity Blues. The articles highlighted in this week’s NALP News Digest are worth a look. I’ll just add one more here: “Asha Rangappa [former Yale Dean of Admissions] says the biggest victims of the U.S. college admissions scandal are the bright and diverse students from less privileged backgrounds who will be discouraged from applying to Ivy League schools.“

In addition to that news, the Trump Administration released a budget packed with changes for the student loan world, the former student loan ombudsman of the CFPB and current head of the Student Borrower Protection Center testified to Congress, Texas attorneys are suing their state bar in objection to the bar’s diversity and immigration-related efforts, under a “forced-speech” rationale, and Civil Legal Aid is making headlines of all kinds in British Columbia, with an upcoming strike of the Association of Legal Aid Laywers leading the bill. You can find all this and more, below.

See you around,
Sam

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• The Pacific Standard reported that “[t]he number of infants under the age of one in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention at the border has increased since January, reaching levels that alarm immigration advocates.”
  • Meanwhile, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services “filed a civil rights complaint against the Department of Homeland Security, arguing that the Trump administration is blatantly flouting the Flores agreement–the law that dictates how long the U.S. government can keep children in custody.“
• In New York, as part of his “Liberty Defense” project, Gov. Cuomo announced two new measures to “help and protect immigrants targeted by ICE, [including] a Rapid Response Program which has regional providers and attorneys ready for any actions taken by ICE [and] 21 New Opportunity Centers…which will offer new, free services to immigrants…such as education, legal guidance, naturalization assistance, and guidance within their neighborhoods.“
• NBC News confirmed speculation from immigration attorneys (discussed in the March 1st digest), reporting that “Customs and Border Protection has compiled a list of 59 mostly American reporters, attorneys and activists who are to be stopped for questioning by border agents when crossing the U.S.-Mexican border at San Diego-area checkpoints…according to documents obtained by NBC station KNSD-TV and interviews with people on the list.“
• In California, N.D. Cal. “ruled that Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross’ efforts to place a citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. Census violate the Enumeration Clause of the U.S. Constitution and the [APA].“
• In Washington DC, “[t]he Trump administration is reportedly planning to freeze the hiring of immigration judges amid a massive backlog of cases due to budgetary constraints[.]“

Student Loans

• In Washington DC, the Trump Administration released its proposed budget, which includes a variety of changes to the student loan regime–most notably a proposed end to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Forbes has some excellent reporting on the specifics of all student-loan-related proposals and the potential implications of Trump’s plan to “consolidat[e] the multiple income-driven repayment plan programs into one “simple” income-driven repayment plan.”
• Also in Washington, DC “the U.S. House Financial Services Committee held a hearing to discuss the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau…and the newly-introduced Consumers First Act.” During the testimony, the CFPB’s former student loan ombudsman “spoke at length about the $1.5 trillion in outstanding student debt [and] noted that his former position…has yet to be filled six months after his resignation and the the Bureau’s 2018 report on student debt is yet too be released….One committee member raised twice…that the job posting only went up the day prior to the hearing.“
• Also also in Washington, DC “Sen. Brian Schatz and Rep. Mark Pocan…led a group of 42 members of Congress in reintroducing the Debt-Free College Act[.]“
• In Massachusetts, State Senator Lesser advocated for his “Student Loan Bill of Rights”–a bill similar to laws passed in recent years in California and Connecticut–in the pages of the Boston Globe.
  • Meanwhile, in California the Sacramento Bee discussed new bills in the state legislature intended to advance the state’s student debt reform approach still further.
• In Newburgh Heights, OH, a “2,000-person town[] less than 10 miles from Cleveland,” the local government announced plans to pay half of the student debts, up to $50,000 for student debtholders who purchase a house worth at least $50,000 within five years of graduation and live in the city for 15 years.
• The former chief of the US Department of Education’s Office of the General Counsel and current president of the National Student Legal Defense Network suggested “[f]ive steps Congress should take to repair the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.“
• In Iowa, “[t]wo bills in the [] Legislature would help student-loan borrowers in different ways, one with the implementation of a student-loan ombudsman and another [by] eliminating licensing sanctions against borrowers who are delinquent or default on their loans. These proposals have drawn bipartisan support.“
• Travelers Insurance joined other companies now “allow[ing] payments that U.S. employees make toward their student loans to be eligible for the company’s 401(k) matching program.“– a solution that the AP reported “a leading national retirement plan advisor [considers] a ‘Wow’ benefit that is budget neutral by simply allowing employees to allocate existing matching dollars without an additional cost to an employer.“

Public Service Management & Hiring

• The Hill reported that “[t]ax-exempt, nonprofit organizations across the country may be shocked this year to discover that, possibly for the first time, they must pay taxes simply for providing employees with access to transit and parking [while] a growing number of municipalities require, by law, that employers of a certain size provide transportation benefits to their employees.“
• In Texas, “three conservative lawyers are seeking to overturn Texas laws that require attorneys to join the State Bar of Texas and pay annual dues…argu[ing] that being forced to pay dues that support ‘inherently poiltical or ideological’ priorities violates their free speech rights.” In particular, the attorneys object to “being forced to subsidize diversity programs or efforts to help immigrants at the border with Mexico.“

Legal Technology

• A brief article in the National Law Review examined the growth of biometric data collection–and the growth in its regulations–to argue that “[c]ompanies, regardless of industry, should be reevaluating their biometric use practices and taking steps to compy with a growing body of law surrounding this sensitive information.“
• The Pew Foundation reviewed states’ efforts to adopt online dispute resolution, suggesting that “a national body could create standards for successful use of ODR in civil courts.“
• In New York, NY “[t]he New York City Legal Aid Society has released a searchable database of federal lawsuits brought against the New York City police, which it said could arm plaintiffs attorneys with crucial information for their own civil rights suits.”
• Also in New York, NY, “[a] new study from [NYU] and NYU’s AI Now Institute concludes that predictive policing systems run the risk of exacerbating discrimination in the criminal justice system if they rely on ‘dirty data’.“
• Meanwhile, in Minneapolis, MN “[t]he Hennepin County Attorney’s Office…launched a new online tool that gives the public access to years of statistical information involving criminal cases, including racial breakdowns.“
• In Massachusetts, a ransomware attack left “[t]he Massachusetts public defender agency [] unable to access its it network for weeks [and] unable to pay the bar advocates who handle 80 percent of the public defender caseload in Massachusetts…CPCS has since cleared the ransomware off its network and is gradually restoring its systems from backup data.“

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Oregon, the state’s Access to Justice Coalition released a study based on a survey of low-income Oregonians finding that “Oregon is meeting only about 16 percent of the need for low-income civil legal aid services.“
• In Wisconsin, “Gov. Tony Evers took some steps [in his budget] to address underfunded district attorney’s offices and staff public defender positions.“
• At the Pentagon, “top uniformed and civilian officials in the Army, Navy and Air Force…propos[ed] a new tenant bill of rights for military families, which would include the ability to withhold payment for housing th
• In The Lawyers’ Daily, the founding chair of the elder law section of the Ontario Bar Association argued for a right to legal help in case of separation or divorce.
• Many developments in British Columbia:
  • The BC Attorney General released an external report containing recommendations to improve legal aid service, which states that “[y]ears of underfunding and shifting political priorities have taken their toll on the range and quality of legal aid services, and especially on the people who need them.”
    • Meanwhile, “lawyers’ groups said…the 25 recommendations are impossible to evaluate because there are no cost estimates attached [and] the Association of Legal Aid Laywers[] maintained the report did not resolve the current crisis.“
  • “A British Columbia-based women’s advocacy group says the provincial government and…the legal aid provider in the province [] are failing to provide adequate legal aid for family law cases involving domestic violence, especially where women and children are concerned.“
  • “The members of the Association of Legal Aid Lawyers (A.L.L.) have voted to withdraw their services beginning April 1st. An overwhelming 97% of those members who case votes March 11-13 did so in favor of the job action [saying] the B.C. government’s shrinking legal aid budget doesn’t come close to meeting the needs of vulnerable people in British Columbia.“
  • The Law Society of B.C. “sent back for further study a seven-year-old proposal to allow licensed paralegals to offer cheaper legal services and rejected a suggestion to give nominal educational credit to lawyers for doing charity work.“
    • For further reading, see the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice‘s article arguing that “Ontario introduced paralegal regulation over ten years ago with the promise that it would increase access to justice. Evidence suggests it has done so….[;] Law societies’ continued resistance to the regulation of paralegals is contrary to the public interest.“

Access to Justice – Criminal

• Law360.com reviewed “[c]ases…pending in Nevada, Idaho, Missouri, California, Pennsylvania and Washington, inspired by an ACLU-led lawsuit in New York that boosted state public defense funding there.“
• In Bexar County, TX the county “commissioned a formal student of its indigent defense system [in which r]esearchers will analyze three years of data, interview defendants and attorneys, and compare Bexar County with its peers.“
• In Travis County, TX the drama surrounding Austin’s ongoing efforts to create a “traditional public defender office” continued, as the Austin Monitor reported that the troubled county commission looking to create such an office received a “verbal commitment by [Texas Indigent Defense Council” Executive Director Geoff Burkhart to request waiving the [March 11th letter of intent deadline] in this case to buy the county some time.“
• In New Jersey, counties are reaching different conclusions about “municipal courts’ public defender ‘user fees,'” with Bayonne and Secaucus councils poised to raise fees from $50 to $200 while Jersey City “is planning to eliminate its user fee.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Madison County, MN, the county Public Defender and County State’s Attorney both argued “against expanding the use of ankle bracelets to monitor prisoners as an option to reduce jail population numbers.”