PSJD Public Interest News Digest – June 7, 2019
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello there, interested public! The digest is squeaking out this afternoon, as the Public Service Initiatives desk is somewhat short-staffed this week. Our 2018-2019 PSJD Fellow, Awa Sowe, has left us for her next job, as a Staff Attorney with the National Veterans Legal Services Program. (Congratulations Awa!!!) I hope you’ll forgive me if, beyond noting that the Trump administration announced it is cancelling legal services for unaccompanied minors, I leave the news to speak for itself this week.
See you around,
Sam
Scholarships & Funding
- Deadline: JUNE 10 — In Chicago IL, the ABA’s Commission on Sexual Orientation & Gender identity announced “that it will provide two $5,000 scholarships to law students or recent law school graduates studying for the bar exam who are either LGBTQ or have secured an internship or job with an organization engaged in work that impacts the LGBTQ community.”
Immigration, Refugee, & Citizenship Issues
Student Loans & Student Debt
- In Washington DC, “[Sen.] Warren, …Rep. Katie Porter, …and Rep. Ayanna Pressley …cautioned against widespread adoption of income-share agreements [in letters to Secretary of Education…DeVos as well as a handful of colleges].“
- Also in Washington, “[Sen .] Thune back[ed] a student loan payment benefit bill.“
- In Ohio, “[a] proposed loan repayment program…would create the Ohio Public Defender State Loan Repayment Program and allow the state public defender to repay an attorney’s student loans if he or she agrees to be a public defender for at least three years in an area with a shortage.“
- In California, “[l]egislation aiming to create a ‘bill of rights’ for student-loan borrowers cleared a major as [sic] it passed state Assembly with bipartisan support.“
Nonprofit Management & Hiring
- In Chicago IL, a University of Chicago study found that “black and Latinx residents are three times more likely than white and Asian residents to live in communities that are at least 3 miles away from LGBTQ service providers, including those that offer health care and legal services.“
- In New York NY, the New York Times profiled Legal Aid Society attorneys working bartending and rideshare jobs to supplement their incomes, in the context of a city-wide push for pay parity between civil legal aid lawyers and city counsel (as previously discussed in this digest).
- The Building Movement Project released a Report on CEOs in Nonprofits finding that “[p]eople of color who lead nonprofits face barriers and challenges that their white counterparts do not.“
Reproductive Rights
Disaster Legal Aid
Environmental Law
- In Montreal QC, ENvironment JEUnesse “present[ed] its class action climate lawsuit…against the Canadian government…on behalf of Quebeckers aged 35 and under [alleging] the Canadian government is infringing on a generation’s fundamental rights, because its greenhouse gas reduction target is not ambitious enough to avoid dangerous climate change[.]“
- Meanwhile, “[a] three-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals [heard] arguments” in the U.S. cases in which “young people…asserted a constitutional right to a ‘climate system capable of sustaining human life’ and contend[ing] the government has violated that right and the public’s trust.“
Legal Technology
- In New Brunswick, “[t]he new chief justice of the Court of Queens Bench says she hopes a new wave of younger judges will be open to her push to take advantage of modern technology in the court system.“
- Meanwhile, in British Columbia, “the Court Services Branch and the Ministry of the Attorney General are inviting vendors to give their input and ideas on a new initiative called the Court Digital Transformation Strategy[.]“
- In Washington State, “[t]he Washington Supreme Court…is considering adopting new rules for online legal services. The regulations would apply to websites that offer everything from downloadable forms to advice on drawing up a will.“
- Undark.org profiled how “transparency advocates from New York to Illinois to California are pushing to open up records about police misconduct [through p]ublic websites making police records accessible[.]“
Access to Justice – Civil
- In Law.com, an opinion piece argued that “[s]tatutes creating a ‘right to counsel’ must also include language about the conditions imposed on clients to comply, cooperate and work with their appointed counsel.“
- In Manitoba, “the…Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, announced the Government of Canada is supporting the development of a common law certificate in French at the University of Manitoba[,]” with a goal of helping Canadians “access justice in the official language of their choice.“
- In Newark NJ, “[t]he city will open a new office to offer free legal advice to low-income residents facing eviction, but still needs to contract with a nonprofit group to begin providing attorneys in court at no cost to those who qualify.“
- Also in New Jersey, “the Appellate Division of the Superior Court ruled that defendants in domestic violence cases must be informed of the right to obtain counsel and of the serious consequences that could result from the entry of a Final Restraining Order.“
- In Cleveland OH, the “Cleveland City Council and the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland are is [sic] the verge of providing the kind of help to people in poverty that can be life altering: free lawyers to help people fight evictions.“
- The Children’s Advocacy Institute released its fourth iteration of “A Child’s Right to Counsel“, “the periodic national report card on counsel for children[.]“
Access to Justice – Criminal
- In Oregon, “[t]he largest public defense nonprofit in [the state] has temporarily stopped taking misdemeanor cases. …Earlier this year, a 238-page report from the nonpartisan Sixth Amendment Center outlined major issues with Oregon’s public defense system[.]“
- Meanwhile, in Wyoming “[j]udges say they were blindsided by a [state public defender] decision to not represent misdemeanor offenders.” While “[t]he Campbell County Circuit Court found [State Public Defender] Lozano and the State Public Defender’s Office in contempt for refusing to assign a public defender to two misdemeanor cases.“
- In Summit County OH, the “County Council has passed a resolution calling on the Ohio Senate to support increasing state reimbursements to counties for indigent defense in the state budget bill.“
- In Tennessee, the Washington Post reported that “the chief prosecutor in [the state] used [prosecutorial discretion] to impose his moral and religious views onto the people his office was tasked with protecting, according to a video released by Nashville television station News Channel 5.“
- In Kansas City MO, “[t]he head of the state public defender’s office in Kansas City testified…that public defenders labor under excessive caseloads and are unable to fulfill their ethical obligations to their clients…during a proceeding in Jackson County Circuit Court.“
- In Texas, “[s]ome of [the state’s] most populous counties may have made strides at reducing caseloads for lawyers representing poor children in juvenile court, data show.“
Criminal Justice Reform
- In New York NY, “Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and two city council members demanded at a press conference that the old cases of two sex crimes prosecutors be re-examined, after a new chorus of outrage erupted over the 1989 Central Park jogger case.“
- In New York State, “Gov. Cuomo threatened to pull the plug on the state’s special prosecutor tasked with investigating police killings if the office is enshrined into law.“
- In Columbus OH, “City Attorney Zach Klein has instructed city prosecutors to stop requesting cash bonds for most misdemeanor defendants charged with nonviolent crimes.“