PSJD Public Interest News Digest – September 29, 2017
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Editor’s Pick: “As Dust Settles, Law School Rises”
(UVA Law Responds to Charlottesville)
Okay folks. If you only read one article in the digest this week, make it this one. It’s packed with both personal and professional perspectives from those students, faculty, and administrators most publicly and painfully tested by the civic challenges confronting our campuses.
In other protest-related news:
- Students and faculty at Georgetown Law staged an NFL-inspired protest of Attorney General Sessions’ campus lecture on freedom of speech–a closed event organized by the Georgetown Center for the Constitution.
- University of Pennsylvania students silently protested outside a campus lecture by Heather Mac Donald, author of “The War on Cops,” organized by the Penn Law Federalist Society.
- Students at Harvard law are preparing to protest an upcoming visit by Secretary of Education DeVos.
DACA/Immigration
- “The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Association of Pro Bono Counsel (APBCo) announced a new partnership Monday to match young people applying for temporary status with local clinics and pro bono volunteers who can help navigate the process.“
- Graduate and undergraduate student assemblies at the University of Pennsylvania issued a joint statement calling on the University to provide or arrange legal representation for DACA recipients studying at Penn.
- InsidePhilanthrophy summarizes the way major funders are responding to the Trump Administration’s decision to end the DACA program.
- After the 5th Circuit overturned a lower court decision that had blocked a Texas law directing local law enforcement to hold inmates past their release dates at the request of federal officials executing immigration policy, sheriffs in Travis County, TX announced they will begin honoring these detainer requests.
- Baylor Law’s Immigration Clinic has created a DACA Renewal Clinic.
Student Loans & Consumer Law
- 21 state Attorneys General have written a letter to Secretary of Education DeVos, demanding she halt what the Pennsylvania Attorney General called “a systemic rollback of critical protections for student borrowers.”
- New FTC website calls attention to its “Military Task Force,” which provides consumer law services to servicemembers, veterans, and their families.
- A CFPB spokesperson outlined legal authority which the agency could conceivably use to punish Equifax for its recent loss of sensitive personal data on 143 million Americans, although he declined to comment on whether the agency was in fact conducting any investigation into the data breach.
Civil Access to Justice
First, the news from Canada:
- A recent decision by Legal Aid Alberta to charge prospective clients up-front deposits has lasted less than a week; an Alberta Justice Minister has asked legal aid to put a hold on this plan, while the Edmonton Criminal Trial Lawyers Association has strongly criticized the provincial government for under-funding legal services.
- The British Columbia Court of Appeal upheld legislation requiring civil litigants opting for a jury trial to pay for expenses related to the jury process.
- Calgary Legal Guidance’s second annual “Advice-a-Thon” organized dozens of Calgary lawyers to provide complimentary brief advice and non-government issued photo identification to city residents outside Calgary City Hall; organizers for the event used it to call attention to the large numbers of people with incomes too high to qualify for legal aid but too low to afford traditional representation.
- Legal Aid Ontario announces plans to open new clinic to serve Ontario’s Black community, replacing the African Canadian Legal Clinic–from which LAO withdrew funding last summer.
And now, the United States:
- New York State’s Office of Indigent Legal Services has asked counties to submit plans for overhauling and expanding their public defense services–a project expected to cost $250 million annually by 2023–as the state works to respond to systemic problems brought to light in a lawsuit by the New York Civil Liberties Union.
- University of Cincinnati College of Law has created a courthouse navigator program in partnership with Ohio county courts and at the recommendation of the Ohio Supreme Court’s Task Force on Access to Justice.
- Professor John McGinnis of Northwestern Law criticized the AALS’ decision to oppose the ABA’s proposal that accredited law schools be permitted to allow adjunct faculty to teach any or all 2L and 3L courses, arguing it hinders access to justice initiatives by preventing law schools from training new lawyers more affordably.
Criminal Justice
- Politico profiles the burgeoning conservative movement in support of better funding for public defender services which frames PD offices as a crucial check on government power.
- A Yolo County, CA Board of Supervisors meeting yielded an admirably fruitful, detailed discussion of different ways to understand the needs and workloads of Public Defenders Offices, how to gauge whether PD offices are adequately staffed, and how local governments must adapt staffing for both PD and DA offices in response to changes in the law.
- Spokane County, WA is contemplating a 7% reduction in funding to both its DA and PD offices. Prosecutors believe the cut would force them to stop prosecuting felony drug possession cases and citations for driving on suspended licenses; defenders are more sanguine about the situation.
Music Bonus!
If you’re still searching for your groove this year, you might try this one: