PSJD Public Interest News Digest – May 25, 2018
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives 
Hello there, interested public! Two BIG highlights this week:
- The Federal Student Aid Office has published a page describing the Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which may be able to help borrowers whose PSLF applications have been denied. See “Student Loans,” below.
- An article in The Practice attempts an empirical examination of “public-interest drift,” the phenomenon wherein law students with nonprofit or government career ambitions decide instead to pursue positions in private law firms.
See you around,
Sam
Public Service Career Development
- In The Practice (the journal of Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession), CLP Research Fellow John Bliss conducted “a systematic qualitative look at the public-interest drift process.” Bliss defined “public interest drift” as the phenomenon wherein students with nonprofit or government career ambitions decide instead to pursue positions in private law firms. He concluded that “these students struggle most with a lack of preparation for the job market.” The article concludes with “policy recommendations focusing on preparing students to broker the job market.”
Student Loans
- The Federal Student Aid Office published a guide to the Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, under which “[i]f your PSLF application was denied because some or all of your payments were not made on a qualifying repayment plan for PSLF, you may be able to receive loan forgiveness under a temporary opportunity.”
- In the U.S. Senate, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand discussed a pair of bills she hopes to schedule votes on which would help alleviate student debt.
Immigration
- In Montgomery County, MD, the county council “passed a special appropriation that creates a legal fund for undocumented immigrants who live in the county and could face deportation.“
- In California, the State Senate “and more than 20 cities and counties have come out in support of the state’s ‘sanctuary’ law, which limits police and sheriff agencies from cooperating with federal immigration agencies” in amicus court filings authored by former U.S. Attorney General Holder, submitted in the federal lawsuit brought by Attorney General Sessions against California’s immigrant policies.
- Meanwhile, also in CA, NPR examined whether the Trump administration’s new “zero tolerance” border policy is having its desired effect.
Access to Justice – Civil
- In Washington, DC, the President of the ABA testified before a Senate subcommittee that “[t]he Legal Services Corp.’s funding should be restored ‘at least’ to inflation-adjusted 2010 levels.“
Access to Justice – Criminal
- In Missouri, the Director of the State Public Defender’s Office filed a motion in a high-profile first-degree murder case arguing that “it’s not fair that the state is stepping in to help county prosecutors while also ‘depriving the defense of the resources necessary to provide diligent, effective, and conflict-free representation.'” According to the National Post, “[t]he motion is the latest effort to draw attention to funding problems that have prompted an ACLU lawsuit and increasingly led Missouri public defenders to turn down new cases.”
- In New Mexico, the president of the state prosecutors’ association suggested that public defenders should turn to charitable donations and other sources of private fundraising, instead of seeking to decline new cases in the face of unconstitutional caseloads. The Public Defender Commission in the state is developing new rules “that would allow overburdened public defenders in New Mexico to refuse new cases rather than provide inadequate legal representation.”
- In Wisconsin, the Supreme Court “voted to raise the hourly rate of pay for court-appointed attorneys from $70 to $100 per hour [in response to] a petition from a coalition of lawyers and judges who say Wisconsin’s current system for public defense attorneys is so underfunded, it’s facing a constitutional crisis.” However, the ruling “leaves the pay rate for state-funded public defenders at $40 per hour, the lowest in the nation.”
- In Buffalo, New York, local TV spoke with a public defender at the Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo about his hopes for the state’s new Public Defense Reform law.
- In Mississippi, a local television station reported on the unacceptable lengths of pre-trial detentions in Mississippi–an issue the Mississippi Public Defender Task Force and the ACLU have been working to raise with state lawmakers.
- In Texas, a local county commissioner called out the state government at a conference of county judges and commissioners. According to reporting from Go San Angelo, the official claimed “the State of Texas is seriously in arrears when it comes to reimbursing counties for indigent defense attorneys, and that could make it difficult for county officials to balance the budget in the future.”
Criminal Justice Reform
- In Baltimore, MD, “[s]chool discipline reform advocates have asked the Baltimore city schools police to adopt a youth-specific Miranda warning to let children know their legal rights.”
- In New Orleans, LA, Court Watch Nola (CWN) called out the New Orleans District Attorney’s office for recording and listening to inmates’ calls to their lawyers.