PSJD Public Interest News Digest – February 15, 2019
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello there, interested public! Student debt new continues to dominate this week, as the Department of Education’s Inspector General released an audit highly critical of the DoE’s oversight of student loan servicers and Congress introduced bipartisan bills in both houses proposing to allow employers to contribute funds tax-free toward employees’ student loans. (Commentary below.) There are also stories on legislative developments at the state level, mostly concerning states deliberations about whether or not to regulate student loan servicers. There are also some major items in Criminal Justice Reform, where the ACLU released a new report on prosecutorial transparency and New York’s The Legal Aid Society coined the phrase “knock and spit” policing.
See you around,
Sam
Legal Recruiting
- In Boston, MA “the Boston University School of Law OutLaw chapter — the law school’s LGBTQ+ student organization — organized a protest against the school for allowing JAG to participate in a networking event for students interested in public service…The BU Law Student Veteran’s Association also issued a statement in opposition to the trans ban and in support of those who chose to protest JAG on campus.“
- In Quebec, “[t]he legal aide office in Kuujjuaq, the administrative capital of the Inuit region of Nunavik, Quebec, will be temporarily shut down in March after an inability to recruit staff for vacant positions.”
Immigration, Asylum, & Citizenship
- In Portland, ME the Innovation Law Lab , sued the Trump administration over its policy of “send[ing] asylum-seekers to Mexico while they await their immigration cases.“
- In Mission, TX “[t]he nonprofit National Butterfly Center has asked a federal judge to stop border wall activity on its property…say[ing] heavy machinery has been driving through their property for a week, including a road grader accompanied by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle. Wright alleged that someone had cut the lock on a center fence and replaced it with a lock belonging to CBP.“
Student Debt
- In Washington, DC, the Department of Education’s Inspector General released an audit “find[ing] that officials who oversee student loans haven’t properly tracked problems and rarely penalize servicers. The office that manages student loans says it disagrees with the finding but is implementing the audit’s recommendations.” (More on this story from NPR.)
- Also in Washington DC, “[b]ipartisan companion bills introduced in the Senate and House on Wednesday seek to allow employers to contribute up to $5,250 tax-free to their employees’ student loans[.]“
- In Washington State, the Washington Student Achievement Council created the position of “Student Loan Advocate” : “a new position stemming from state legislation, passed in 2018, to improve consumer protections for students.“
- In Virginia, “[s]tudent loan servicers in Virginia will still not be licensed after a House of Delegates committee killed a bill Tuesday to regulate the companies.“
- In New Mexico, “the [state] House Commerce and Economic Development Committee passed a bill to enact a ‘Student Loan Bill of Rights’ to protect student loan borrowers from exploitation.“
- In Connecticut, “lawmakers are looking at ways to help millennials with crucial student loan debt. Proposals being examined include free tuition and loan forgiveness programs.“
- In Colorado, a state lawmaker has introduced a bill “that would require student loan service providers [to] be licensed [and] would create an ombudsman in the Attorney General’s Office.“
- In Maine, legislators discussed their recently-filed bill that aims to introduce a referendum in an upcoming election asking voters,
“Do you favor a $250,000,000 bond issue to provide funds for payment of student loan debt of individuals who agree to work and reside in Maine for five years and for reimbursement of employers that make student loan repayments on behalf of such individuals?” - CNBC made a list of recent creative proposals for tackling student debt. Many of them have been mentioned in prior editions of this Digest, but SponsorChange.org and the Shared Harvest Fund were news to me.
Legal Technology
- In Washington, DC the Government Accountability Office published a report on internet privacy suggesting that “comprehensive Internet privacy legislation” is needed to protect consumers. (Commentary available from the Washington Post.)
- Also in Washington DC, “President Trump signed an executive order…direct[ing] the federal government to prioritize research and development of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, under coordination through the National Science and Technology Council Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence.” Legal technology experts are already speculating that this development “could signal technology becoming more prevalent in the legal industry.“
- In San Francisco, CA, The SF Chronicle discussed how California’s data privacy law “has strongly motivated members of Congress to create a federal privacy protection regime.“
- In Albany, NY Albany Law School students “released a web-platform…to help lawyers efficiently serve clients [] attempting to gain nonprofit status in New York State.“
Environmental Justice
Access to Justice – Civil
- In Washington, DC the LSC announced that it is “forming an Emerging Leaders Council to raise public awareness of the current crisis in legal aid and the importance of ensuring access to justice for all Americans.“
- The New York Times published an interview with Professor Rebecca Sandefur discussing her research on access to justice. Among other things, Professor Sandefur observes that “[a]cross a number of common justice problems….nonlawyer advocates and unrepresented lay people have been observed to perform as well or better than lawyers.” (For example, social workers have an excellent record in eviction cases in New York.)
Access to Justice – Criminal
- In Wisconsin, WPR released an expose on “what’s behind the state’s low public defender pay rate, and how it’s impacting clients who can’t afford a lawyer.“
- In Travis County, TX, “the Austin Criminal Defense Lawyers Association’s board voted unanimously at a special meeting…to withdraw from [a work group hoping to create a public defenders office for the county].“
- In Utah, a report from the Utah Indigent Defense Commission concluded that “[a]n influx of state funding to bolster county public defenders” under a recently-developed statewide funding scheme (replacing Utah’s earlier system in which individual counties funded their own programs) has transformed public defenders’ work: “attorneys have more time to spend with clients and defendants aren’t rushed into taking plea deals as often.” (As described in the Daily Herald.)
- In Montana, “[l]eaders with Montana’s Office of the State Public Defender told lawmakers Friday that they’re expecting higher caseloads in the coming years – and that could lead to higher costs.“
- In Minnesota, the Public News Service previewed upcoming contract negotiations between Public Defenders and the Board of Public Defense: “the contract negotiations won’t be simply about pay but rather improving and preserving the constitutional rights of those that can’t afford an attorney. Rights are being violated when staffing is at a low level. The public defender’s office has 68% of the attorney staff and 57% of the support staff that state and national standards say they should have.“
- In Indiana, “[t]he Public Defender Commission is pushing for lawmakers to pass two bills that would help fund and staff public defender offices statewide.“
- In San Francisco, CA “[l]egislation that would ensure all youth in San Francisco have access to legal counsel and a parent or responsible adult prior to a police interrogation cleared a Board of Supervisors committee on Monday.“
Criminal Justice Reform
- The ACLU released “Unlocking the Black Box,” a report finding that “the ‘few public statistics on prosecutorial decision making often only collect information at the broadest level,’ which makes it ‘nearly impossible to uncover individual abuses, systemic discrimination, or patterns that do not align with office policies.’” (As glossed by Reason.com)
- In New York, NY Allison Lewis of the Legal Aid Society reported that “the same law enforcement playbook that brought you stop-and-frisk [provides] the latest form of racial profiling and policing: the knock-and-spit. We’ve learned that NYPD officers are willing to knock on doors to take New Yorkers’ DNA, whether by “consent” or at the precinct by offering people a cigarette or drink to collect their spit. And once again, as the city’s primary public defenders, we see this latest law enforcement sweep is happening mainly to New Yorkers of color.”
- In Tampa, FL, in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, the President of the ABA asserted that “[n]o one should be jailed just because they can’t afford bail, fines, or fees.”
- In Vermont, “representatives from Vermont Legal Aid and the Attorney General’s Office…proposed a package of reforms that would allow more Vermonters with criminal histories to clear their records.“
- In San Francisco, CA “[i]n a direct challenge to California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s position on the state’s new police transparency law, a Bay Area-based First Amendment group sued the state Justice Department on Thursday over its refusal to release officer misconduct and use-of-force records.”
- In Honolulu, HI “[i]n an extraordinary move, the state attorney general on Tuesday filed a petition with the Hawaii Supreme Court calling for the ‘immediate suspension’ of Honolulu’s embattled city prosecutor [as his] refusal to step aside ― despite being the target of a federal public corruption investigation ― ‘has subjected every case being handled by the Honolulu Department of Prosecuting Attorney to potential ethical and legal challenges.”