Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Immigration issues dominated the news this week, with disturbing revelations from immigration attorneys about the conditions under which asylum seekers, including children, are being detained, an announcement from the administration about upcoming raids, and local government responses to that announcement. Ontario has a new Attorney General, and the Editorial Board of the Toronto Star wants him to revisit recent cuts to Legal Aid. More things happened too, with links below.

It’s a very busy summer, and I’ve been grateful this week for the assistance of Annie Dou and Quinn Casey, two of PSJD’s Summer Project Assistants. Annie and Quinn helped me winnow the many, many stories I collect each week to the most relevant ones; thanks!

See you around,

Sam

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• In Clint TX, “a team of lawyers interviewed more than fifty children…in order to monitor government compliance with the Flores settlement, which mandates that children must be held in safe and sanitary conditions and moved out of Border Patrol custody without unnecessary delays. The conditions the laywers found were shocking: flu and lice outbreaks were going untreated, and children were filthy, sleeping on cold floors, and taking care of one another because of the lack of attention from guards. Some of them had been in the facility for weeks.”

• Meanwhile, “[t]he Trump administration argued before a Ninth Circuit panel…that the government is not required to give soap or toothbrushes to children apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border and can have them sleep on concrete floors in frigid, overcrowded cells, despite a settlement agreement that requires detainees be kept in ‘safe and sanitary’ facilities.”

In Washington DC, “Congress sent President Trump a $4.6 billion humanitarian aid package on Thursday after Speaker Nancy Pelosi capitulated to Republicans and Democratic moderates and dropped her insistence on stronger protections for migrant children in overcrowded border shelters.”

In Washington DC, “ICE Acting Director Mark Morgan, who was chosen Tuesday to lead U.S. Customs and Border Protection…said [the upcoming operation] will be focused on those who have had their due process, given an order a romal from a judge and notified by mail earlier this year.”

Meanwhile, CNN catalogued responses to the planned upcoming raids from Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, and San Francisco.

In Arlington VA, “[t]wo Virginia organizations are looking to help as Arlington braces for immigration raids in the wake of President Trump’s deportation threats.”

In Chicago IL, “Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) said she would take “concrete steps” to support immigrant communities after reports emerged that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would begin raids this weekend to round up families who have received deportation orders.”

In Dallas TX, “[the] City Council has approved $100,000 in funds for the city’s Civil Legal Immigration Services initiative to distribute to non-profit organizations for legal services for undocumented residents facing immigration court proceedings.”

In New York, “Gov. Andrew Cuomo has joined with a growing number of elected officials across the country in opposing the Trump administration’s reported plan to begin ICE raids early Sunday targeting illegal alien families.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “Sen. Bernie Sanders…rolled out legislation on Monday to cancel $1.6 trillion in outstanding student debt for 45 million borrowers. The legislation…also calls for public universities, community colleges and trade schools to go tuition free.”

• Relatedly, Newsweek published a comparison of Sen. Sanders’ plan with the one recently released by Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Also in Washington DC, “[m]ore than 150,000 former students of for-profit colleges filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education…claiming the agency is depriving them of the student debt relief to which they’re legally entitled.”

Also also in Washington DC, “Sens. Elizabeth Warren [] and Cory Booker [] sent letters to the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission…requesting the agencies reconsider a 2018 decision to allow two of the biggest student loan servicers merge [sic].”

Financial Advisor reported that “Employer Student Loan Benefit Programs [are] a Growing Trend,” according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “Congress and the Trump administration are playing a game of chicken over the fate of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which manages the civilian federal workforce. [T]he acting head of OPM[] threatened to furlough 150 workers if Congress refuses to endorse the Trump administration’s plan to reorganize the agency. Meanwhile, Congress has already written into law limitations on the president’s reorganization efforts and is likely to call the OPM’s bluff on furloughs.”

In New York NY, “Mayor Bill de Blasio[‘s announcement] earlier this month that public defenders will have their pay raised to match the salaries of attorneys on the city payroll within the next four years…brought ‘a feeling of relief’ [but] also has some concerned about the details.”

Legal Technology

• Fast Company profiled “[a] new tool from the legal design labs at BYU and University of Arizona [that] aims to reduce the number of evictions by helping landlords and tenants communicate with each other before a landlord decides to evict.”

In Washington DC, “legislation [was] floated by Senators Mark Warner and Josh Hawley [that] would require commercial services with more than 100 million active monthly users to disclose to their customers and financial regulators the types of data they collect. They would also have to provide their users with an assessment at frequent intervals of the data’s value to them.”

Inside Philanthropy discussed Consumer Reports’ new “Digital Lab, focusing on the data privacy and security issues that consumers face in today’s digital era.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Washington DC, “[t]he U.S. House of Representatives [] passed [an appropriations bill] providing $550 million for the Legal Services Corp. This is an increase of $135 million over LSC’s current funding and the largest appropriation proposal LSC has ever received in absolute dollars.”

Also in Washington DC, “U.S. Senators Kamala D. Harris [] and Dan Sullivan [] introduced…legislation to ensure that all survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault have access to a lawyer if they need it.”

In New Mexico, the New Mexico Commission on Access to Justice “launched [a] ‘THIS ABOUT THIS’…campaign ask[ing] people to ‘think about’ the serious consequences of the lack of legal representation or resources.”

In Ontario, “[t]he Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic…has announced that it will be appealing a decision by Legal Aid Ontario to reduce its budget.”

Also in Ontario, The Toronto Star’s Editorial Board argued that “before he starts on any new projects, [attorney general] Downey should revisit a decision made in April by his predecessor, Caroline Mulroney, to slash the province’s legal aid budget by 30 per cent.”

In Alberta, the senior advisory counsel for adult criminal law at Legal Aid Alberta announced that his agency “is working on an overall Indigenous action plan…which is in its final draft stages.”

Legal Evolution’s editor argued that “I am [] hopeful about our ability to substantially solve access to justice. But it’s likely going to involve a massive redesign of how many types of disputes get resolved, including the possibility of lawyers and courtrooms being engineered out the process.” His comments came in response to “the Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT), Canada’s first online dispute resolution (ODR) system.

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Ohio, “the House and Senate versions of the two-year state budget [both include] a lot more funding to pay for defense of very low-income defendants in county courts.”

• Relatedly, “[t]he Ohio House has approved a bill that would create a student loan repayment program to help recruit and retain attorneys to serve as much needed public defenders in the state.”

In Massachusetts, after “a Springfield judge ordered two defendants released from jail because they had not been provided a lawyer [and] also ordered the state’s public defender’s office to provide attorneys in court every day [] the Committee for Public Counsel Services[] is appealing the decision to the Massachusetts Supreme Court, saying its attorneys are already overburdened.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In New York NY, “Tiffany Caban [] declared victory in the Democratic primary for district attorney in Queens, New York [] — a shocking upset by a 31-year-old public defender in a race that generated national attention as part of a push to elect more progressive prosecutors committed to criminal justice reform.”

• Relatedly, in Allegheny County PA, “[a] long-time public defender announced…that she will run as an independent candidate in the fall for the office of Allegheny County district attorney.”

In Philadelphia PA, The Phildelphia Inquirer reported that “statistics obtained from the DA’s Office show that in 2018, Krasner’s first year in office, 78 gun-possession cases were placed in the [Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition] program–compared with just 12 such diversions in gun-possession cases the previous year[.]”

Essence noted that “[a] record number of women of color have been elected to District Attorneys positions in the past four years,” and asked “do African-American female top prosecutors have th[e] same level of freedom [to exercise their discretion as their white male counterparts]?”

In Ventura County CA, “[b]ucking prior decisions across the state…[that] have found [Senate Bill 1421] requires the release of internal documents about police use of force, dishonesty, and sexual assault cases regardless of when the incidenct occurred”, “a Ventura County Superior Court judge ruled…that Senate Bill 1421 cannot be applied ‘retroactively.’”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Lots of news this week. My “Editor’s Choice” feature returns to highlight a forthcoming article in which a professor suggests that the number of student borrowers eligible for public service loan forgiveness may be significantly higher than current DoE practice suggests. Also, NELP released a new report accusing the federal government of outsourcing its duties to for-profit contractors. Legal Aid organizations in Ohio commisioned an independent study demonstrating the long-term impact of their legal services, and the Chief Justice of Canada made comments related to (but not directly about) recent cuts to civil legal aid in Ontario. All this and more, in the links below.

See you around,

Sam

Editor’s Choice

Professor Gregory S. Crespi of SMU Dedman School of Law released “Why Are 99% of the Applications for Debt Discharge under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program Being Denied, and Will This Change?” on SSRN.

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• In Boston MA, “[a] federal judge…has temporarily banned Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from making arrests in or around the state’s courthouses.”
• Also in Boston, WBUR discussed how “[l]ocal law school instructors said there’s been a rise in the number of students studying immigration law in response to President Trump’s aggressive stance on immigration enforcement.”
• In New York, “[t]he New York State Bar Association’s (NYSBA) House of Delegates is urging the governor and Legislature to establish a right to counsel in immigration proceedings.”
• In Washington DC, “[c]iting the “mistreatment” of migrant children in U.S. custody, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democratic presidential candidate, [urged] her fellow lawmakers in Congress to limit funding allocated to certain shelters used by the government to house unaccompanied migrant minors.”
• Meanwhile, in New Jersey, ICE “has paid $125,000 to a Honduran mother and son as part of a settlement in a suit accusing the agency of using ‘coercive tactics’ to get them to give up their asylum claims while detained.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, a suit filed by borrowers who were defrauded by their schools “alleg[ed] that Betsy DeVos and the Department of Education are collecting on debt that isn’t legally enforceable” by garnishing money from their tax refunds despite their right to have their debt discharged.
• In Maine, “Gov. Janet Mills [] signed legislation that will provide greater regulatory oversight of student loan lenders.”
• At an “InnerCircle gathering of top CHROs and other executives…who manage HR and benefits budgets across the country,” Ayco CEO Larry Restieri named student loans as the “top trend” that CHROs have on their radar: “One of the things [HR experts] are finding is that with the student loans issue, it’s not just a recent graduate issue but it’s one that affects baby boomers greatly.”
• Inc.com profiled “6 Companies [Who] Found Unique Ways to Help Employees Pay Off their Student Loan Debt.”
• The Center for American Progress argued that “to begin solving student debt, the education department must factor in race and ethnicity.”
• Forbes continued its series on the student debt positions of various Presidential candidates with a profile of Amy Klobuchar.

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “[a Department of Labor] Administrative Law Judge told attorneys for the department’s Wage and Hour Division to be prepared to explain whether Administrator Cheryl Stanton has the authority to revoke “investigative powers at her sole discretion” that were previously delegated to her staff [after] Stanton’s decision to rescind certain authority that had been given to investigators across the country.”
• Also in Washington DC, the National Employment Law Project released a report documenting “the sharp increase in federal spending on temporary help services under the Trump administration. The data suggests that, rather than decreasing the size of government…the Trump administration and its allies in Congress are merely outsourcing government work to temporary staffing agencies, which degrades the quality of those jobs and reduces accountability over the quality of that work. It also takes the delivery of traditionally public interest services…from non-profit government agencies and places them with private for-profit entities[.]”

Legal Technology

• In New York, the state’s Office of Victim Services announced “a new online resource offering free civil legal assistance to crime victims.”
• In Cambridge MA, the Harvard Law School Library Innovation Lab released “Historical Trends,” “a new tool [that] allows the public to explore the use of language over 360 years of caselaw.”
• In Washington DC, “[a] group of House Democratic lawmakers is demanding answers about why Customs and Border Protection’s Biometric Exit Program includes data collected from U.S. citizens.”
• The ABA Journal profiled the work of Measures for Justice, a nonprofit that “travels the U.S. unearthing, collecting and publishing criminal justice data.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Canada, “Chief Justice Richard Wagner says legal aid is ‘essential’ to ensuring the justice system is fair and efficient for all…as Ontario Premier Doug Ford is facing sharp criticism for slashing funding for legal aid by 30 per cent.”
• Meanwhile, in Sudbury ON, MPP Jamie West held “a town hall meeting on cuts to legal aid.”
• In Cleveland OH, the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and Community Legal Aid released an independent report commissioned from the Center for Community Solutions finding that “54 percent of clients who responded to the survey reported an improvement in at least one area of stability [improvement]” (areas include financial, family, health, housing, education, and civic involvement).
• Finding that In Louisiana, “Gov. John Bel Edwards’ office [announced] plans to sign a bill that includes $500,000 for [legal assistance for some of its most vulnerable residents]. The money will remove Louisiana from a list of only four states that don’t provide any funding for legal assistance in civil matters.”
• In Oregon, “[a] bill that would provide attorneys to Oregon’s only women’s prison has passed the House and Senate and is currently awaiting Gov. Kate Brown’s signature. The bill would provide the Oregon Justice Resource Center (OJRC) funding for three full-time attorneys to create a civil legal program inside Coffee Creek Correctional Facility.”
• In New York State, the state legislature “passed…one of the most sweeping interventions by government in the New York City real estate market in decades, establishing new rules for millions of people on everything from rent increases to security deposits to evictions.”
• In Philadelphia PA, the Philadelphia Inquirer published an op-ed arguing that “[t]he time is now for Philadelphia to have a one-stop shop for legal services.”
• In San Francisco CA, Richard Posner, formerly of the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, “signed on to serve as an adviser to Legalist, a San Francisco start-up founded by two Harvard undergrads in 2016. ‘The principal motive for my retirement was the failure of the court to treat litigants without financial resources fairly.’ Posner said in a statement issued by Legalist. ‘Litigation finance patches an important hole for businesses with valid claims who lack the funds to hire an attorney.”
• In Orlando FL, local attorney Anthony Suarez launched the “Legal Services Clinic of the Puerto Rican Community…initially founded to cure a drastic need brought on by the devastation of hurricane Maria to Puerto Rico, and to serve the influx of Puerto Ricans arriving from the island who needed legal assistance.”
• In Chicago IL, “LAF, known before 2011 as the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, bec[ame] Legal Aid Chicago.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Ottawa, “Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner told a news conference…things are on the right path almost three years after the high court set out strict timelines for completing criminal trials.”
• In Windsor ON, “a [] lawyer and a law professor predict more vulnerable people charged with crimes — whether they’re guilty or not — will be spending more time in jail, and local courts will become further clogged after the province announced cost-cutting changes to bail hearing assistance for the poor.”
• In Virginia, the Virginia Mercury profiled “a recent push by some Virginia public defenders to practice ‘holistic defense’ — a method of legal representation that goes beyond the role of a typical public defender by connecting clients with legal and social support services in an effort to reduce the likelihood that they’ll reoffend.”
• In New York NY, “[the city’s] public defenders will have their pay raised to match the salaries of the lawyers who represent the city — known as Corporation Counsel[.]”
• In Chautauqua County NY, the public defender’s office announced that it will receive a $15 million grant “from the state Office of Indigent Legal Services [resulting] from a lawsuit…brought against five New York state counties in Central New York for ineffective representation of the indigent.”
• In Richland County SC, the County Council “approved a pay raise for attorneys at the…Public Defender’s Office, one that will put them on level ground with prosecutors at the Fifth Circuit Solicitor’s Office.”
• In Morgantown WV, the state’s Public Defender Services held their 2019 Annual Indigent Defense Conference.
• In Ohio, “[t]he House Finance Committee is expected to allocate $3 million over the next two years to fund a program aimed at attracting more public defenders throughout Ohio.”
• Also in Ohio, “Trumbull County commissioners…approved a plan to provide attorneys for defendants in the Trumbull County court system who can’t afford to pay for them.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Washington DC, “[m]ore than four years after Congress required the Department of Justice to assemble information about those who die in police custody, the agency has yet to implement a system for collecting that data or release any new details of how and why people die under the watch of law enforcement.”
• In St. Louis MO, Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner “sent [Public Safety Director] Edwards and Police Chief John Hayden a letter…announcing that she had added 22 police officers to a growing list of those she has banned from her office. They cannot seek charges against people they arrest, apply for search warrants or serve as essential witnesses in cases.”
• In Pendleton OR, the city “has stopped jailing people unable to pay fines…following the settlement of a federal lawsuit contending city officials were running a debtors’ prison.”
• In Santa Clara County CA, the “District Attorney’s office is changing the way it treats people arrested or cited for possessing small amounts of illegal drugs.”
• In Connecticut, the ABA Journal discussed preparations in the state “to become the first state to collect statewide criminal case data from prosecutors broken down by the defendants’ race, sex, ethnicity, age and ZIP code.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Lots of news this week. In New York City, legal aid attorneys are unionizing, while in Saskatchewan, contract talks between Legal Aid Saskatchewan and its employees’ union have broken down. In Portland Oregon, public defenders staged a walkout to insist on staffing and pay reforms while in Detroit, Michigan is setting up an entirely new public defender’s office (and hiring!). Legal Aid Ontario provided more information about how recent budget cuts will affect its operations, while legal aid providers in the province pushed back against the government decision. And student loan debt oversight in the United States continues to be controversial. That’s all for now; back to a busy summer.

See you around,

Sam

Editor’s Choice

I mention this piece without commenting on its substance, but because I suspect that with US News’ profile many prospective students will read it: US News and World Report published “How to Find a Strong Human Rights Law Program.”

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Trump administration…defend[ed] reductions to legal aid an other services for unaccompanied children, but advocates say those programs are too important to cut[.]”
• In Yolo County CA, the County Board of Supervisors “approved a recommended budget..that includes funding for a new attorney in the public defender’s office dedicated to assisting county residents facing deportation.”
• Nonprofit Quarterly published “As Immigrants Face Attacks, Where Stands Philanthropy?”, an article discussing a brief on the subject released earlier this year by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Texas,Gov. Abbott signed SB37, “which bans Texas agencies from denying, suspending, or revoking a borrower’s occupational license simply because they had defaulted on their student loans.”
• In Washington DC, “U.S. Senators Rick Scott [], Mike Braun [], Krysten Sinema [], and Chris Coons [] introduced the Student Loan Tax Elimination Act of 2019, which proposes to eliminate the origination fee on federal student loans beginning on July 1, 2019.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[s]everal civil rights groups [] sent a letter to [CFPB] Director Kraninger questioning whether the CFPB is engaging in the oversight of the student loan market they believe is necessary to ‘root out potentially discriminatory practices.’”

• Meanwhile, “Democratic lawmakers at a house hearing…pushed for tougher oversight of companies handling student loans.”
• Again also in Washington DC, “[t]he Education Department appointee who oversees the government’s $1.5 trillion student loan portfolio…stepped down from the board of an organization that owns some of that debt, after POLITICO asked about a potential conflict of interest.”
• LendEDU published a study concluding that “32% of consumers that file for bankruptcy also carry student loan debt that is virtually impossible to successfully discharge.”
• PaymentsJournal.com used LendEDU financial aid data “covering nearly 1,000 colleges and universities…to evaluate how the student loan debt situation across the country has changed in the past 10 years.”
• Forbes published the latest in their “series on the 2020 presidential candidates’ positions on student loan debt.” This installment focuses on Senator Kamala Harris. Last Friday’s covered Pete Buttigieg.
• In related news, “Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren…and Rep. James E. Clyburn [] announced…their plan to introduce legislation in the Senate and House to eliminate up to $50,000 in student loan debt for 42 million Americans.”
• Additionally, in response to a question from CNN’s Dana Bash “about how [Sen. Bernie] Sanders’ plans on student debt stack up against those of Senator Elizabeth Warren,…said, ‘Our plan will cancel a substantial amount of student debt and in some ways probably go further than Senator Warren’s.’ He added later, ‘I don’t have the plan in my pocket right now.”
• Textbook exchange company Chegg “announced a new benefit that will allow employees to pay off their student debt through an equity pool of the company’s existing stock….’We’re taking our best and our brightest and murdering them with a lifetime of debt,’ Chegg CEO Dan Roenweig [said], pointing to the high rates of depression and suicide on college campuses.”
• Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported that “a proposed change to the tax code would give companies more incentive to offer assistance to their workers.”

Legal Technology

• In San Francisco CA, “[p]rosecutors in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office will use a new artificial intelligence tool in an effort to remove any potential implicit bias when charging a suspect.”
• Law360 published an article profiling the role hackathons are playing in addressing the access to justice gap.

War Crimes

• In The Hague, “prosecutor[] Fatou Bensouda[] appealed the court’s rejection to disallow her [investigation of] alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Afghanistan since 1 May 2003. In its 12 April 2019 decision, the judges unanimously agreed that starting the investigation now would not serve justice [citing] the unlikelihood of cooperation from [the perpetrators of the alleged crimes[,] includ[ing] the United States and the Taliban Forces.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Toronto ON, Legal Aid Ontario “released details…on how it will function after Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government unveiled a $133-million cut[.]” The changes include “cut[s to] funding for bail hearings and chop[s to] the cash it gives to Toronto’s Parkdale legal clinic[.]”

• Meanwhile, “COPE Ontario “endors[ed] the Association for Sustainable Legal Aid’s demands that Attorney General Caroline Mulroney meet with it’s [sic] member organizations, including the Association of Community Legal Clinics of Ontario, before the legislature rises later this week.”
• Also meanwhile, the former vice president of the Defense Counsel Association of Ottawa argued in CBC News that “[u]nrepresented litigants devour justice system resources. Their cases take longer to wind their way through the bureaucratic court system and cost more to prosecute. So, a dollar saved through legal aid cuts will consume more resources at the end of the day.”
• In Saskatchewan, “Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1949…notified the provincial labour minister that contract talks [with Legal Aid Saskatchewan] have reached an impass[,]…accusing Legal Aid Saskatchewan of using stall tactics and bargaining in bad faith.”
• In Minnesota, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that “[a] tenant who complained about the conditions of his apartment had the right to challenge his eviction on the basis of retaliation by the landlord”, in a case housing attorneys say “expanded the legal rights of tenants in similar cases.”
• Meanwhile, in New York, the state “Senate Majority Leader…and Assembly Speaker “expressed optimism that Governor Andrew Cuomo will sign [] legislation into law [that will] strengthen tenant protections in the state.”
• Also meanwhile, in Newark NJ “[s]ome council members…were shocked the city actually had to pay for the so-called “pro bono” attorneys in the city’s right-to-counsel program. …’I thought that these services were going to be provided pro bono by the attorneys providing the service,’ said Councilman At-Large Carlos Gonzalez, who once worked as an attorney in eviction court.”
• In Washington DC, “[m]ore than 100 law students, along with nearly 100 solo and small-firm practitioners and legal educators, are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to eliminate copyright protection for state annotated codes of law and certain other state and local legal materials.”
• The Hill published an article by an attorney from the Pacific Legal Foundation, who warned that “courts have begun awarding fees against unsuccessful plaintiffs in public interest lawsuits. This unwelcome trend threatens to deter future public interest litigation.”
• The Legal Talk Network interviewed Rebecca Sandefur about “why people rarely turn to lawyers or courts for assistance with their problems, how to properly educate civilians on obtaining legal help, and what role small and solo firm lawyers play in the solution.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Portland OR, “dozens of public defenders in Oregon walked out of courthouses and into the Statehouse this week to lobby for a bill that would fix a staffing shortage and an outdated contract payment system that has some attorneys representing more than 200 clients at once.”
• In Wayne County MI, the county announced that it “will partner with Neighborhood Defender Service, a Harlem public defense practice, to open a Detroit public defender office this fall.”
• In East Baton Rouge Parish, the parish “chief public defender sought permission…to withdraw from some cases and decline future appointments, even if it results in charges being dismissed against indigent defendants[, ]…[c]iting chronic underfunding and excessive workloads.”
• The Chief Legal Officer of Verizon announced “the expansion of Verizon’s pro bono program to include criminal justice issues.”
• In Franklin County NY, county legislators “approved an increase of the starting salary for attorneys in the public defender’s office to build interest in positions that have been impossible to fill so far.”
• In Richland County SC, the “County Council gave final approval to its two-year budget…rais[ing] starting pay for lawyers who represent low-income defendants charged with crimes up to the level of junior prosecutors in the solicitor’s office.”
• In Meigs County OH, county commissioners “passed a resolution…praising the work of the Ohio Governor and House of Representatives regarding funding for indigent defense in Ohio [and] ask[ing] the Ohio Senate to adopt the House recommendation on the matter.”
• In Trumbull County OH, “[c]ounty commissioners and judges in the county’s courts are…trying to decide how to design a new system to provide attorneys to people charged with crimes who can’t afford one of their own.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In New York NY, “[w]orkers with the New York Legal Assistance Group alerted the nonprofit indigent legal services provider of their intent to form a union with [the] Association of Legal Aid Attorneys.”
• At Columbia Law School, “on the heels of a student protest from the Black Law Students Association at Columbia,” “Elizabeth Lederer, one of the prosecutors in the conviction of the Central Park Five, has resigned as a professor[.]”
• In Arlington County VA, “incumbent Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos [was] defeated by challenger Parisa Delghani-Tafti, who ran a campaign centered on criminal justice reform.”
• In Queens NY, “Philly DA Larry Krasner Endors[ed] Tiffany Caban’s Bid to Be Queens’ Next Top Prosecutor.”
• In Wisconsin, “Gov. Tony Evers…re-created Wisconsin’s pardon board, fulfilling a campaign promise to once again consider granting pardons after Republican predecessor Scott Walker halted the process eight years ago.”
• In St. Louis MO, “officials…asked a federal judge to delay her order mandating new bond hearings for 700 jail inmates, saying a ‘rush to judgment’ could endanger the public.”
• In California, “[Democratic] lawmakers and dozens of supporters rallied in…support[ of] two Assembly-approved bills that would automatically expunge arrest and conviction records for an estimated 1 million residents who are already entitled under existing law because they have completed their sentences and supervision.”
• In Denver CO, the New Civil Liberties Alliance “filed a brief…asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit to determine that it is unlawful for a prosecutorial entity…to rewrite the law in Congress’ place.” According to a statement by an NCLA attorney, “the lawsuit raises key issues about whether agency regulations may contradict a statute passed by Congress[.]”

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

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Trump administration is cancelling English classes, recreational activities including soccer, and legal aid for unaccompanied migrant children who are staying in federally contracted migrant shelters.“

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

• Nationwide, “[h]undreds of American Bar Association members are urging the organization to skip Atlanta as a possible host for the 2021 midyear convention to protest Georgia’s new law banning most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected.“

Disaster Legal Aid

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Legal Services Corp. will receive $15 million to fund legal aid in the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2019[, from] $19.1 billion in supplemental disaster funds for response efforts to damage caused by hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, tornadoes, floods and other natural disasters that occurred from 2017-2019.“

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.“