PSJD Public Interest News Digest – October 4, 2019
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello there, interested public! Busy days here at NALP, where we’re putting the finishing touches on the 2019 NALP PSJD Public Service Miniconference (you can still register, here) and on the new design for PSJD, which will launch late next week!
In the meantime, though, the news marches on. Lots of big stories this week, including revelations from the National Association of Immigration Judges that judges are making decisions concerning asylum based on a fear of reprisals and a decision by the CEO of the loan servicer responsible for PSLF not to testify before Congress. As always, these stories and more are available below.
See you around,
Sam
Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues
- In Washington DC, “[t]he union representing the nation’s immigration judges filed two labor complaints against the justice department[.]”
- In related news, “Ashley Tabbador, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, disclosed… in a panel discussion on sweeping changes to the nation’s immigration courts [that s]ome immigration judges hearing cases at the U.S.-Mexico border have confided to their fellow jurists they have issued decisions on an immigrant’s ability to enter or stay in the United States based on whether the decision would get them fired.”
- More on this story from Prospect.org.
- On the U.S. southern border, the Associated Press reported that “Migrant child detention centers shifting from nonprofit to private sector.” The AP story observed that “[s]o far, the only private company caring for migrant children is…owned by beltway contractor Caliburn International Corp. …Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly joined Caliburn’s board this string after stepping down from decades of government service [and] critics say this means Kelly now stands to financially benefit from a policy he helped create.”
- In Texas, “[i]mmigrant women being held in a [] detention center say they are being denied proper medical care — in some cases cancer treatment — and have become suicidal after lengthy stays in the facility.”
- In New York, “New York City together with the state has invested $1 million for legal services for immigrants who are facing imminent deportation.”
- Also in New York, “[t]he Trump administration asked a New York federal judge to let it enforce a new policy that would penalize immigrants for using certain public benefits, claiming the nonprofits and states behind a pair of lawsuits challenging the policy won’t be affected by it.”
- Also also in New York, “[a]t least two lawsuits have been filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York challenging the legality of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency of making civil immigration arrests for Caribbean and other immigrants without a judicial warrant or court order in and around New York State courthouses.”
- In Ontario, “Legal Aid Ontario said [] it will plan to make payments on refugee and immigration certificates up to and including March 31, 2020. The announcement is an update after the federal government announced on Aug. 12 it would offer LAO a one-time influx of $25.7 million for immigration and refugee services.”
Environmental Law & Disaster Legal Aid
- In New York NY, “[s]ixteen young people from around the world brought a legal complaint about climate change to the United Nations[.] Their petition outlines how their human rights are being violated by the failure of nations to seriously address the climate crisis.” [Ed. note: Here’s the petition.]
- In Washington DC, “[a] group of fossil fuel companies have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in a last-ditch effort to stop Baltimore’s climate liability suit against them from going to trial in state court.”
Student Loans & Student Debt
- In Washington DC, “[o]ne of the nation’s largest student loan servicers has refused to testify before Congress as lawmakers try to obtain more information regarding allegations of widespread mismanagement of student loan programs.”
- In The Hechinger Report, one of the co-founders of Student Defense discussed the Department of Education’s mishandling of a Presidential order “to automatically discharge [total and permanently disabled] veterans’ [student] loans”: “Because the federal government holds both the loans and the information about who qualifies, Secretary DeVos [could] erase the debt today. Instead, though, the Department of Education has instructed [] one of its contracted [] loan servicers [] to mail applications to the last known address of each borrower…As a direct result, fewer than half of the nearly 400,000 eligible borrowers identified by the SSA have received the relief they are owed.”
- In Rhode Island, “[l]egislation…to protect student loan borrowers and establish oversight of student loan servicers operating in Rhode Island was ceremonially signed by Gov. Gina M. Raimondo[.]”
- In New York, “[state] Attorney General Letitia James alleged in a new lawsuit [that t]he company that services loans eligible for the federal government’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness program has ‘proven itself unwilling or unable’ to do the job.”
Legal Technology
- In Los Angeles CA, “[t]he Los Angeles County Public Defender, which named its inaugural Chief Information Officer Mohammed Al Rawi in March, plans to modernize and integrate 23 legacy [technology] systems including the 1960s-era Trial Court Information system…with a go-live target date of summer of 2020.”
- In Michigan, “State Senator Jim Runestad [] introduced legislation to fix the state’s constitution [by] inject[ing] the words ‘electronic data’ and ‘electronic communications’ into the list of items protected by [the] state constitution[‘s protections from unreasonable searches and seizures.]”
- In Philadelphia PA, “you can monitor arrest and prosecution numbers in real time, thanks to a new public dashboard set up by the office of District Attorney Larry Krasner.”
Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring
- In British Columbia, “[the province’s] Human Rights Tribunal has gagged both the province’s legal profession regulator and a law student who claims the regulator’s entry requirements are discriminatory…against those with mental health issues[.]”
- Law.com reported that “[a] study by the Clinical Legal Education Association finds that women are over-represented among law school clinical faculty, while black and Latino clinicians have made few gains over the past three decades.”
- The NonProfit Times reported that “the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) announced [a strategic] evolution with a restructuring to direct more philanthropy dollars toward social justice movements.”
- In Tokepa KS, “[the] mayor and city council next week will consider joining other government entities [by hiring attorneys to] su[e] prescription drug producers for the role they have allegedly played in bringing about the opioid crisis. The action being considered would seek to recoup increased costs Topeka’s city government has incurred[.]”
- In Dauphin County PA, local news reported that “the state attorney general’s office will soon charge Dauphin County’s chief public defender[, who] allegedly directly employees to work on the election campaigns of Dauphin County candidates while on county time.”
Access to Justice – Civil
- In Charlotte NC, the Charlotte Observer reported on the impact of the county’s decision to “allocat[e] $300,000 for Legal Aid [for tenants] in the last fiscal year … put[ting] Mecklenburg [County] among a small but growing number of places…spending government money to give tenants access to lawyers in eviction cases.”
- In Mankato MN, local news observed that “[t]he legal aid office established at Open Door Health Center could serve as a model for future legal/medical partnerships in rural settings.”
Access to Justice – Criminal
- In Wyoming, “[a]ttorneys for Circuit Court Judge Paul Phillips argue[d] that Phillips acted within his authority and interpreted state law correctly when he found State Public Defender Diane Lozano to be in contempt of court this summer, according to a brief filed with the Wyoming Supreme Court[.] … On May 1, [Lozano] notified Circuit Court judges that her attorneys in Campbell County would no longer represent people charged with misdemeanors [as they] had such a heavy workload that they were unable to fulfill their ethical obligations[.]”
- In Wisconsin, “[a] bipartisan group of lawmakers are sponsoring a bill that would increase merit-based pay for public defenders by roughly $4 million over the next two years.”
- In Richmond VA, “[l]awyers in [the] public defender’s office, in the midst of a campaign to increase their salaries, say they’re paid so much less than the prosecutors they face in court that it raises questions about whether low-income defendants are getting a fair shake at justice.”
- In Missouri, “[t]he head of [the state’s] public defender system–who in 2016 appointed former governor Jay Nixon to defend a case in protest of funding cuts–is resigning.”
- In Ionia County MI, “[a] new position has been created in the [county] Public Defender’s Office following a vote from the county’s board of commissioners.”
- In Adams County NE, “[a]n effort to make the Adams County Public Defender a full-time position failed[, leaving the position at ¾ FTE].”
- In Oklahoma, Oklahoma Watch reported that “despite reforms, high caseloads continue to stress [the state’s] public defender system.”
Criminal Justice Reform
- In Wichita KS, “[t]he federal public defender’s office [] is seeking nearly $224,000 in legal fees and expenses from the federal government because of prosecutorial misconduct during an investigation into recordings of phone calls between inmates and their attorneys at a prison.”
- In Seattle WA, “according to a report released Monday by local business groups…Seattle’s city attorney won’t prosecute approximately 50 percent of the non-traffic arrests brought to his office by police[.]”
- In Baltimore MD, “[the city’s] top prosecutor has begun asking judges to throw out nearly 800 convictions that she said were tainted by officers linked to a corruption scandal.”
- In San Francisco CA, local news interviewed “Chesa Boudin[, who] worked as a public defender in San Francisco for seven years and is currently on leave while running for office [in a bid to become San Francisco’s district attorney].”