PSJD Public Interest News Digest – October 11, 2019
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello there, interested public! Hope you’ve had a chance to check out the new face of PSJD.org, which went live yesterday morning. If you haven’t, please do! We’d love to know what you think. Or, drop by the 2019 NALP PSJD Public Service Miniconference (you can still register, here) and let us know in person! Hope to see you next week.
Now, on to the news. It’s been a big week. Rolling Stone reports that ICE has relocated hundreds of women in detention and will not tell their lawyers where they are. Secretary DeVos defied a federal court order to stop collecting student loan payments from borrowers who had been found eligible for forgiveness, and the Cato Institute published a study revealing that “lawyers whose formative professional experiences include serving as courtroom advocates for government[] are vastly overrepresented on the federal bench.”
As always, these stories and more are available below.
See you around,
Sam
Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues
- Rolling Stone reported that “[after] RAICES began collecting female detainees’ testimones [concerning ‘egregious medical situations’ at the Karnes County Family Residential Center] and sharing them online…the hundreds of women who were housed there have been scattered to detention centers across the country, and ICE won’t tell [RAICES] where the women, many of whom are the organization’s clients, are.” [Ed. Note: the digest discussed the original complaints of these women in the 10-4-19 edition.]
- Courthouse News reported on six couples who have “[filed] a class action accusing federal agents of luring families to marriage interviews in Baltimore, only to detain the immigrant spouse for deportation…[T] American Civil Liberties Union says a growing number of [US CIS] officers have ‘cruelly twisted’ the rules by detaining immigrant spouses after marriage interviews…in Massachusetts[, …] New York, Virginia, Florida, Illinois and California.”
- In University Park PA, Penn State Law’s Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic released a report on “Detained Immigrants and Access to Counsel in Pennsylvania,” which recommends “that Pennsylvania should fund and implement a public defender-style program for detained immigrants in removal proceedings to improve fairness and due process.”
- In Los Angeles CA, “City Attorney MIke Feuer…announced the filing of a brief [before the Supreme Court] in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration program[.]”
- In Washington DC, “[p]rotesters prevented acting homeland security secretary Kevin McAleenan from giving a keynote address at an immigration conference at Georgetown University on Monday, the latest example of a Trump administration official being blocked from speaking in public.”
Environmental Law & Disaster Legal Aid
- In South Royalton VT, “the Environmental Advocacy Clinic at Vermont Law School [announced it] will serve as legal counsel to [the] National Wildlife Federation in its high impact litigation and policy advocacy.”
Student Loans & Student Debt
- In Washington DC, “U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos faces potential sanctions or a finding she’s in contempt of court for continuing to collect on the debt of former students at bankrupt Corinthian Colleges Inc., going so far as seizing their tax refunds and wages…The judge said she was ‘astounded’ that the department violated her June order to stop collecting the debts from students, who had been promised refunds of their tuition.”
- Also in Washington DC, “U.S. Representatives Mike Levin (D-CA) and Katie Porter (D-CA) introduced legislation to expand the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program for individuals who work at Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs).”
- The Wall Street Journal discussed how “a handful of companies are trying to prevent [student debtholder employees] from falling behind on retirement savings by matching their student-loan repayments with contributions to a 401(k) plan.”
Legal Technology
- Bruce Scheier, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, gave a talk on “why technologists need to get involved in public policy.”
- In Berkeley CA, “UC Berkeley received a $3 million grant…from the Public Interest Technology University Network, or PIT-UN, a partnership between 21 different universities intended to grow the field of public interest technology…It aims to facilitate collaboration between technologists and public policy leaders in ‘serving society’.”
- In Mississippi, “[a] first-ever cybersecurity audit of Mississippi showed that a considerable percentage of the state’s agencies regularly failed to comply with its cybersecurity protocols.”
- In Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Appleseed Center for Law and Justice released a study recommending that the state “help litigants deal with their cases by developing an online help center that could guide people through the basics of legal proceedings, assisting them as they deal with their cases without crossing the line and actually imparting legal advice[.]”
- In Illinois, the Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing, Illinois Legal Aid Online and the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois released Rentervention. The tool is “a free service [that] shows tenants how to advocate for themselves when it comes to things like evictions and maintenance issues[.]”
- In Washington DC, “[a] group of more than 30 civil rights groups on Tuesday signed an open letter calling on lawmakers to cut partnerships between Amazon’s Ring doorbell surveillance systems and local police.”
- In Washington DC, “U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr called on U.S. technology companies to give law enforcement ‘secure legal access’ to encrypted data as a way to provide ‘greater safety to the public.’”
Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring
- The Cato Institute published a study confirming the “general[] perce[ption] that a disproportionate number of federal judges served as government lawyers before donning a robe.” According to their findings, “[f]ormer government lawyers–and more specifically, lawyers whose formative professional experiences include serving as courtroom advocates for government–are vastly overrepresented on the federal bench.”
- In Alaska, “Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration is negotiating a contract extension that would pay a Virginia law firm $125,000 for its services in a legal fight with Alaska unions…Under [state] Attorney General Kevin Clarkson’s interpretation of a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the state’s unionized public employees must inform the state annually of their intention to remain union members. The system would be the first of its kind in the nation.”
- In Sebastian FL, the City Attorney “has given 60-days notice that he intends to resign [saying] ‘it [is] time to consider restructing the position to full time’.”
- In Philadelphia PA, the Defender Association of Philadelphia “has failed to secure a quick win in a case…where it faces allegations that it violated federal law by terminating an attorney found to have mental health problems rather than transfer her to another role.”
- In NonProfit Quarterly, a senior counsel with the Alliance for Justice wrote to examine the question: “Can a 501c3 Advocate for Impeachment of a Federal Office Holder?”
Access to Justice – Civil
- In Winnipeg MB, “[h]undreds lined up [] downtown [] for the chance to witness the Supreme Court of Canada hear cases outside Ottawa for the first time in its 144-year existence.”
- In Ontario, the Federation of Ontario Law Associations, in a “Submission Regarding the Review of the Legal Aid Services Act,” told the government that “[e]nlisting the services of the private bar is more efficient than loading more work onto duty counsel[.]”
- In Vermont, “Legal Services Vermont and Vermont Legal Aid…are holding seven meetings around the state to hear from Vermonters, their community partners and supporters. …They will use the information gathered to help decide where to put their legal aid resources.”
- In Charleston SC, “[r]enters facing eviction f[ound] help as Charleston’s housing court g[ot] underway.”
- In New York NY, “[m]ore than half of Bronx tenants facing eviction in housing court were unaware of the city’s new ‘right to counsel’ law, according to a survey conducted by a Bronx advocacy group.”
- In Chicago IL, “[as p]roposed reforms to further open the legal system to nonlawyers and tech companies to increase access to justice are being considered by several western state bar groups,” ABA president Judy Perry Martinez told Bloomberg Law these “[s]tate bar efforts to reform law firm ownership rules could spur the American Bar Association to eventually do the same[.]”
Access to Justice – Criminal
- In Pittsburgh PA, “[t]wo Duquesne University professors and one University of Pittsburgh professor have been given funding…to see if their innovative approach to holistic legal representation can improve the [sic] juvenile indigent defense representation.”
- In Greene County MO, “[County] Comissioners…approved spending $25,000 for contracted private attorneys to defend people in criminal court who are too poor to afford their own representation, making Greene County the first in the state to do so. Officials said they hoped the money would help ‘unclog’ a local criminal justice system [facing] a shortage of public defenders and a growing need for criminal representation.”
- In Crawford County PA, county government “is looking to fill the top two jobs in the county’s Office of Public Defender as a new country court criminal trial term looms next month.”
- In Montgomery County NY, the county “Public Defender’s Office is seeking to create its first full-time assistant public defender[.]”
- In Gregg County TX, “[t]he cost of providing adequate legal representation for [the county’s] indigent defendants continues to rise.”
- In Coshocton OH, “[l]ocal judges…recently met with Coshocton County Comissioners to discuss the [sic] possibly raising appointed [defense] attorney fees.”
Criminal Justice Reform
- In California, “Governor Gavin Newsom…signed 25 bills aimed at setting a path to reform California’s criminal justice system. The bills include support for those reentering the community after serving their sentences, including creating a system to automatically expunge records of individuals previously convicted of low-level offenses, as well as reform unfair sentencing practices, and enhance support for victims of crime.”
- In San Francisco CA, Mayor London Breed appointed “Suzy Loftus, a former prosecutor and president of the San Francisco Police Commission [district attorney] on an interim basis until an election is held early next month…Critics of the move say Breed appointing a candidate she endorsed gives Loftus an unfair advantage over her rivals.”
- In Connecticut, “[state] residents for the first time have a chance to help the state appoint its top prosecutor, thanks to a new law that aims to make the criminal justice system more transparent.”
- In New York NY, “[t]he Bronx District Attorney’s Office has released some of its internal files on police dishonesty–the first D.A.’s office in the city [to] make such records available to the public.”