PSJD Public Interest News Digest – October 18, 2019
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello there, interested public! Busy week, both here at NALP and in the world. Thanks to everyone who made it here for the 2019 NALP/PSJD Public Service Mini-Conference. You all make this event what it is, and this year I think it turned out pretty well. Good luck to everyone who has students interviewing at EJW’s CCF this weekend (or who is an interviewing student)!
And now, the news: the Trump administration suffered a pair of high profile court defeats on its immigration policies this week, while in student loan news data indicates student debt is now worth twice as much as the entire housing market and the CFPB has an open call for a task “to examine ways to harmonize and modernize federal consumer financial laws.” In Canada, the Legal Services Society of British Columbia reached an unprecedented bargaining agreement shortly after a unanimous vote to authorize strike action.
As always, these stories and more are available below. But before I go, I’ll leave you with one more, from last spring:
See you around,
Sam
Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues
- In Toronto ON, panelists at the Law Society of Ontario’s Hispanic Heritage Month “sa[id] they are navigating stricter policies and unstable legal aid funding, even as there is more need for their services amid humanitarian crises in Latin America.”
- In Hawaii, “[A] Shortage of Hawaii Pro Bono Attorneys Hobbles Legal Aid To Asylum Seekers”
- In Mississippi, “[t]he impact of the largest single-state work site immigration raid continues to reverberate through southern Mississippi as more criminal indictments for immigration-related felony charges…are stretching an already overloaded federal public defender’s office, with local civil rights attorneys and volunteers stepping up to assist those who have been charged.”
- In the Western District of Texas, “[a] federal judge ruled…that President Donald Trump violated federal law when he used his declaration of a national emergency to get millions for building a wall on the southern border.”
- In the Southern District of New York, “Attorney General Letitia James announced…that a judge…granted a nationwide preliminary injunction on the [Trump Administration’s ‘public charge’] rule as multiple lawsuits against it snake their way through the court system.”
Environmental Law & Disaster Legal Aid
Student Loans & Student Debt
- The Washington Informer reported that “[w]hen likely voters across the country were recently asked their opinions about student loan borrowing, 82% agreed that the still-growing $1.5 trillion debt is a national crisis[:] 74% of Republicans, 80% of independents, and 90% of Democrats.”
- In Washington DC, “Senator Elizabeth Warren [] urg[ed] the Trump administration to end its contract with Navient, one of the biggest contractors that collects payments on federal student loans.”
- Also in Washington DC, “[t]he College Affordability Act[] was introduced by the House Committee on Education and Labor[. It] aims to lower the cose of college, improve the quality of higher education and increase student opportunities[.]”
- Also also in Washington DC, “[Thirty] attorneys general around the nation…requested that the U.S. Department of Education extend the time frame to cancel student loans for students of now-closed schools.”
- Again also in Washington DC, “[f]our U.S. senators told the head of [the CFPB] that they want her to launch examinations into serious problems with a program designed to offer loan forgiveness to public service workers.”
- Yet again also in Washington DC, “[a] cross section of Capitol Hill staffers say the congressional-sponsored student loan repayment program can help mitigate costs for those [staffers] with large educational loans, while spurring recruitment, retention and diversity in the labor pool.”
- Yet again also also in Washington DC, “the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says it’s forming a task force ‘to examine ways to harmonize and modernize federal consumer financial laws’. The CFPB’s [Director] Kraninger said that ‘as we work to set up the task force, we encourage interested individuals to apply to be considered to be part of the task force.” You can find the application here (Deadline 10/25/19)
- In Washington…State, “Attorney General Bob Ferguson is urging the state’s student loan borrowers struggling with public service loan forgiveness to register a complaint with the Attorney General’s office.”
- Benefit News published “5 reasons employers should offer student loan repayment benefits.”
- Realtor.com published data showing that “[t]he total student debt in the United States has grown to nearly double the housing market.”
Legal Technology
- In Mississippi, “Low-income Mississippians who have legal questions may [now] find assistance from the free legal information website ms.freelegalanswers.org.”
- In South Carolina, the Charleston Chronicle reported that “Amazon has been promoting DIY [] surveillance products to consumers….[b]ut what Amazon shoppers and most everyday Americans are just starting to find out is that the real target customers for these surveillance tools are police departments and other law enforcement agencies.”
- In related news, in Tippecanoe & Clinton County IN, “police are joining 400 other law enforcement agencies across the country in using the new Neighbors by Ring [Amazon] app as a resource.”
- In Washington DC, the National Security Agency “worked with Penn State University, as part of a broader initiative from the Department of Homeland Security, to develop a free online course to educate people on cybersecurity operations, law and policy.”
Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring
- In New York NY, “Niketa Sheth, Executive Director of Womankind, formerly the New York Asian Women’s Center, said…nonprofits like Womankind are struggling to pay staffers and keep programs running because 80 percent of domestic violence action are not reported.”
- In Miami FL, the Miami Herald reported that “[t]he Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence…for the last 13 months[] has flouted the state’s oversight with little consequence.”
- In Washington DC, the Federal Circuit ruled that “[a] pair of nonprofit entities were correctly paid a lower interest rate on their tax refunds because they are incorporated under state law.”
Access to Justice – Civil
- In Canada, the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice released a report concluding that “[m]oney spent on justice programs pays off in terms of economic gains and efficiencies.”
- In Victoria BC, “[s]taff lawyers from The Legal Services Society (LSS), who service Legal Aid centres across BC, voted 100 per cent in favor of strike action[.]” The action appears to have been averted, as “[t]he British Columbia government has reached an agreement with legal aid lawyers [for a] two-and-a-half-year deal [that] will ensure better access to legal support and more stability for lawyers who have been giving services at below cost.”
- In Pennsylvania, “[t]he state Supreme Court heard argument…on whether it should grant a preliminary injunction that would restore the Pennsylvania General Assistance program that provided funding to some 12,000 people before it was eliminated Aug. 1.”
- In Rutland VT, “[r]epresentatives from two nonprofit agencies that help low-income and vulnerable Vermonters with civil cases…will be in the city at the end of the month to hear from the community about the needs and challenges in the state.” [Ed. Note: These agencies are holding meetings at locations around Vermont this month, as previously mentioned in this digest.]
- In Minneapolis MN, “city officials are applauding the first year of a program intended to help families maintain stable housing and keep them out of homeless shelters. …[When] Legal Aid and the Volunteeer Lawyers Network studied 374 eviction cases in Hennepin County…it found that fully represented tenants are twice as likely to stay in their homes and get twice as much time to move if they choose to.”
Access to Justice – Criminal
- In Missouri, “[m]embers of the state public defender commission met Thursday to outline the process for replacing Michael Barrett as director of the financially strapped agency[.] [The c]ommission chairman [] said his goal is to bring a new director on board no later than mid-January.”
- In Tulare County CA, “[a] design oversight at [the] newest jail may be putting the civil rights of prisoners in jeopardy. The problem, say defense attorneys is a lack of interview rooms…and the video conferencing system the [sheriff’s office] has chosen as a substitute.”
- In Butler County OH, “[t]he…Public Defender’s Office submitted the largest request for new staff to the commissioners at 12 [staffers].”
Criminal Justice Reform
- In New York, Indypendent.org published a story arguing that “[a]lthough the NY Working Families Party deserves credit for helping [Queens DA candidate] Tiffany Cabán initially prevail on primary night, there are some important questions surrounding the WFP’s handling of the next stage of the campaign, which ended last week with Cabán’s concession.”