PSJD Public Interest News Digest – March 27, 2020
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello there, interested public! It’s been a busy week–so busy in fact that the digest will be a bit brief today. To start with, our PSJD Fellow Brittany Valente has done a stellar job pulling together all of the various orders under which state judiciaries are now operating across the country, which is available now as a resource on PSJD. We hope to add information about federal courts before too long, and are also working on a document about changes in carceral policies and policing.
As with last week, in each section news that is not related to the current crisis appears at the section’s end, separated from Coronavirus content with a horizontal line (—).
Stay well,
Sam
Tracking the Changing Landscape
- As I mentioned in our introduction, the PSJD Resource Center now includes a document summarizing state-level policies for civil and criminal courts related to the pandemic. We hope to create similar resources for other rapidly changing areas in the coming days.
- In Vermont, Vermont Legal aid “has created a web page to track changes made in areas such as scheduled hearings, foreclosures, food, unemployment and taxes.”
Remote Court Practice & Lawmaking
- In Wisconsin, “[t]he State Bar…is requesting that attorneys be exempt from a ‘Safer at Home’ order after Gov. Tony Evers announced today that he expects to issue the order …in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
- In Ontario, “Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) is working to offer more resources to clients through the telephone and online.”
Student Loans & Student Debt
- At Harvard, “Harvard Law School students and alumni wrote a letter on Saturday asking the Law School’s Low Income Protection Plan to maintain current levels of financial aid if the federal government approves student debt relief amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic…’We basically don’t want the intention of assistance from the federal government to be offset by a corresponding and equal reduction in assistance from Harvard, because then it’s not assistance at all, right?’ said [a signatory].”
- In British Columbia, officials announced they would follow the Canadian government’s example and suspend student loan payments “effect[ive] at the end of March and last[ing] all the way until September 2020.”
- In Washington DC, “[t]he Trump administration has stopped seizing the wages, tax refunds and Social Security benefits of people who are in default on their federal student loans, an administration official confirmed[.]”
_________________________________________________________ - In Washington DC, The Aspen Institute published “Making the Case: Solving the Student Debt Crisis”, a policy report “outlin[ing] goals and solutions for crosssector action from federal, state, and local policymakers, employers, and other stakeholders to address rising student debt burdens[.]”
Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring
- In Washington DC, “[t]he U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Defense each issued memoranda late last week that provide guidance on what constitutes a critical infrastructure industry…While the federal memoranda are advisory only and do not have the force and effect of law, they do provide a basis for states and localities to craft exemptions for such critical infrastructure industries and for firms to use to seek exemptions from existing orders to keep their security-related operations open.”
- In New York, “The New York State Bar Association’s (NYSBA) Task Force on the New York State Bar Examination is convening on an emergency basis to consider whether it’s possible to administer the Uniform Bar Examination in July[.]”
- In Ohio, “[Gov.] DeWine…is issuing an order that will freeze hiring in the state government to reserve funds as much as possible.”
Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues
Decarceration
- Quartz published a piece making the timely observation that “[t]he coronavirus pandemic turns every arrest into a potential death sentence[.]”
- In Washington DC, “The Trump administration on Thursday joined the national push to release at-risk inmates as the number of cases of coronavirus continues to multiply in the country’s corrections system, with Attorney General William Barr directing leaders of the federal prison system to increase the use of home confinement for some inmates.”
Access to Justice – Civil & Economic
- In Washington DC, “[a]ctivist groups are asking the White House and several federal agencies to freeze any rulemaking that isn’t directly related to the COVID-19 response effort, saying in a letter on Tuesday that it would be a misallocation of resources to do otherwise.”
- Also in Washington DC, “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued official guidance stating, ‘Unless individual housing units are available, do not clear encampments during community spread of COVID-19.’ ”
- In California, “More than 125 organizations say gaps in worker protections desperately need to be filled by Governor Gavin Newsom and the legislature. The urgent action required is detailed in a letter asking state leaders to protect the health, safety, and economic well-being of workers impacted by the new coronavirus outbreak.”
- In Colorado, “Colorado Legal Services is suspending all in-person outreach clinics at least until April 6.”
- In Connecticut, “New Haven legal aid is asking the state to eliminate barriers to those workers getting help, like fears that undocumented family members might get deported after going to the doctor.”