Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! The news continues to pour in, shaking the windows and rattling the walls. Major stories this week include student loans, in which the Democratic caucus released a debt relief proposal as part of the HEROES Act only to amend their proposal two days later, significantly reducing their proposed forgiveness. In civil access to justice, reporting from DC highlighted the stark difference in FEMA’s efforts to provide legal services during the pandemic, compared with its approach to other disasters. In the legislative branch, a bipartisan group of Representatives proposed a civil Gideon bill. Meanwhile, on the criminal side, legal authorities in Colorado and Massachusetts highlighted a vacuum of authority when considering decarceration as a public health measure. And the Michigan legislature cancelled its session in the face of armed opposition.

As always, these stories and more are in the links below.

Stay well,

Sam

Bar Exam Changes

• In Connecticut, “[f]aced with hundreds of Connecticut law school graduates not able to take the state bar examination in July due to COVID-19-related disruptions, the Rules Committee of Superior Court has approved recommendations to loosen guidelines to allow students to make court presentations—in some instances—without a supervising attorney present.”
  • Note: There are many stories of this nature across the United States at the moment. The National Conference of Bar Examiners is working to keep track of these changes on a consolidated page; you can find a link to this page and other COVID-19 national survey materials at www.psjd.org/covid19

Remote Court Practice & Lawmaking

• Writing for The Marshall Project, a public defender with the Kentucky Department of Advocacy noted that as court procedures move online standards for due process are suffering:

  “[t]here is no virtual substitute for many of [our] duties. As a result, we now can accomplish only the bare minimum, namely emergency hearings and arraignments (those first court appearances). What isn’t happening in many counties are competency hearings at which we would argue that a client is not being properly evaluated by mental-health professionals. Hearings for mitigation specialists that might show that a client has faced trauma are on hold because we cannot obtain records from closed schools and social-service agencies. Drug and veterans courts are closed too. And we can’t have trials, because it would be impossible to convene a jury or to subpoena witnesses to appear with current social distancing rules.All the while, the bar for “justice” constantly gets lowered.”

• Across the United States, “[m]any state and local governments…have suspended public records requirements amid the coronavirus pandemic, denying or delaying access to information that could shed light on key government decisions.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he Senate came one vote short Wednesday of approving a proposal to prevent federal law enforcement from obtaining internet browsing information or search history without seeking a warrant.”
• In Palo Alto CA, leaders of the Center on the Legal Profession at Stanford Law School argued that “[t]his pandemic underscores the need to assist millions of individuals and small businesses through greater innovation in legal services.”

Rule of Law

• In Michigan, the state “closed down its capitol in Lansing on Thursday and canceled its legislative session rather than face the possibility of an armed protest and death threats against Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he presiding judge in Michael Flynn’s criminal case has appointed a retired judge to present arguments in opposition to the Justice Department’s move to dismiss its prosecution of the former national security adviser.”

Pro Bono Response

• In Oklahoma, Katie Dilks, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Access to Justice Foundation (and former PSJD Fellow), and Michael Figgins, ED of Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, reported that “[t]he foundation is working with partners across the state to launch a statewide pro bono portal where lawyers can connect with volunteer opportunities, both in their communities and across the state.”
• In Tennessee, “Legal Aid of East Tennessee (LAET) has announced the launch of Pro Bono Matters on its website[.] Pro Bono Matters offers volunteer attorneys the opportunity to express interest in specific cases, which will help LAET to achieve its mission of strengthening communities and changing lives through high-quality legal services.” You can find the new program here.
• In Central Islip NY, “Touro law school [h]as established a helpline to answer legal questions arising from the pandemic. Volunteer attorneys will provide referrals to [Touro’s] own clinic program and appropriate legal partners[.]”
• In New York NY, “[m]ore than 150 Columbia Law School students are working with faculty on pro bono projects: They are guiding small-business owners through the federal Paycheck Protection Program loan process, supporting public defenders working to win the release of prisoners vulnerable to COVID-19, and finding crucial resources for unemployed workers and immigrants.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “[j]ust two days after releasing the Heroes Act, House Democrats [] released an amendment to the bill. The original bill called for $10,000 in student loan cancellation for all borrowers and a suspension of student loan payments through September 30, 2021. This new amendment scales back the proposed student loan forgiveness.”
• Also in Washington DC, “Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander on Tuesday said, ‘interest rates on new federal student loans will drop to historic lows on July 1.’ …The interest rate on undergraduate loans will be 2.75 percent for the 2020-2021 school year, down from 4.53 percent in the 2019-2020 school year. The interest rate on loans for graduate students will be 4.3 percent (down from 6.08 percent) and for PLUS loans for parents and graduates will be 5.3 percent (down from 7.08 percent).”
• Also also in Washington DC, “[r]esponding to a lawsuit from the National Students Legal Defense Network, DeVos noted that her agency instructed nearly 37,500 employers to halt the practice Monday. Over the weekend, it assured some 83,500 borrowers in default that their wages would not be garnished.” Overall, “[a]bout 54,000 workers had their wages garnished as of May 7. This is about 14% of the 390,000 Americans who saw March wages garnished.”
• In Wisconsin, We are Green Bay described the efforts of the state’s Student Debt Task Force, created in January, which “will meet eight times in the coming months, with a goal of submitting a series of recommendation to the governor to deal with student debt, which he will include in his next biennial budget.”
• In New York NY, Judge Ramos of the Southern District of New York “ruled he will allow full discovery” in a suit by New York State against “the Federal Education Department’s sole-source contractor FedLoan Servicing…for ‘failing miserably in its administration of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness [sic].” The docket for this ongoing case is available here.
• Benefits Pro reported that under the CARES Act, “[e]mployers can now help their employees pay down student debt faster and save a significant amount of money on student loan interest.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington, “[u]nprecedented job losses and furloughs have pushed millions of Americans to the brink of eviction during the coronavirus pandemic, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the White House have failed to fund a legal assistance program that is routinely available to disaster survivors.”
• In Kentucky, the “court system will impose a statewide hiring freeze and suspend out-of-state travel to reduce expenses as the coronavirus drives down revenues, the state’s chief justice said.”
  • Note: There are many stories of this nature across the United States at the moment. NALP is working to keep track of news related to this issue on a consolidated page; you can find a link to this page and other COVID-19 national survey materials at www.psjd.org/covid19
• In Washington DC, “the nation’s charitable nonprofits strongly urge[d] leaders in both the House and Senate to take swift action to ensure that nonprofits of all sizes receive critical relief so they can continue to serve their communities through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.”
• In British Columbia, “non-profit organizations say they’re at risk due to pandemic restrictions, with 15-19% saying they face closure and 23% saying they might not last another six months.”
• In Edmonton AB, “a University of Alberta law professor…raised more than $120,000 for his 100 Interns Project through online seminars, direct employment donations, and financial contributions.”
• In the United States, Government Executive reported that “the federal government lags when it comes to attracting Generation Z tech talent.”
• In Canada, “[t]he economic fallout from the coronavirus has cut off scores of young Canadians from summer jobs and internships, which usually help them bridge gaps between tuition payments.”

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• In Montgomery County MD, “[a] nonprofit group has filed a federal lawsuit against Montgomery County seeking to prevent local officials from distributing COVID-19 relief funds to people living in the country illegally.”
• In Cambridge MA, Forbes profiled “Immigrants Like Us (ILU)[,] a new nonprofit based out of Harvard University’s Innovation Lab.” Its founder describes its mission as one “to democratize access to legal information for low-income immigrants.”

Access to Justice – Criminal & Decarceration

• In Massachusetts, “Supreme Court Chief Justice Ralph Gants had a question for attorneys who argued Thursday that some state agencies should not be named in a lawsuit seeking to release more prisoners because of COVID-19. ‘We’ve got the governor saying, `Not my problem, I shouldn’t be ordered to do something.` We’ve got the Department of Correction saying, `We manage the prisons, the only thing we’re involved with is medical parole,` and now we’ve got the parole board saying that it’s not their problem. So who’s supposed to do it?’ Gants asked during Thursday’s SJC hearing on a class action lawsuit seeking to reduce the number of people incarcerated to stem the spread of the coronavirus behind bars.”
• In Aurora CO, the Colorado Sentinel reported on how efforts to release municipal offenders to slow the spread of the pandemic highlighted a vacuum in legal authority: “City Attorney Dan Brotzman…wrote in an email…citing a bevy of case law [that] ‘in Colorado and across the country, it is clear that a commutation or pardon of a municipal ordinance violation cannot be performed under the executive power of the governor, nor of any city official, unless that power is granted to that official. Under the Colorado Constitution,…the governor is provided that specific power…only for state crimes, not convictions for ordinance violations.’“
  • Note: There are many stories of this nature across the United States at the moment. The Prison Policy Initiative is working to keep track of news related to this issue on a consolidated page; you can find a link to this page and other COVID-19 national survey materials at www.psjd.org/covid19
• In Chicago IL, University of Chicago News covered the experience of students in the law school’s Federal Criminal Justice Clinic, which executed “a quick pivot…as the coronavirus pandemic took hold [and] urgent needs emerged in the federal criminal justice system just as other clinic projects were postponed.”
• In Louisiana, “public defenders face steep financial challenges as the coronavirus rages on, forcing leaders to declare an emergency shortfall in funding this week. The outbreak has shuttered courthouses across the state, halting the flow of user fines and fees that account for about half of the Louisiana Public Defender Board’s budget.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Washington, “Two Republicans, Reps. Susan Brooks of Indiana and Fred Upton of Michigan, and thirteen other Democrats, including Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Jerrold Nadler of New York, have so far co-sponsored [a] resolution [from Rep. Joe Kennedy III], which aims to provide counsel in civil proceedings tied to ‘health, safety, family, shelter or sustenance’ for those who otherwise could not afford or access it.”
• In California, the “State Bar voted Thursday to form a group to study launching an experimental ‘sandbox’ to come up with innovative ways to give more people access to legal services, which could include relaxing rules regarding the unauthorized practice of law and nonlawyer ownership of firms.”
• In Southern California, “[t]hree…cities have received letters threatening lawsuits if they don’t repeal eviction bans enacted to protect out-of-work or ill renters during the coronavirus pandemic. Two of the cities–Upland and La Verne–repealed their bans after getting the letters.”
  • Meanwhile, in New York, “[m]any of those unable to pay monthly rent or mortgage payments are at the mercy of the state and federal governments as the potential for mass evictions looms when the pandemic subsides.”
• In Missouri, “Legal Services of Eastern Missouri has expanded its services to help people with the unemployment benefits application process.”

Criminal Justice Reform

In Sangamon County IL, “[i]n a scathing resignation letter, an assistant Sangamon County public defender has blasted the local judiciary as being a politically influenced body that seeks to manage the public defender’s office.”

In Nevada, “[a]t least nine public defenders running for judicial seats in Southern Nevada think any meaningful solution [to over-incarceration] has to include balancing the benches.”

In Nova Scotia, “Nova Scotia Legal Aid wants to help the hundreds of people in the province who’ve been ticketed for walking in a park or failing to physically distance during COVID-19. It’s encouraging people to call for free legal advice if they’ve received a summary offence ticket under the province’s health protection and emergency management acts.”

In New Jersey, the state legislature is “among the first states to consider making it a crime to issue a ‘credible threat to infect another with COVID-19 or similar infectious disease that triggered public emergency,’ said a spokesman for the National Conference of State Legislatures…Advocates for HIV-positive people said states drafting such laws should be careful not to make them so broad that they punish poor and minority communities, as studies show HIV criminalization has[.]”

• Meanwhile, “[c]omprehensive data does not yet exist on how police are enforcing stay-at-home and social distancing orders. But a small group of early tallies showing a stark divide along racial lines has prompted concern from advocates and lawmakers who say police may be taking a harsher tact toward people of color.”