PSJD Public Interest News Digest – June 19, 2020
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Interested public. Hope today goes well for you, wherever you are. Big stories this week include two decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court: the 1964 civil rights act protects gay, lesbian, and transgender employees from discrimination based on sex, and the Trump Administration’s attempt to eliminate the DACA program was improper under the Administrative Procedures Act. (Although the Court also declined cert. on many cases before it concerning the doctrine of qualified immunity.) Meanwhile, more district attorneys across the United States announced they will not prosecute protesters arrested in recent weeks. In New York NY, police responded by refusing to work with the DAs offices that issued such statements. Meanwhile, in other news, Washington State has discontinued its Limited License Legal Technicians program and Congress is once again criticizing Secretary DeVos’ handling of student loans.
These stories and more are in the links below.
Take care of one another,
Sam
Editor’s Choice
Public Defense
- In Minneapolis MN, “Mary Moriarty, Hennepin County chief public defender,…sa[id] her office has raised concerns about the behavior of [police] officers for years. …Moriarty said before body cameras, it was hard to get someone to believe a client over an officer’s word. Now that the court system often sees video, she thinks it’s up to them to be part of the solution when they see bad behavior. ‘We all play a role in holding each other accountable in the system. It is usually not just one player in the criminal justice system, not just the police. It is prosecutors, it is judges,’ Moriarty said.”
- In Washington DC, “the [U.S.] Supreme Court declined to take up any cases dealing with qualified immunity.”
Immigration, Refugee, & Citizenship
- In Washington DC, “[t]he Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program that protects hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the US as children from deportation. The 5-4 ruling was written by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.”
- Also in Washington DC, “A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia [] ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to implement a number of measures to protect detained people’s access to counsel in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prisons amid the COVID-19 pandemic.”
- In Boston MA, “[t]he First Circuit scolded an immigration judge for giving a Salvadoran asylum-seeker two weeks to find an attorney, saying the judge’s conduct ‘makes no sense’ and offering the woman a second shot at fighting her deportation.”
- In Kingston ON, “Queen’s University Faculty of Law has established an online program for students seeking to become regulated immigration consultants.”
Legal Practice & COVID-19
- In Washington State, “faculty and administrators with the University of Washington School of Law were working with local law firms to find solutions for the dozens of students in need of the professional development experience that defines the summers between years of law school and often leads to a full-time job. Together, they came up with the COVID-19 Clearinghouse, a collection of short-term, remote, pro bono projects for private firms and nonprofits that mainly address legal questions specific to life during the pandemic.”
- In Oregon, “[a] tussle over whether newly minted law school graduates must pass the bar exam is dividing Oregon’s legal community.”
- In Ottawa ON, “when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered family courtrooms to all but hte most urgent cases…a group of legal ‘grey hairs’…founded the Virtual Family Law Project, which can help parties resolve their differences outside the courtroom.”
- Across Canada, “a network of legal professionals offering free advice to people in the face of the COVID-19 lockdowns in March…has quickly become a massive access-to-justice [initiative] Canada-wide..[W]hen a person reaches out through the website at natcanlaw.com, they can be connected with a lawyer in their province for some pro bono legal advice on a range of legal issues including commercial leases and contracts. [Alex Don, President of the National Canadian Lawerys’ Initiative] stresses that they don’t offer legal representation.”
- In the United States, “[b]usinesses and schools are increasingly turning to coronavirus waivers to guard against potential lawsuits in the absence of a federal liability shield.”
Non-Profit & Gov’t Managment & Hiring
- In Washington State, “[t]he Washington Supreme Court [voted] by majority…to sunset the Limited License Legal Technicians (LLLT) Program. The majority also rejected the LLLT Board’s requested expansion of practice areas and proposed rule revisions.”
- In Minneapolis MN, “[i]n the few days following Minneapolis’ first protests, the tiny, volunteer-run organization [Minneapolis Freedom Fund] raised more than $31 million as donations poured in from all over the country. Two weeks later, some people have been wondering what’s happened to all of those donations. Overnight, the phrase “$35 million” started trending after the MFF tweeted that it had thus far spent only $200,000 on bail over the last few weeks[.]…But the situation that MFF finds itself in is one that’s common after a cause goes viral: A small organization has been overwhelmed with donations from well-meaning people, but doesn’t necessarily have an urgent need for that much money. At the beginning of the protests, the organization had earmarked $10,000 to help bail out protesters, and soon found itself with many times that amount.”
- In Washington DC, “the Federal Reserve open[ed] public feedback on the expansion of its Main Street Lending Program in providing loans to ‘eligible’ small and medium-sized nonprofit organizations ‘that could benefit from additional liquidity[.]’ ”
- In Silver Spring MD, “[civil rights groups], including the American Civil Liberties Union, sued [] to block the U.S. Small Business Administration from denying Paycheck Protection Program loans to small business owners with criminal records.”
- In Humboldt County CA, “[a] deputy public defender is seeking thousands of dollars in damages from Humboldt County, alleging he was treated in hostile manner by the public defender’s office after a 2019 incident in which a judge called him a slur and shoved him off a boat at Lake Shasta.”
- In Los Angeles CA, “A former staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California has sued the nonprofit civil rights organization, alleging that as a Black woman, she was subjected to retaliation and discrimination for repeatedly complaining about systemic racism in the workplace.”
Student Loans & Student Debt
- In Washington DC, “Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) have called for an investigation into Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos for possible violations of the Privacy Act of 1974 and undermining legal protections of student borrowers.”
- In New York, “[c]ollectors working with consumers on medical and student debt owed to the state of New York are required to suspend collections for an additional 30 days in response to the financial impact of the spread of COVID-19 after New York Attorney General Letitia James and New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced they have renewed an order to temporarily halt these collections.”
- Forbes provided an update on the prospect of further federal student loan-related COVID-19 relief: “[a]ccording to recent reports, McConnell told reporters in Kentucky that the next legislative package will be the last one. And the colleges asking for more money might face difficulty getting lawmakers to respond to their request. Inside Higher Ed reported last week that McConnell told Northern Kentucky University’s president that any new stimulus money would be related to jobs.”
- MarketWatch published an argument arguing that “[t]he U.S. higher-education finance system is just one of the many products of the systemic racism embedded in our society that have been the focus of protests over the past few weeks experts say. A combination of centuries of policies that have hindered black families from building wealth, decades of decisions that have deprived institutions that educate black students of resources and discrimination in the labor market have meant that black borrowers struggle more with student debt than their white counterparts.”
Legal Technology
- In New York NY, “the New York City Council is all but guaranteed to pass the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology Act – a bill that’s languished in the council since 2017, which will force the New York City Police Department to disclose the technology it uses, how it uses those tools and what privacy measures are in place governing their use.”
- SecurityBoulevard.com reported that “COVID-19 has heightened the emphasis on cybersecurity issues.”
Access to Justice – Civil
- In Washington DC, “the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects gay, lesbian, and transgender employees from discrimination based on sex. The ruling was 6-3, with Justice Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s first appointee to the court, writing the majority opinion. The opinion was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s four liberal justices.”
- The ABA Journal published an article discussing the ABA Commissionon Homelessness and Poverty on its efforts to create “homeless courts” across the United States.
- In Arkansas, “[t]he American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas filed suit in federal court Monday to overturn the state law that allows courts to jail tenants who don’t pay their rent.”
Access to Justice – Criminal
Criminal Justice Reform
- In Seattle WA, “City Attorney Pete Holmes announced [] that charges will not be filed against peaceful protesters arrested in recent weeks.”
- In Birmingham AL, “the Office of the City Attorney announced that protesters who were arrested for violating curfew during June 1 through June 7 will not be prosecuted.”
- In Kitsap County, WA “[the] Kitsap County prosecutor wants the state Attorney General’s Office to decide whether to file criminal charges against law enforcement officers, saying it’s clear the people do not have faith in the system in place.”
- In Flint MI, “[t]he Genesee County Prosecutor won’t be issuing warrants for people who get caught walking in the street or any other low-level ordinance or civil infractions.”
- In New York NY, “[a]fter the repeal of a law that kept police disciplinary records secret, the Legal Aid Society is pushing Mayor Bill de Blasio to make the information public in an online database.”