PSJD Public Interest News Digest – August 21, 2020
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Interested public. Much news again this week, a pattern that seems unlikely to slacken anytime soon. Dozens of nonprofits weighed in on the debate about diploma privilege, while the Bexar County DA sought guidance on whether he could hold the USPS liable for violating election law. The House Education and Labor Committee heard testimony about the potential effects of the most recent executive order concerning student debt, and some excellent reporting from the Davis Vanguard, a California paper, described efforts in Missouri and Virginia to remove prosecutorial discretion from reform-minded prosecutors–in the former case by replacing their judgment with that of the state Attorney General, and in the latter with the judgment of the court.
Take care of one another,
Sam
Editor’s Choice(s)
- In the United States, “a coalition of more than 120 public interest organizations…issued a powerful public letter to the National Board of Bar Examiners and 34 state boards overseeing their bar examinations in response to the ongoing problems and systematic unfairness resulting from efforts to administer the bar exam during a global pandemic. Due to the demonstrated inability of state bars to respond to this crisis effectively or equitably, the broad coalition representing civil rights, legal services, and national advocacy organizations called for these licensing bodies to provide diploma privilege to recent law school graduates in lieu of the exam.”
- In the United States, “[t]he American Bar Endowment has supported [access to justice] initiatives through its Opportunity Grant Program in recent years and is now looking for the next round of programs and projects aiming to address the public’s critical legal needs. The deadline to apply for the 2021 grant cycle is Oct. 2, with optional letters of intent due by Aug. 21.”
COVID-19 and Remote Legal Practice
- In Maryland, “[u]nion for Maryland Legal Aid employees claims top lawyers were fired to squash dissent over coronavirus reopening.”
- In Ontario, “[t]he federal government needs to step in to avert a funding crisis facing Legal Aid Ontario that could prevent access to justice for thousands of people hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic, say some lawyers and leaders on the front lines of legal aid.”
- In Sacramento CA, the Davis Vanguard published an illuminating account of the interpersonal dynamics at play as courts conduct arraignments via Zoom.
Racial Justice
- In the United States, “[b]ackers of a nationwide initiative by law firms, launched in the wake of George Floyd’s death, to tackle systemic racism in the law are drafting paperwork to formalize it into an industry-funded nonprofit.”
- Also in the United States, the US Conference of Mayors published its “Report on Police Reform and Racial Justice” (discussed in an earlier edition of the digest).
- In Concorn NH, “a long-time law professor and former public defender advised the [state] panel on police accountability [that e]very prosecutor in the state should have training on racial profiling.”
- In Gainesville FL, “University of Florida law students are demanding college officials grant a professor’s appeal to teach her racial justice courses online this semester, a request that was denied by the school, effectively canceling the classes.”
Rule of Law & Voting Rights
- In Bexar County TX, “DA Joe Gonzalez sent a letter to Attorney General Ken Paxton, asking if he can prosecute federal officials who violate Texas election laws.”
- In the United States, “[t]he U.S. Postal Service is rerouting mail away from at least some of its smaller processing plants, creating more uncertainty surrounding recent changes that could lead to slower mail delivery.”
- In New York NY, “U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero emphatically upheld a subpoena ordering Trump’s accountants to hand over [his tax returns], siding with Vance in the prosecutor’s probe of Trump’s alleged financial misdeeds.”
- In Washington DC, “[t]he top attorney at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) [] rejected a nonpartisan congressional watchdog’s report which concluded that two of the agency’s top officials—Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli—were ineligible to serve in those roles.”
- Also in Washington DC, “President Trump can give his convention speech from the White House and White House officials can assist and attend in specific circumstances without violating the Hatch Act, the independent agency that oversees civil service law said last week.”
Pro Bono Publico
- The Indiana Lawyer published an excellent overview of states’ mandatory and voluntary pro bono reporting programs, focused on Indiana.
- In Ohio, “[p]ro bono financial contributions from attorneys to low-income Ohioans have increased significantly in the past year, according to a new interactive dashboard.” (Dashboard available here.)
Legal Technology
- In New York NY, “Blue J, the leading provider of AI-backed legal predictions, announced today the launch of its COVID-19 relief programs and credits guided analysis tools for the United States and Canada.”
- Lawfare published a policy analysis of Client-Side Scanning, “a system…to scan photographs and messages before they are sent from a user (or after received by another user) in order to determine whether the images or messages in question contravene legal prohibitions.”
- The Wall Street Journal reported that “[i]n the last few years, companies have started using such race-detection software to understand how certain customers use their products, who looks at their ads, or what people of different racial groups like. Others use the tool to seek different racial features in stock photography collections, typically for ads, or in security, to help narrow down the search for someone in a database…The field is still developing, and it is an open question how companies, governments and individuals will take advantage of such technology in the future. Use of the software is fraught, as researchers and companies have begun to recognize its potential to drive discrimination, posing challenges to widespread adoption.”
Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring
- In Delaware County PA, “[s]taff attorneys of the [] Public Defender’s Office have voted 33-3 to unionize, according to a release.”
- In Broward County FL, Public Defender Howard Finkelstein fired Ruby Green, “the assistant public defender who lost to Howard Finkelstein’s chosen successor Tuesday night…on Wednesday morning in a terse e-mail.”
- In Washington DC, “[a] union representing employees at the Social Security Administration accused the agency of withholding basic information and refusing to bargain over reopening procedures, even as some employees have been called back into physical offices.”
- In Ontario, “[a] recent survey of organizations run by the Ontario Non-profit Network (ONN) revealed some troubling figures: one in five of the survey’s 1,100 respondents say they may have to shut down by the end of December. Another quarter said that 2021 will likely be a greater financial struggle than this year.”
Student Loans & Student Debt
- In Washington DC, “Ben Miller — vice president for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress — told the House Education and Labor Committee that [the executive order extending an interest-free pause on federal student loan payments for the remainder of 2020] could lead to some big problems. ‘There’s little chance the economy will be in strong shape by then,’ Miller stated. ‘Having roughly 26 million borrowers all enter repayment during the holidays — it’s an implementation disaster in the making.’ He offered him a different plan, however, suggesting ‘an approach that pauses payments for a full year and ties interest restarting to positive economic indicators would be much better.’”
- Also in Washington DC, “[w]hile Congress is currently in recess, Republicans have been trying to piece together a pared-down stimulus package amidst failing negotiations regarding a larger, more expensive plan. Their draft proposal, which has been put together in advance of lawmakers’ return to Washington D.C. in September, calls for a variety of economic relief. However, as Forbes noted, their proposal would not provide any student loan relief.”
- In Wisconsin, “Governor Tony Ever’s task force on student debt released reports outlining eight recommendations for how Wisconsin can provide relief and protection for student debt holders.”
- In California, “a recently resurrected bill that would add consumer protections for student loan borrowers and establish a Student Borrower Bill of Rights in California is expected to be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee, one of the last hurdles towards passage.”
- On the internet, “[s]peaking at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) told viewers that Joe Biden will ‘cancel billions in student loan debt’ if he is elected President.”
Immigration, Refugee, & Citizenship Issues
- In Denver CO, “[h]undreds of other Denver residents face an immigration judge without a lawyer because there is no public defender system in immigration court. Even more people could soon be added to that tally due to a shortfall in money for the Immigrant Legal Services Fund. The fund funnels a combination of city dollars and private donations to four nonprofits that help indigent Denver residents fight deportation and apply for legal residence by providing legal assistance. A $50,000 decline in money from the city paired with a drop in private donations has caused the fund’s 2020 budget to fall to $250,000 from the approximately $385,000 it received in fiscal years 2018 and 2019.”
- In Maryland, “[a] nonprofit coalition is asking a Maryland federal court to sanction the Trump administration, saying the government is intentionally misleading the public and disobeying multiple court orders after the U.S. Supreme Court instructed it to reinstate the Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals program.”
- In El Paso TX, “an immigration nonprofit changed in a complaint sent to the city’s district attorney [that] Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers routinely sexually harass and assault detainees at the El Paso Processing Center[.]”
- In Bend OR, “[a] federal judge [] said she wasn’t convinced that the detention of two men in Bend by ICE agents was unlawful and denied a nonprofit law office’s motion for a temporary restraining order against the federal immigration agency.”
Access to Justice – Civil & Economic
- In Utah, the state “will try out new law practice business models that allow for more participation by nonlawyers after the state Supreme Court unanimously OK’d a standing order that goes into effect Friday authorizing a pilot program aimed at improving access to justice in the state.”
- In Chattanooga TN, “the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga…is shifting [its work] as lawyers prepare for an eviction boom. On July 24, the CARES Act eviction ban on subsidized housing ended. 30-day notices expire soon, and lawyers like Emily O’Donnell are preparing for an onslaught. ‘The reality is we just don’t know until we see it,’ she said. ‘But we do know is that this eviction problem is going to last longer than we anticipated.’“
- In Cleveland OH, “Legal Aid is taking on an increased number of cases, especially in the areas of housing law and employment law. Already, compared to the same time last year, the organization has seen a 25% increase in landlord-tenant cases and a 46% increase in work-related issues such as unemployment.”
- In Ontario, a class-actions lawyer said “the Ontario government’s recent amendments to the Class Proceedings Act are an attempt to raise the bar on class-action certification[.]”
Access to Justice – Criminal & Decarceration
- In Honolulu HI, “[the] Public Defender’s Office wrote a letter to Chief Ballard asking for increased discretion when making arrests due to COVID-19 spiking at the O’ahu Community Correctional Center.” The Honolulu Police Department Chief responded at length, “wr[iting] that the Public Defender’s Office’s request is ‘not viable.’ ‘It sacrifices the safety of the law-abiding citizens in our community and allows those who choose not to follow the law to run free…I also encourage you to direct your efforts to the Department of Public Safety and urge them to address the issues plaguing their facilities.’ “
- In New Orleans LA, “[t]he New Orleans City Council’s Criminal Justice Committee on Monday voted in favor of an ordinance that would require the city to give the Orleans Public Defenders at least 85 percent of the money it gives to the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office — a proportion roughly equal to the number of criminal defendants in Orleans Parish that the public defenders estimate they represent.”
- In Nevada, “indigent defendants…won preliminary approval for a consent judgment that would force the state to reform its public defender system, which advocates say has been broken for years.”
- John Jay College’s Center on Media Crime and Justice argued that “President Trump is loading the bench with former prosecutors … [and b]y doubling down on the status quo of prosecutors as judges, the Trump Administration is embracing a formula that has ushered in an unprecedented era of mass incarceration in the United States… Despite their neutral mandate, judges, like the rest of us, are influenced in their decision-making by their personal characteristics. Indeed, some studies show former prosecutors are more likely to rule against criminal defendants than their peers.”
Criminal Justice Reform
- The Davis Vanguard reported on a practice emerging in Missouri and Virginia: “[e]arlier this week the Vanguard reported on efforts by the Missouri Governor, Attorney General and Legislature to strip St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner of her powers, by giving the AG the power to directly prosecute certain cases. In Virginia something similar is happening, except that the impetus is coming from the Arlington County Circuit itself. On March 4, 2020, the Circuit Court entered an order that would require that the Commonwealth Attorney in Arlington justify all charging decisions and writing—decisions on whether to dismiss, charge or even settle cases in her jurisdiction. As one source put it, “decisions that are at the core of the exercise of independent prosecutorial discretion.”
- In New York, “[t]he New York Civil Liberties Union on Thursday published a full database of police misconduct reports after a federal appeals court in Manhattan denied a request by police unions to block their release.”
- In the United States, “[t]he U.S. movement Campaign Zero recently partnered with the Kira Systems, a Canadian company which builds contract analysis and review software, and together have analysed hundreds of police union contracts, determining how these contracts enable police to evade accountability for misconduct.”
- In Ontario, the province “has ended police access to a COVID-19 database after a legal challenge was filed by a group of human rights organizations. Aboriginal Legal Services, the Black Legal Action Centre, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario were all parties to the lawsuit.”
- In Massachusetts, “[r]ecords requests sent by WBUR to all 11 district attorney offices in Massachusetts reveal[ed] a patchwork of Brady policies. The Middlesex DA’s list appeared to be the longest and most up-to-date. Five DA offices said they do not keep any such officer list at all…The inconsistency of prosecutors’ Brady practices raises questions about how those that don’t organize information about police misconduct comply with their constitutional requirements in court.”
- In Virginia, “[l]ocal prosecutors [were] cautiously optimistic about Tuesday’s special legislative session on criminal justice reform, although the area public defender said big changes are long overdue.”
- In Portland OR, “Oregon State Police [] said they were withdrawing protection from Portland’s federal courthouse over frustration at a prosecutor’s decision not to indict many people arrested in protests there.”