PSJD Public Interest News Digest – March 19, 2021
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello, interested public. There is much news this week, but my thoughts begin and end with Atlanta as I attempt to write.
Take care of one another,
Sam
Editor’s Choice
- In the United States, NPR reported that “Asian Americans and their allies are calling for solidarity and a push against discrimination and racist violence after a gunman killed eight people at three Atlanta-area spas Tuesday. Most of the victims were women of Asian descent. Authorities said it’s too early to declare the attacks a hate crime – prompting a debate over when that label should be used and how to present the gunman’s explanation.”
- Meanwhile, in South Korea, Chosun Ilbo reported that “the Hankook Ilbo, Atlanta, quoted an employee A, a member of the ‘Gold Massage Spa’, a massage parlor where the shooting took place, and said that the suspect at the time of the crime said that he would ‘kill all Asians’.” [Translated from Korean by Google Translate]
Free & Fair Elections
Racial Justice
Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues
- In Arizona, “[t]hree nonprofit organizations have sued Arizona’s attorney general in federal court seeking the cancellation of an agreement requiring the state’s input in federal immigration policies, saying the Trump administration official who made the arrangement lacked the authority to do so.”
- In Washington DC, “[t]he Democratic-led House voted on Thursday to create a path to citizenship for an estimated four million undocumented immigrants…[i]n a near party-line vote of 228 to 197[.]”
- The BBC reported that “[a]s of 14 March, US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents were holding more than 13,000 unaccompanied children in custody, according to US media…At least 3,000 children have been kept for over 72 hours, the legal limit after which they are meant to be transferred to the custody of health officials in the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).”
Student Loans & Student Debt
- In an Issue Brief, the National Consumer Law Center reported that “of the millions of borrowers eligible for IDR, new data obtained by the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) shows that the total number of borrowers who have ever received cancellation is 32.”
- In Washington DC, “[p]art of the new stimulus bill could have big implications if President Joe Biden pushes ahead with plans to forgive some student loan debt. The American Rescue Plan does not include student loan forgiveness, but makes any income from forgiveness of student loans tax-free through 2025. Forgiven debt is normally considered taxable income.”
- In Cambridge MA, “[t]he city council…called on President Biden to formulate a plan within his first 100 days in office to cancel all student loan debt using executive authority, a call that comes as demands for action have increased among congressional Democrats.”
Pandemic in the Legal System
Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring
- In Manitoba, “[a] human rights organization is calling out what it feels is a discriminatory practice acting as a barrier to keep Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) from entering legal professions in Manitoba. The practice in question is called ‘the good character process.’”
- In New York, “State Assembly Democrats have retained attorneys from a high-profile Manhattan-based law firm to lead the chamber’s impeachment investigation into sexual harassment claims against Gov. Cuomo.”
- In Washington DC, “[n]onprofits and their advocates are lining up behind a bill that would provide $50 billion to help nonprofits boost hiring and weather increased demand for services as the nation continues to grapple with the Covid health and economic crises.”
- In Maryland, the president of Maryland Defenders Union Local 423 wrote in favor of “MDU’s key legislation — SB757/HB1277 — which will recategorize attorneys within the Office of the Public Defender as professional service employees with merit status rather than at-will appointees with no job protections.”
- In Queens NY, “[a]ttorneys and social workers at a Queens public defender agency have voted to unionize, according to election results certified by the National Labor Relations Board[.]”
Access to Justice – Civil & Economic
- In Ontario, the “Ministry of the Attorney General announced a new multi-year plan aimed at enhancing access to the justice system, which includes a $28.5-million investment in a new digital case-management and dispute resolution system for Ontario’s tribunals. [The strategy] is a “formalization” of the government’s efforts in “breaking down barriers and speeding up services,” [and] also includes enhancing the capacity for remote court hearings to northern, rural and Indigenous communities, expanding provincewide the digital document sharing platform Caselines and widening online filing services for civil and family claims.”
- In Maryland, “[a] proposal to guarantee low-income tenants the right to counsel against retaliatory evictions passed out of the Maryland House of Delegates [] after fierce objections from Republicans.”
- In Massachusetts, “[t]he state’s largest funder of civil legal aid services is asking lawmakers to increase state funding by 20 percent in the fiscal 2022 budget to help fund services for low-income residents facing legal issues in areas like housing, employment, education, and government benefits.”
- In Connecticut, “[a] local push to guarantee legal representation for low-income tenants facing eviction notched a victory, as state legislators advanced a ‘Right to Counsel’ bill out of committee and toward the General Assembly floor for further debate and a potential future vote.”
- In New Jersey, “[eviction cases] are occurring throughout New Jersey, despite the protections Murphy put in place. Housing experts have urged state leaders to condemn landlords who flout the executive order and the law that requires a warrant for removal.”
- In the United States, “[t]he U.S. Labor Department’s inspector general identified $5.4 billion in potentially fraudulent claims paid out by state agencies last year and suggested better state-federal coordination to prevent future fraud…Now, with President Joe Biden enacting a $1.9 trillion relief package,…those agencies remain under pressure to manage the workload while avoiding those pitfalls. The U.S. Labor Department is allowing about six weeks for them to get set.”
Access to Justice – Criminal
- In Massachusetts, the Committee for Public Counsel Services, which “represent[s] approximately 90 percent of adults charged with crimes in Massachusetts” took the anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright as an opportunity to reflect on “what we have seen and experienced during a pandemic that has laid bare the gross inequities that continue to exist in our system.”
- In Florida, “[p]roposed amendments to Florida’s speedy trial rules would be ‘unjust’ for the criminally accused and, in particular, poorer defendants,” according to the Florida Public Defender Association.
- In New Mexico, “[t]he New Mexico Supreme Court Thursday invalidated a Hobbs man’s misdemeanor conviction because a magistrate court accepted a no contest plea without providing the defendant with a lawyer as required by the Constitution.”
- In Washington DC, “[a]ll federal prisons employees have been offered the coronavirus vaccine, but just 49% have accepted it so far, the Federal Bureau of Prisons director said…[w]hen asked during a hearing before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies[.]”
Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform
- In Manhattan NY, the “District Attorney’s Office grant[ed] the public access to more than seven years worth of racial data that the top prosecutor here says has informed his approach to criminal justice reform.”
- In St. Louis MO, CBS News profiled Kim Gardner, who “has endured death threats, racial slurs and the relentless opposition of the police union as she tries to keep her election promise and remake the justice system.”