Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public! Big stories this week coming out of student debt land, with tension between leadership in the US Senate and the US House of Representatives over the desirability of student loan debt forgiveness and new efforts by the Department of Education to reach out to borrowers relying on the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Additionally, the Biden Administration announced plans to begin speeding up deportations for some migrant families crossing the US-Mexico border.

These stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Rule of Law

• In Salt Lake County UT, “[t]he district attorney…declined to file criminal charges against a Utah police officer who said, ‘You’re about to die, my friend,’ seconds before fatally shooting a man[, ] saying West Valley City Sgt. Tyler Longman acted within the confines of the law when he shot and killed Michael Chad Breinholt in August 2019. Gill said under the current state law, Longman’s use of force was justified, but he called video of the shooting ‘disturbing.’”

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Biden administration is planning to speed up deportations for some migrant families who cross the US-Mexico border, the Department of Homeland Security said[.]”
• In Essex County NY, “[i]n what many see as a retaliatory act [in response to protests by detainees and advocates against ICE’s use of Essex County Jail], ICE is transferring the people detained at Essex rather than releasing them.”
• In the United States, “[a] ProPublica survey of more than a dozen lawyers across the country…along with documents circulated by several local ICE offices, shows that implementation of [the Biden Administration’s immigration prosecution] guidance has been spotty, with many prosecutors proceeding with exactly the sorts of deportation cases the new rules are intended to prevent.”
• In Texas, “[although] resident Joe Biden promised, if elected, his government would withdraw the lawsuits aimed at taking land for border wall construction. Six months into his administration that hasn’t happened. In fact, dozens of lawsuits are still being litigated, according to the Department of Justice and the pro-bono attorneys representing some of the landowners.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi [] rejected efforts by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other progressives to persuade President Joe Biden to unilaterally cancel large amounts of student loan debt, exacerbating a growing rift in the Democratic Party over the issue.”
• Also in Washington DC, “the Education Department launched a public inquiry to fix the [Public Service Loan Forgiveness] program…Starting next week, anyone can submit comments to the department regarding PSLF, and the department specifically wants to know[.]”
• In the United States, “[s]everal collegiate institutions throughout the country are leading efforts to help eliminate student debt[.]”
• Forbes discussed “new research from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget [that asserts] both total student loan cancellation and partial student loan cancellation will have a minimal effect on the economy.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Office of Personnel Management issued new guidance [] about telework and other considerations as federal agencies work to implement their office reentry and post reentry plans that were due earlier this week.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Minnesota, “a first-of-its-kind fleet of mobile legal clinics have found their way across [the state] with a launch from the State Capitol.”
• In Arkansas, “[t]hanks to a lawsuit by Legal Aid of Arkansas, Pulaski Circuit Judge Herb Wright has issued an injunction to force the governor and the Division of Workforce Services to resume participation in two pandemic unemployment programs, one paying an extra $300 a week. Hutchinson ordered the payments to stop at the end of June, 10 weeks early, claiming it would force people to go back to work.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Knox County IN, “[m]embers of the Public Defender Board later this year will submit to county officials its leanest annual budget yet.”
• In Washington County AR, “justices of the peace [] heard a request to increase the pay for public defenders to the same level as those in the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Chicago IL, “[c]ommunity groups [] urged the city of Chicago to end its use of the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system when the contract expires next month.”
• In Yolo County CA, “Yolo County was recently selected to be one of nine counties to receive funding for the California County Resentencing Pilot Project.”
• In Oakland CA, “Los Angeles progressive District Attorney George Gascón, and Christine Soto Deberry, the founder and Executive Director of the Prosecutor’s Alliance—an organization for reform-oriented prosecutors and other law enforcement—met on a panel sponsored by Impact Justice to discuss how progressive prosecutors navigate the pushback they face from police unions who try to stifle reform.”
  

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public! Big stories this week include further coverage of the fallout from FedLoan’s decision to withdraw from the business of collecting on student debt–and the news that another loan servicer has also decided to pull up stakes. Meanwhile, in Washington DC the House of Representatives is working to increase funding for the Legal Services Corporation and to reinstate the Dept. of Justice’s Office for Access to Justice while in California, groups are pressuring the state Supreme Court to consider expanding the right to counsel to include adults entangled in probate conservatorships. And the July 31st end of the federal eviction moratorium is slouching over the horizon.

These stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Rule of Law

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Justice Department has declined to prosecute former Trump administration officials, including former Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross, after an inspector general confirmed they provided false testimony regarding the origins of the proposed citizenship question on the 2020 census.”

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In Houston TX, “[a] federal judge [] ruled that an Obama administration program protecting undocumented immigrants who were brought into the United States as children is illegal and halted accepting any new applications for the program.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• The College Investor speculated that “a few factors [] point towards [] a strong possibility…there might be a fourth [student loan] payment pause and interest waiver extension.”
• In South Carolina, “[l]eaders at South Carolina State University [] announced it would be forgiving $9.8 million in student debts using $4 million in CARES Act funding and $5.8 million it received from the American Rescue Plan. Most of those students, the university said, were continuing students who had not re-enrolled or had dropped out entirely due to debt.”
• In New York, “a federal appeals court has ruled [that p]rivately issued student loans may be discharged in bankruptcy[.]”
• In Pennsylvania, “FedLoan[‘s …decision] that it won’t seek an extension of a 12-year government contract to collect payments for millions of borrowers on a portfolio of federal education loans…has led to…concerns over what happens this fall when the huge federal loan-servicing apparatus starts collecting loan payments again.”
  • Meanwhile, “[l]ess than two weeks after a major student loan servicing shakeup, yet another U.S. Department of Education student loan servicer [Granite State Management and Resources] is calling it quits.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “[a] House panel on Tuesday voted 24-16 along party lines to advance legislation that would provide federal employees with up to 12 weeks of paid family leave each year, over objections from Republicans about a last-minute report from the Congressional Budget Office.”
• Also in Washington DC, “the Supreme Court said [that] ‘[i]n light of the potential for actual or apparent conflicts of interest, Jessica Garland will not serve as a law clerk for Justice Kagan while Attorney General Garland remains in office.’”
  • For more on the controversy, see The Volokh Conspiracy.

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Legal Services Corporation could get an additional $135 million in its pockets, the largest single increase in the legal aid organization’s history, following an approval of funding legislation by the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations. The committee on Thursday approved funding legislation that includes $600 million for LSC in 2022 – a 29% increase from its current appropriation.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[a] powerful, bipartisan group in Congress is reviving a proposal to permanently restore the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Access To Justice, in a bid to codify the unit dedicated to legal representation for the poor that was shuttered by the Trump administration.”
• In California, “[t]he California Supreme Court was asked today to convene a blue-ribbon panel to review deficiencies in legal defense services provided to adults who become entangled in probate conservatorship proceedings. The request was submitted by Spectrum Institute and a variety of organizations involved in disability rights, elder care, and mental health services, along with a national coalition advancing the right to counsel.”
• In Milwaukee WI, “Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley signed the ‘Right to Counsel’ ordinance into law [] outside the County Courthouse, in an effort to assist local residents facing eviction or foreclosure.”
• In Texas, “[a] state eviction diversion program launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been extended, according to a new emergency order from the Texas Supreme Court[.] The diversion program was set to expire on July 27. The new order extends it until Oct. 1.”
• Across the United States, “[l]egal aid, housing advocacy groups and tenants — especially tenants — are bracing for the inevitable wave of eviction filings that will crash on the shores of courthouses throughout the U.S. at the end of the month, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s national eviction moratorium expires at midnight on July 31.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Illinois, “[a] two-year study commissioned by the Illinois Supreme Court has found that people in many Illinois counties are being routinely processed through the criminal courts without the advice of an attorney.”
• In Utah, “[a] Salt Lake City Justice Court judge kayaks down the river with a flotilla of prosecutors, defense attorneys and judicial assistants. Social workers on bicycles are up ahead meeting people who are camped out along the banks…The social workers and public defense attorneys make contact with people experiencing homelessness, asking if they want help. Then they tell them the judge is right up the river, willing to take care of their legal troubles. They’ve got tablet computers and can pull up a name, check for warrants and other charges and resolve it right on the river.”
• In Harrison County WV, “[t]he staffing situation with the Harrison County Public Defender Corporation continues to percolate at problematic levels.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Pennsylvania, “Gov. Tom Wolf joined lawmakers and law enforcement officials Friday to mark the launch of a police hiring database of misconduct records. The database was approved by the General Assembly in the wake of the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd.”
• In Maine, the state recently “bec[a]me the fourth state to abolish civil forfeiture.”
• In New York NY, “[t]wo watchdog groups sued the New York Police Department over the agency’s refusal to disclose public records about its acquisition of facial recognition technology and other surveillance tools.”
  

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public! Big stories this week include a piece on how the federal hiring process may hamstring the Biden Administration’s effort to rebuild the ranks of the EPA, a new development in an ongoing class action lawsuit by hundreds of current and former Black federal employees, and an analysis of the state of the law concerning the dischargeability of student loans in bankruptcy,

These stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice

• In Harlingen TX, an attorney with the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) spoke frankly with local news about the mental health challenges of her position.

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• The Brennan Center published an essay detailing “the dehumanizing work of immigration law[.]”
• Writing in Government Executive, Professors Daniel Braaten and Claire Nolasco Braaten described their research into the decisions of immigration judges, which “shows that…[p]olitical factors such as ideology, political party of the president who appointed them and who was president at the time they decided the case significantly influenced whether these children were allowed to stay in the country.”
• In the United States, “[i]mmigrant advocates, including Catholic organizations, launched a campaign [] to provide legal aid those who may need it, in case Congress, under the Biden administration, approves some type of reform. ‘Ready to Stay,’ the name of campaign by the national coalition of over 18 organizations, unveiled www.readytostay.org.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “[s]everal prominent Democratic lawmakers are asking the Education Department (ED) about student debt collection practices in the face of a potential wave of student loan defaults when the pandemic payment pause expires[.]”
• Forbes published a piece examining how “FedLoan Servicing’s abrupt departure from the Department of Education’s sprawling federal student loan system will likely be disruptive to millions of student loan borrowers…[especially as] FedLoan Servicing has been the primary servicer tasked with administering the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.”
• In Massachusetts, “[a] a new team within Attorney General Maura Healey’s office is preparing for any confusion and questions borrowers might face after the [student debt] relief program ends.”
• In New York, “[a]n appeals court ruled that private student loans can be discharged through bankruptcy like other consumer debts, opening the door for more borrowers to obtain relief from educational debt.”
• In California, “a [new] law that went into effect this year [] gained teeth this month, with a new ombudsman’s office empowered to review complaints about student loan providers.”
• In Boston MA, WBUR “took a look at how [tension over the policy called ‘summer contribution’] has unfolded for some area law school students.”
• Law360 published an analysis of where legal authority stands after the US Supreme Court’s recent decision to deny certiorari in a case concerning whether student loans are dischargeable during bankruptcy.
• Business Insider published a profile of Astra Taylor, co-founder of the Debt Collective.

Pandemic in the Legal System

• In New York NY, “[t]he Association of Legal Aid Attorneys condemned the Office of Court Administration and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services for unsanitary and unhealthy conditions that they say are rife throughout city courthouses.”
• In Albuquerque NM, “[t]he district attorney’s office said fewer cases are making it to trial, partly because grand juries were suspended.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that “new estimates from the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies…found that since June 2020, nearly 60 percent of nonprofit jobs that were eliminated due to the health and economic crisis have been restored.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he legal team representing hundreds of current and former Black federal employees now part of a proposed multi-million-dollar class-action lawsuit against the federal government has filed a motion in federal court for the government to implement a $100-million mental health fund to address mental injuries and ongoing challenges faced by Black public service workers.”
• Also in Washington DC, “President Biden and congressional Democrats are…seek[ing] to reduce the number of law enforcement jobs at Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where Trump had sought to add thousands of officers and agents. Instead, the fiscal 2022 DHS spending bill—approved by the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday—would augment the rolls at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Secret Service and other components.”
• Also also in Washington DC, “[t]he EPA has hired 500 new employees since President Joe Biden took office, helping to replenish its battered ranks, which stand at a 34-year low, the agency tells Bloomberg Law. Recruiting hundreds more, however, may not be as easy.”
• In New York NY, “[a] Legal Aid Society public defender who spoke out against city schools’ “anti-bias” training has sued her employer, saying her colleagues have unfairly labeled her a racist.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Kansas, “[t]he Kansas Bar Foundation is awarding grants to organizations that assist low-income individuals that are at risk of losing their homes, as well as non-profits that support legal education and access to justice for those struggling financially. Applications for 2022 are now open for two of their annual programs.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he Legal Services Corporation (LSC) launched the LSC Eviction Laws Database today in partnership with the Center for Public Health Law Research. The database is a new online tool that will aid users in better understanding the significant variation in eviction laws across the country and the effect these differences have on eviction outcomes.”
• In Alaska, the Executive Director of the Alaska Legal Services Corporation revealed that “[t]he governor’s veto of $400,000, 62% of our state appropriation, slashed it to its lowest point since 2010. This means that we will now turn away an additional 818 Alaskans who need our help.”
• In Minnesota, “, tenants, landlords, attorneys and judges are getting briefed on details of the new law [] that spells out rules for lease terminations and eviction court cases over the next 10 ½ months.”
• In Cleveland OH, “Right to Counsel shows promising early results for tenants, and some landlords[.]”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Maine, “[t]he number of lawyers taking cases under Maine’s system for providing legal defense to low-income people accused of crimes has plunged in recent months, leading some to worry that cases may not be covered if the trend continues.”
  • Meanwhile, “[a] prominent defense lawyer in Maine has asked to withdraw from nearly 200 court-appointed cases after the state’s public defense agency opened an investigation into her firm.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Tuscon AZ, “Arizona residents can now file to have marijuana convictions removed from their records.”
• In Washington State, Crosscut explored “[t]he strange, failed fight to rein in civil forfeiture in Washington[.]”
• Also in Washington State, “[m]ore state and county prosecutors are reaching the [conclusion] that they need the power to request resentencing from judges to correct past injustices, end mass incarceration, give people second chances and divert money spent on incarceration to more effective crime prevention methods.”
• In Washington DC, “[f]ederal regulators are giving state prisons across the country more technological options to combat contraband cellphones, which prison officials have long said represent the greatest security threat behind bars.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[a] ​​Senate panel [] advanced President Joe Biden’s nominees to the Second and Tenth circuits and Washington state’s federal bench as Republicans questioned the philosophy and experience that public defenders would bring to appellate courts.”
• In Fairfax County VA, the county’s “top prosecutor will begin publishing data on prosecutions in an effort to identify and root out any racial and socioeconomic disparities in the local criminal justice system[.]”
  

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public! At the end of another week, a few key stories for you: Big student loan news this week in the United States, as the Biden Administration hired an outspoken proponent of student debt cancellation while a major student loan servicer announced its plans to shutter its business at the end of 2021. Meanwhile, Department of Treasury data shows almost none of the emergency rental aid funds allocated by Congress have been spent. In Canada, members of parliament called for a special prosecutor to address crimes against Indigenous people.

These stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice

• In Canada, “Nunavut’s member of Parliament [called] on the federal government to appoint a special prosecutor to delve into crimes committed against Indigenous people. Mumilaaq Qaqqaq sa[id] perpetrators of abuse at institutions such as residential schools and tuberculosis sanatoria need to be brought to justice:

  Indigenous people need truth and justice, not only about individual abusers…but about the hellhole of all genocidal residential school systems. We need a full and independent investigation that has the power to shine a light on every facet of this national crime and has the power to bring perpetrators to justice.”

  • Relatedly, “[a]t least three First Nations in Canada recently uncovered hundreds of unmarked graves of Indigenous children on the grounds of former ‘residential schools’ – government-founded, assimilation institutions that were run by various churches for more than 100 years.”

Free & Fair Elections; Rule of Law

• In Atlanta GA, “[a] federal judge declined to temporarily halt a new Georgia voting law that is being challenged in the courts, ruling that doing so would risk disrupting an upcoming runoff election.”
• In Boise ID, “[t]he Idaho Supreme Court heard arguments [] over a lawsuit by the nonprofit Reclaim Idaho against a new law that creates stricter rules for passing ballot initiatives.”
• In Washington DC, “[a] panel of former judges and legal scholars convened last year by the group Project on Government Oversight (POGO) released a report on Thursday detailing recommendations for how to restore public trust in the [U.S. Supreme] court, which has been shaped by partisan battles over confirmations in recent decades as conservatives solidified a 6-3 majority.” [Report available from the Project on Government Oversight.]

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In Washington DC, “the Biden administration announced Friday that it barred Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from detaining pregnant or nursing women, absent ‘exceptional circumstances.’”
• Also in Washington DC, “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced the Interagency Strategy for Promoting Naturalization on Friday, following an executive order President Biden signed in February to strengthen the legal immigration system. The strategy was developed by eight federal departments and will launch new memoranda of understanding between USCIS and other agencies to promote outreach, education and awareness of pathways to citizenship.”
• In Syracuse NY, a report “from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University [ranked] North Carolina [] last in in the country for the likelihood of having legal representation in immigration cases[.]”
• In Fort Collins CO, “[t]he Fort Collins City Council passed ordinance No. 64 on second reading with a vote of 5-2 during a meeting on July 6, appropriating $150,000 from reserved funds to finance a pilot program for immigration legal defense.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Patty Murray and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer led 20 of their Democratic colleagues in a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, urging him to prioritize reforms to the student-debt system in his regulatory agenda.” [Letter available on the Senate website.]
  • Forbes reported specifically on the “5 main proposals” present in the Congressional letter.
• Also in Washington, “[t]he Biden administration has hired a vocal proponent of canceling student debt for a key post in the Education Department. The Education Department hired Toby Merrill to serve as deputy general counsel in the Office of the General Counsel, the agency said in a statement. Merrill founded and directed the Project on Predatory Student Lending at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School.”
• Also also in Washington, “[w]orking through a backlog of student debt relief claims, the Education Department said Friday it will cancel the loans of more than 1,800 people defrauded by defunct for-profit chains Westwood College, Marinello Schools of Beauty and the Court Reporting Institute.”
• In the United States, “[a] major student loan servicing shakeup is in the works as one of the Department of Education’s primary student loan services seeks to exit the business. The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Authority (PHEAA), which operates FedLoan Servicing, has informed its employees that it plans to end its federal student loan servicing activities when its contract with the Department ends this December.”
• The Center for Law and Social Policy argued that “[w]hile Black borrowers overall are burdened with high rates of student loan debt, Black women, in particular, see high rates of outstanding debt. A recent report identified that Black women carry about 20 percent more debt than white women [; and p]ursuing graduate studies deepens these disparities…Research indicates that cancelling even $50,000 in student debt would alleviate the debt burden for nearly 93 percent of the lowest-income Black households and also increase wealth by a third.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Ohio, “[i]n a collaborative survey with the Ohio Supreme Court, the Ohio Access to Justice Foundation reports that 3,735 Ohio lawyers replied with information about their pro bono practices during 2020. Of the respondents, 2,102, or 56%, indicated they represented clients without receiving compensation…The 2020 survey shows 98,783 pro bono hours reported. Since the 2019 report, the average number of hours reported per attorney has increased by 24%.”
• Federal Computer Week reported that after “[t]he pandemic pushed over half of the federal workforce into telework. Disability rights advocates say maintaining more access to telework could make the federal workspace more accessible.”
• In Madison WI, “[t]he University of Wisconsin Law School may pare back some of its yearlong clinics in a change the school argues could increase student participation but some students fear would threaten the quality of their education and the work they do for clients.”
• Also in Madison, “[t]he Climate Defense Project, a nonprofit legal group, recently lodged a complaint with the state Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) on behalf of nearly 200 [University of Wisconsin] students, faculty, alumni and community members.” The complaint “argue[s] that the university foundation’s investments in fossil fuel companies are [in violation of] a 2009 state law that stipulated nonprofit entities have a duty to invest in line with their charitable missions.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he Office of Management and Budget has told the chief government watchdog it will not comply with several of its recommendations aimed at improving the performance and oversight of government, arguing the changes are unnecessary or that it had already addressed the concerns.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[t]he Environmental Protection Agency is reminding employees not to engage with members of the media, sending a memorandum this week instructing them to deflect any press inquiries. The guidance came after EPA Administrator Michael Regan earlier this year sent employees a memo of his own pledging to bring transparency to the agency and reinstate a ‘fishbowl’ environment.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In the United States, “[o]f the $25 billion [in emergency rental aid that the US Congress] appropriated in December, only $1.5 billion had been spent nationwide on rent, utilities and arrears between January and the end of May, according to figures released last week by the Treasury Department.” [Figures available from the US Dept. of the Treasury.]
• In Ohio, “[a]fter a lengthy interruption of the operations of its “Do It Yourself” (DIY) legal clinics, Southeastern Ohio Legal Services (SEOLS) will resume the monthly DIY presentation with the help of its long-time partner, Ironton-Lawrence Community Action Agency.”
• In Missouri, “[t]he Missouri Department of Labor is implementing a process for people who were overpaid federal unemployment benefits last year to apply to keep the money. During the height of the pandemic, the department mistakenly overpaid about 47,000 Missourians more than $150 million in mostly federal unemployment benefits. The move to offer waivers for about $108 million of federal money comes after months of pressure from lawmakers.”
• In Portland ME, “[a] Superior Court justice has upheld Portland’s new rent control ordinance despite a lawsuit brought by local landlords. The ordinance limits most rent increases to the rate of inflation, increases the amount of notice a landlord must provide when not renewing an at-will tenancy, and creates a Rent Board to enforce the ordinance and award additional rent increases when appropriate.”
• In Ontario, “[t]he Aboriginal Justice Strategy at Legal Aid Ontario has released the first part of its consultation report on its effectiveness in delivering legal aid services and initiatives to Indigenous clients in the province, including by offering 20 recommendations.”
• Also in Ontario, “Tribunals Ontario has launched an online tool to help empower users with “tailored information about their rights and responsibilities and the rules and processes at the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB).””
• In British Columia, “Legal Aid BC…expanded its partnership with Tyler [Technologies, Inc.]…expanding [its Family Resolution Centre] to cover child support issues, providing full support to separated parents through [Tyler’s] Modria [online dispute resolution] solution.”
• In New York NY, “[a] lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court [] alleges…Mayor de Blasio broke the law by rushing homeless, disabled New Yorkers out of hotel rooms for shelters without notice[.]”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Madison County IL, “[Madison County State’s Attorney] Haine asked [the County Board Judiciary Committee] for nine new attorneys while [Public Defender] Copeland requested three.”
• In Cole County MO, “the Public Defender’s Office…[has] new defenders [] coming thanks to state lawmakers earmarking $1 million to hire 15 new public defenders to eliminate some waiting lists for public defender services across the state.”
• In Alpena County MI, “A new law office[,…t]the Northeast Michigan Regional Defenders Office[,] has been busy preparing to help people in the region. The practice is led by former Presque Isle Prosecutor Rick Stieger as Chief Public Defender and Alpena native Julie Miller as Chief Deputy Defender.”
• In Camden NJ, “[t]he newly launched New Jersey Innocence Project, based at Rutgers University-Camden, will help exonerate wrongly convicted people.”
• The Ottawa Citizen published a column criticizing the Canadian Judicial Council’s decision last May to publish the Criminal Law Handbook for Self-represented Accused. The columnist, a Toronto defence lawyer, argued that “[a] growing number of accused want a lawyer but cannot afford one and do not qualify for legal aid. That is a serious problem that has to be rectified. I do not think the way to do so is by publishing a user manual that suggests an unrepresented accused can do an OK job playing lawyer.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Ontario, a new report from the Law Commission of Ontario found that “[s]tatutory changes, prosecutorial guidelines and training programs are among the “urgently needed reforms” necessary to regulate the use of artificial-intelligence-driven DNA-analysis technology in the criminal justice system[.]”
• In Gwinnett County GA, “[a] recent partnership between the Gwinnett County district attorney and a restorative justice program aims to save taxpayer money and help reduce the impact of the criminal justice system on some first-time offenders…The DA’s office said the program will grant ‘second chances’ by enhancing the social, financial and civic knowledge of offenders.”
• In Maricopa County AZ, “[t]he American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint against the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, alleging that prosecutors are misusing a pre-trial court process to get thousands to plead guilty without hearings or further evidence being disclosed.”
• In Charlottesville VA, “[t]he University of Virginia School of Law is launching an ambitious new project focused on criminal justice reform that will expand the scope of the school’s Center for Criminal Justice and build upon lessons learned from the Innocence Project at UVA Law.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public. Welcome to a new academic year. As readers affiliated with schools that subscribe to PSJD.org may be aware, we are beginning a new cycle for our public service platform. The past eighteen months have been hard for us all, and that hardship has worn on each of us differently. For me, this digest has been harder to produce. But as we begin our new cycle here I plan to begin releasing regular updates again, as I had been prior to the pandemic.

We’re diving back in with a jam-packed week of news. The US Supreme Court allowed a federal moratorium on evictions to remain in place, but at least one local court has ruled that this decision does not create a nationwide precedent. The debate over student loan debt forgiveness continues, with forgiveness advocates marshalling evidence that loan forgiveness will have a significant impact on the racial wealth gap. Meanwhile, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reported on debt servicers’ deceptive efforts to prevent borrowers from taking advantage of public service loan forgiveness and researchers revealed that the Department of Education seems more interested in collecting on debts owed by individual student borrowers than by educational institutions. The Biden Administration also made big news concerning government management and hiring with a new Executive Order concerning Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the federal workforce.

As was our custom, these stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Free & Fair Elections

• In Washington DC, “[a] divided U.S. Supreme Court, narrowing the scope of the Voting Rights Act, on Thursday upheld two Arizona voting laws challenged as racially discriminatory.”

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In New Jersey, the state government “is poised to become the second state in the nation after California to fund a statewide legal support program for unaccompanied minors. State lawmakers earmarked $3 million for legal representation and case management for immigrant youth in their $46 billion plan passed last week.”
• Also in New Jersey, “[t]he American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration[], seeking to block the transfer of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees at a New Jersey jail. The suit is the first legal challenge against a Biden administration immigration policy.”
• In the United States, “[a]ttorneys are still trying to reach the parents of 368 migrant children who had been separated at the US-Mexico border under the Trump administration, down from 391 last month, according to a federal court filing[.]”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “Elizabeth Warren and John Kennedy said a student-loan servicer CEO may have given false testimony in April.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[m]ore than 60 Democratic lawmakers — led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — called on President Joe Biden to extend a pause on student loan payments and interest so as not to ‘drag down the pace’ of the country’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in a letter Wednesday.”
• Also again also in Washington DC, a resolution “unanimously approved by the [city] council [] call[ed] on President Biden to cancel student loan debt. Cities like Boston and Philadelphia have done the same.”
• Also also again also in Washington DC, “[t]he U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case seeking to overturn a ruling establishing a presumption that private student loans cannot be eliminated in bankruptcy. The June 28 decision comes on the heels of the justices’ denial of another request to weigh in on student loans in bankruptcy.”
• Again also also again also in Washington DC, “[t]he Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today issued a report highlighting legal violations identified by the Bureau’s examinations in 2020.” Among other issues, “CFPB examiners uncovered significant problems in how student loan servicers informed consumers about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program…CFPB examiners found a number of ways that student loan servicers gave incorrect information to borrowers, resulting in missteps that could cost consumers thousands of dollars. For example, examiners found servicers misled consumers to believe they could not access PSLF if they had older loans under the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), even though they could access PSLF by consolidating FFELP loans into Direct Loans.”
• NewsNation reported that “[j]ust around 5% of student loan borrowers who’ve applied for [public service loan forgiveness] as of April 30 have qualified, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education.”
• The National Student Legal Defense Network released a report detailing its “extensive investigation into whether the Department [of Education] has employed collections—comparable to those employed against individual borrowers or otherwise—against institutions with debt owed to the government.” The group asserts that “[w]While the Department aggressively attempts to collect from [individual] borrowers, institutions and their owners and executives walked away from more than a billion dollars owed to taxpayers.”
• At a panel discussion held by the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, “[p]anelists discussed the disproportionate burden of student debt on low-income, minority, and Black student families,” asserting that “there is a direct relationship between student debt cancellation and minimizing the racial wealth gap.”
• In an opinion piece, the Times Higher Education argued that “while student loan forgiveness might be sexy, it’s not a sustainable solution [because a] one-time fix via executive order – which, theoretically, could be overturned by the next administration – fails both future students and taxpayers.”
• Forbes reported that “[a] new survey of 23,845 federal student loan borrowers shows that 90% aren’t prepared to pay student loans when Covid-19 pandemic student loan relief ends on September 30, 2021. Student Debt Crisis, the nation’s largest student loan debt advocacy organization, conducted the survey and is advocating for President Joe Biden to extend student loan relief in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Pandemic in the Legal System

• In California, “[t]wo dueling visions of remote proceedings in California’s courts are playing out in the state Capitol this summer. And so far, the biggest critics of keeping video technology in courtrooms post-pandemic are winning.”
• In Maryland, “Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) urged lawyers in the state to offer free or low-cost legal services during the pandemic recovery, as many residents head to the courts to deal with battles over housing, consumer debt, public benefits and family-law issues such as domestic violence.”
• In Kentucky, “the number of [legal aid] clients shot up by 2,750% [when the pandemic hit] and [] their caseload remains high.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, the Biden Administration released an “Executive Order on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce.”
  • For context, GovExec reported that “[t]he order builds on a series of edicts undertaken during the Obama administration, as well as Biden’s own efforts to restore diversity training at federal agencies and crack down on discrimination since he took office in January. But it also charts new territory in how it tries to improve recruitment, retention and professional development of underserved communities, including providing more comprehensive health coverage to LGBTQ+ federal workers, boosting protections for feds with disabilities and pushing agencies to transition from unpaid to paid internships.”
• Also in Washington DC, “White House internships could finally become paid, making them accessible to lower-income applicants[.]”
• Again also in Washington DC, “[t]he Supreme Court has struck down a lower court’s ruling and held that two California charities need not disclose the names of their top donors to the state.”
• In Oklahoma, “[a] lawsuit claiming the Oklahoma Bar Association’s mandatory bar dues violate attorneys’ First Amendment rights to freedom of association was revived after the Tenth Circuit found Tuesday the group might engage in ideological activities unrelated to its core purpose.”
• In a Letter to the Editor, the Chronicle of Philanthrophy published a rebuttal to a recent op-ed in part of an ongoing debate over whether nonprofit salaries should be disclosed in job ads.
• In Portland ME, “[a] federal appeals court has ruled that the Council on International Educational Exchange does not have to refund the costs of study abroad programs cut short by the global pandemic. Court documents show the Portland-based nonprofit sent about 4,000 students home last spring when COVID-19 began to spread around the world…Only those students who could not finish their classes virtually were considered for refunds[.]”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Supreme Court [] allowed a federal moratorium on evictions imposed in response to the coronavirus pandemic to remain in place.”
  • Meanwhile, in Washington State, “[i]n the[ir] 2021 session, state lawmakers passed a measure guaranteeing tenants have a right to legal counsel in eviction cases. It was the first state in the nation to pass such a bill.”
  • Meanwhile in Toledo OH, “on the day the Supreme Court left a federal eviction moratorium intact in Washington…Toledo followed an earlier ruling by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that lifted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium…[The judge in that case wrote] in his decision that the Supreme Court was acting in its capacity to assist the District of Columima Circuit appeals court, not establishing a nationwide ruling.”
  • Meanwhile, in Iowa “[n]early 41,000 Iowans fear they face eviction or foreclosure once a federal moratorium is lifted, according to federal census survey data.”
  • Meanwhile, in Illinois “[e]victions have resumed[], and while some tenants are still protected others are now getting notices.”
  • Meanwhile, Cleveland OH, the city’s right-to-counsel in evictions program “is showing early signs of success. According to an interim report on the program[], about 93 percent of the RTC clients who faced an eviction or involuntary move were able to avoid being displaced because of the legal representation they received.”
  • Meanwhile, in Milwaukee WI “a new pilot program…promis[ing] free legal representation for those facing eviction [began this week].”
  • Meanwhile, in Los Angeles CA “[a]s the 2021-22 fiscal year begins in Los Angeles today, so does the city’s new COVID-19 eviction defense program to offer free legal representation, counseling and education workshops for city renters who make 80% or less of the area median income and have been impacted by the pandemic.”
  • Meanwhile, in Wayne County MI “[t]he Neighborhood Defender Service of Detroit announced the launch of its Eviction Defense Practice slated to begin this fall, as housing assistance in the COVID-19 pandemic remains a top need.”
  • Meanwhile, in Maine “a new bill signed by Gov. Mills [requires] landlords who serve an eviction notice [] to provide a list of resources about rental assistance, legal aid, and court procedures.”
• In Boise ID, “the Idaho Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion…agreed…that the Magistrate Court’s issuing arrest warrants for failure to pay court debt—without first conducting an ability-to-pay hearing—violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution pursuant to the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Bearden v. Georgia , 461 U.S. 660 (1983), as well as the Idaho Constitution.”
• In Indiana, “[a] state judge has ruled that Indiana must continue to pay pandemic unemployment benefits to roughly 230,000 Hoosiers until a lawsuit challenging the early termination of the compensation is decided.”
• In Texas, “Texas RioGrande Legal Aid recently submitted an official request — a potential precursor to litigation — to the Texas Workforce Commission asking that it correct ‘systemic issues’ that the legal aid group says have resulted in ‘repeated failure to deliver unemployment benefits (since the pandemic began) in the manner required by state and federal law.’”
• In Florida, “[a] ruling from the Florida Supreme Court puts limits on how legal aid clinics can use their funds, potentially restricting the aid available to low-income Floridians who need representation in civil court.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Arizona, a defendant’s “previously denied petition challenging his death sentence due to inadequate counsel, was reversed and approved by the Ninth Circuit Court[.]…The court stated that the counsel’s request for a mental health expert was not requested ‘in a more timely manner.’ [and] gathered that ‘there is at least a reasonable probability that development and presentation of mental health expert testimony would have changed the result of the sentencing proceeding.’ “
• In Fort Lee County FL, “felony case defendants who were part of a class action suit claiming a violation of civil rights caused by a malware attack at the public defender’s office in April have been trimmed to one.”
• In Brooklyn NY, “[s]ome 400 attorneys, civil advocates, social workers, investigators, support staff and other workers at the Brooklyn, New York, public defender’s office are seeking to unionize with the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Minnesota, “Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office is increasingly being asked to lead police prosecutions, is again meeting legislative resistance in his bid to build up his office’s criminal division.”
• In Bexar County, TX, “Bexar County Public Defender Michael Young argued in a court filing that ‘Governor Abbott’s executive order GA-13 violates the separation of powers doctrine[.]’” GA-13 prevents sherrifs from releasing anyone arrested for or convicted of a crime of physical violence, and has prevented Texas counties from reducing jail populations during the pandemic. Texas Public Radio reported that “Harris County judges sued Abbott over the order in April 2020, but the Texas Supreme Court found they lacked standing.”