PSJD Public Interest News Digest – July 15, 2022
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello, interested public!
Best wishes as we all arrive at the end of another week. The last seven days have seen more bombshell news related to reproductive justice, as well as multiple high-profile stories regarding government employee dissatisfaction at the federal, local, and state levels (in DC, NYC, and CA, respectively). Meanwhile, Congressional staffers took a public (but anonymous) stance against their own bosses. All this and (much) more in the links below.
Take care of one another,
Sam
Editor’s Choice
- In Washington DC, “[i]n a rare move, more than 200 congressional staffers have sent a letter to Democratic leadership in the House and Senate, demanding they close the deal on a climate and clean energy package and warning that failure could doom younger generations. ‘We’ve crafted the legislation necessary to avert climate catastrophe. It’s time for you to pass it,’ the staffers wrote in a letter, sent to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday evening. …’Our country is nearing the end of a two-year window that represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to pass transformative climate policy[. …]The silence on expansive climate justice policy on Capitol Hill this year has been deafening. We write to distance ourselves from your dangerous inaction.’”
- Unrelatedly, but also in Washington DC, Reuters profiled the Weil Legal Innovators Program, “an unusual fellowship that targets students before they enter law school. Since the program launched in 2019, the firm has paid for an average of 10 ‘Zero L’ students to delay law school [for a year] in order to work at select public service organizations–not as lawyers of course, but to take on substantive projects nonetheless.”
Reproductive Justice
- In New Orleans LA, “leaders are attempting to position the city as a potential haven for abortion access through City Council resolutions and pledges of not enforcing the law[.]”
- In Indiana, the state’s “Attorney General said…that his office planned to investigate the Indiana doctor who helped a 10-year-old rape victim who crossed state lines to have an abortion.”
- In Washington DC, “President Joe Biden’s spokesperson…condemned Texas Republican lawmakers’ threat to penalize Sidley Austin and other Texas law firms that have pledged to pay for out-of-state abortions.”
- Also Washington DC, “[t]he Biden administration released updated guidance on Monday, reminding doctors around the country that they’re protected by federal law if they terminate a patient’s pregnancy as part of treatment in an emergency circumstance — and threatening to fine or strip the Medicare status from hospitals that fail to do so.”
- Again also in Washington DC, “guidance[] issued by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights…to clarify and enforce anti-discrimination provisions in the Affordable Care Act [dictated that p]harmacists cannot deny people prescribed medication–including hormonal birth control or emergency contraception–because those people are pregnant or might become pregnant.”
- In Michigan, “[a] proposed constitutional amendment there would override a 90-year-old state law that makes abortion a felony, even in the case of rape or incest….[O]rganizers [have] submitted more than 750,000 signatures…to state election officials in hopes of having the amendment appear on the November ballot. If just over half of those signatures are validated, Michigan voters will decide whether to amend the state’s constitution to guarantee broad, individual rights to ‘reproductive freedom,’ including abortion, contraception and fertilty [sic] treatments.”
Rule of Law
- In California, “Gov. Gavin Newsom [] signed legislation into law that would allow lawsuits against gun makers and distributors after gun violence. The genesis for the bill, AB 1594, was a decision by the Supreme Court not to block a Texas law allowing private citizens to sue people who provide or assist in abortions.”
- Also in California, “[t]he UCLA School of Law is launching the “Safeguarding Democracy Project”, led by elections expert Rick Hasen. It is aimed at promoting free and fair elections in the U.S.”
Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues
Student Loans & Student Debt
- In Washington DC, “[t]he Biden administration…unveiled a proposed regulation to no longer capitalize interest in certain situations, including when borrowers enter repayment or default on their loans.”
- Also in Washington DC, “California Gov. Gavin Newsom–who some observers suspect will make a run for the presidency in the near future–has distanced himself from progressive activists on…student debt relief. During a speech,…Newsom said he’s not for ‘waiving all debt.’…prefacing that comment by noting that it might ‘offend’ some people in his party.”
- In Connecticut, “[e]ducation officials announced [] that a new state-funded $7 million loan subsidy program is aimed at helping teachers refinance their loans.”
Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring
- In Washington DC, “[a] bipartisan group of senators is looking to set new limitations on the entities with which federal agencies can contract, introducing legislation to ban the government from doing business with companies that work with certain other nations.”
- Also in Washington DC, “[a] good government group on Wednesday released its annual analysis of the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, finding that across government, employee engagement and satisfaction fell 4.5 points from 2020 to 2021.”
- Meanwhile, in New York NY, “the largest municipal employer in the country[] is facing an exodus of city workers that has led to a surge in job vacancies and difficulties delivering basic municipal services[.]”
- Meanwhile, in California, “state employee unions representing scientists and attorneys are making the biggest demands for raises in contract negotiations this year. The attorneys want 30%[; t]he proposed increases would be among the largest in the history of organized labor in California state government.”
- In Boston MA, “[a]n appeals court ruling [] that said Whole Foods and its parent Amazon.com Inc can’t be sued for disciplining workers who wore “Black Lives Matter” face masks…further restrict[ed] employees’ ability to change their working conditions at a time when U.S. workplaces have become a locus of divisive cultural battles and disagreements over some Americans’ basic rights.”
- In the United States, “[w]hile the number of private-sector jobs surpassed its pre-pandemic level, there are 664,000 fewer people employed in the public secor, according to the government jobs report released [last week].”
Access to Justice – Civil & Economic
- In Washington DC, “[e]motion fueled a debate on the Senate floor [] as Republicans objected to taking up a Democratic bill that would guarantee a woman’s constitutional right to travel across state lines to receive abortion care.”
- In Miami-Dade County FL, “Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said that she will request that county commissioners budget funding for legal representation for [] tenants [facing eviction] in the next fiscal year.”
- In Chicago, the Legal Services Corporation held a Forum on Increasing Access to Justice (recording publicly available on their Facebook page).
- In the United States, “[m]ore than 100 legal technology companies have formed in the last 10 years to provide legal assistance to millions of Americans who can’t afford an attorney, helping to bridge a gap in access to justice, while less than a handful of states have taken action to expand the practice of law[, a]ccording to the Legal Services Corporation’s 2022 Justice Gap Study[.]”
- In Arizona, “Governor Doug Ducey signed [a] law this week making it illegal in Arizona for a person to videotape police officers, without the officer’s permission, if within 2.5 meters of the officer.”
- In Washington DC, “American University has cleared a law student of harassment charges for expressing pro-choice views in a private chat group…‘I’m glad that the school has cleared me, but this investigation should never have happened in the first place,’ [the student] said.”
Access to Justice – Criminal
- In Massachusetts, Senator Ed Markey’s office released a letter from Amazon indicating that the company “has provided video footage from its Ring doorbell cameras to police without users’ consent 11 times this year[.]”
- In Oregon, “[a]s cases continue to drop and hundreds remain without counsel, the head of the Oregon Supreme Court is now calling for solutions to address the state’s ongoing public defender crisis.”
- In Santa Cruz CA, “[the c]ounty’s new Public Defender office began operations on July 1, and the department’s roughly 60 employees celebrated the occasion with a barbecue in the backyard of its May Street headquarters.”
Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform
- In Massachusetts, President Joe Biden nominated “Ayer District Court Justice Margaret R. Guzman to the federal bench…Guzman is a long-time former public defender who served a stint in private practice before becoming a judge.”
- In Oregon, President Biden named Oregon Supreme Court Justice Adrienne Nelson as one of four new federal judicial nominees; the first Black judge on the state’s high court could soon become the first Black female federal judge in Oregon. (Not a direct quotation from the article, but a reworked paraphrase of its lede.)
- In Alabama, “[t]he Southern Poverty Law Center, in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama and the Glasscox Law Firm, warned Alabama Governor Kay Ivey…that a recent transfer of a judgeship from Jefferson County to Madison County violated the state constitution…The move comes directly after Democratic candidate Tiara Young Hudson, a public defender who previously served as a circuit court judge, won the nomination during the May primaries.”
- In Las Vegas, “[a ]police union is calling on a judge to resign for warning a defendant not to be around police officers because he might not survive–a piece of advice she said she follows herself.”
- In New York, “[p]ublic defenders, The Legal Aid Society, released a statement…in response to an announcement by New York State Court of Appeals chief judge, Janet DiFiore, that she will resign next month after seven years in the role. The public defenders are calling for a progressive-leaning judge to be appointed to the bench.”