PSJD Public Interest News Digest – August 5, 2022
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello, interested public!
Hope you’re all hanging in there as we round out the summer with a new federal public health emergency. Dramatic news continues this week, as a national prosecutor association condemns Florida Governor DeSantis’ move to suspend an elected state attorney for pledging not to prosecute people under the state’s new anti-abortion law. Relatedly, a local prosecutor in Minnesota clashed with the MN attorney general over whether to appeal a recent court ruling there finding a state constitutional protection for abortion rights. Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on the Biden administration from state Attorney Generals, Democratic members of Congress, and Republican opposition as they continue to defer their promised decision about student loan reform. In Canada, criminal defense attorneys in Alberta voted in favor of “escalating work stoppages” this week.
Take care of one another,
Sam
Editor’s Choices
- In the LA Times, Partners for Justice’s Regional Program Director for California argued that “[t]he appointment of Brooke Jenkins as San Francisco’s new district attorney culminates months of evidence that the criminal justice reform movement needs a new playbook…the route to safer communities cannot run solely through progressive prosecutors…A more sustainable tool for criminal justice reform — maybe our most powerful yet — is to invest in public defenders.”
- ProPublica has put out a call for public defenders and criminal defense attorneys to join their network of volunteer sources: “We may contact you with questions about your expertise and the intricacies of the criminal justice system. We will also share occasional updates about stories in the works [and] also welcome your suggestions for stories.”
Reproductive Justice
- In Tallahassee FL, “Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision [] to suspend elected Tampa-area state attorney Andrew Warren for pledging not to prosecute people under the state’s new anti-abortion law was called a ‘unprecedented and dangerous intrusion’ to prosecutor independence, according to a national prosecutor group.”
- In Washington DC, “[i]n a virtual meeting…with a team of lawyers, Mr. Garland said the effect of the high court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which sent the issue of abortion back to state legislatures, was ‘immediate, wide-ranging and devastating.’”
- Also in Washington DC, “President Joe Biden…signed another executive order aimed at protecting access to abortions, this time with the goal of helping patients travel to other states to access reproductive health care services.”
- In Boston MA, “President Joe Biden said…he is nominating Julie Rikelman, an attorney who represented the Mississippi abortion clinic at the center of the recent [SCOTUS] ruling overturning the constitutional right to abortion, to a vacancy on the First Circuit.”
- In Michigan, “[a] judge blocked enforcement of a 1931 Michigan ban on abortion…just hours after the state Court of Appeals said county prosecutors were not covered by a May order and could enforce the prohibition following the fall of Roe v. Wade.”
- In Wyoming, “[t]he abortion advocates suing Wyoming over its abortion ban asked a state court [] to block the ban throughout the court proceedings.”
- In Idaho, “[t]he [US] Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Idaho over the state’s law banning abortion after six weeks, saying that federal law requires doctors and hospitals to perform medically required abortions to preserve the pregnant person’s health.”
- In Traverse County MN, “County Attorney Matthew Franzese filed a motion [] to intervene to appeal a Ramsey County judge’s ruling that threw out many of Minnesota’s restrictions on abortion. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said last week he would not appeal the ruling by Ramsey County Judge Thomas Gilligan which said restrictions — including a mandatory 24-hour waiting period, a requirement that both parents be notified before a minor can get an abortion and the law dictating that only physicians can perform abortions — were not allowed given the Minnesota Constitution’s protection of the right to abortion.”
Immigration
Rule of Law
- On the internet, LexisNexis’ Rule of Law Foundation launched its U.S. Voting Laws & Legislation Center–”[a] tool…to provide citizens with free access to the most comprehensive collection of US voting laws, legislative developments, and news.”
- In Washington DC, “Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks ordered the Defense Department to save data from mobile devices after reports information was deleted from former top officials’ phones, including text messages from Jan. 6, 2021. Hicks in an Aug. 3 memo calls records retention a “solemn responsibility and legal obligation for all federal employees, civilian and military” and states text messages that conduct public business qualify as records.”
- Also in Washington DC, “[a]mid ongoing issues with investigations into the attack on the U.S. Capitol, a Senate Democrat wants to shore up records access for watchdogs and information sharing with lawmakers. The Homeland Security inspector general has been under fire for his handling of investigations into missing text messages from Secret Service agents and top Trump Homeland Security officials in the lead up to the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. Now, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee's panel on Homeland Security, has introduced legislation aimed at fixing issues raised going forward with all IGs.”
Free & Fair Elections
- In Fulton County GA, “Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has added former President Donald Trump's first White House counsel, Donald McGahn, to his legal team [as] Graham continues to fight a subpoena ordering him to appear before a grand jury in Fulton County's criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state.”
- In Austin TX, “a federal judge [] ordered the Texas Secretary of State to release records about a state program that claims to identify non-U.S. citizens on the voter rolls.”
Human Rights
Student Loans & Student Debt
- Across the United States, “20 state attorneys general — led by Illinois' Kwame Raoul and Massachusetts' Maura Healey — wrote a letter to President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona urging them to extend a temporary waiver for borrowers enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which is intended to forgive student debt for government and nonprofit workers after ten years of qualifying payments.”
- In Chicago IL, “[t]he Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) announced today the Department has issued a letter to all federal student loan servicers encouraging them to immediately implement best practices to help alert and educate eligible student loan holders about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. As the primary contact for many student loan borrowers, servicers are in the best position to increase awareness about PSLF and help borrowers take advantage of the program.”
- In Washington DC, “[m]ore than 100 congressional Democrats are urging the White House to extend the pause on student loan repayment beyond the Aug. 31 deadline.”
- Also in Washington DC, “members of the NAACP are demanding that the president eliminate a large portion of debt for Black borrowers.”
- Again also in Washington DC, “[a] new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office finds the U.S. Department of Education miscalculated the cost of the federal student loan program. From 1997 to 2021, the Education Department estimated that payments from federal direct student loans would generate $114 billion for the government. But the GAO found that, as of 2021, the program has actually cost the government an estimated $197 billion.”
- Importantly, US Senators (led by Sen. Warren) have noted for years that “Congress did not create federal student loans to generate revenue for the federal government…Federal student loan programs were created by Congress to provide an opportunity for every young person who works hard and plays by the rules to pursue higher education.”
- Meanwhile, also again also in Washington DC, “Reps. Virginia Foxx, Elise Stefanik, and Jim Banks introduced the Responsible Education Assistance Through Loan, or REAL, Reforms Act, which is intended to act as an ’alternative’ to proposals the Education Department has put forth to reform student-loan programs.”
Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring
- In Washington DC, “[a] group of five conservative Republicans has introduced legislation to make the federal government an at-will employer, eviscerating civil service protections, chilling whistleblower activity and abolishing the Merit Systems Protection Board.”
- Also in Washington DC, “Senate Democrats last week introduced the chamber's full slate of 12 bills to set line-by-line fiscal 2023 spending at every federal agency, though they remain significantly divided with Republicans over how to avoid a shutdown in just two months.”
- In Los Angeles CA, “[the] County Board of Supervisors approved a motion [] that will allow the county to hire non-U.S. citizens.”
- In New York NY, “Mayor Eric Adams and Comptroller Brad Lander joined other city officials in the Bronx to announce that since May 9 the city had advanced 2,600 contract actions worth more than $4.2 billion helping 451 non-profit organizations in the city.”
Access to Justice – Civil & Economic
- In California, the “chief justice of the California Supreme Court[] said that the state legislature is responsible for stalling efforts to bring about regulatory reforms to address the state’s gap in access to justice[.]”
- Also in California, legal ethics professors from Stanford and UCLA argued that “[t]he justice gap has grown so large that we cannot just lawyer our way out of it. Creative solutions are also needed[, such as]…licens[ing] the legal equivalent of nurse practitioners to help people with routine legal problems [and] let[ting] lawyers partner with other professionals, such as business experts, technologists, and social service workers.”
- In Tampa FL, the city “announced plans to work with Bay Area Legal Services (BALS), which could potentially help renters looking for legal services.”
Access to Justice – Criminal
- In Alberta, “100 criminal defence lawyers from Calgary’s Criminal Defence Lawyers Association, Edmonton’s Criminal Trial Lawyers Association and the Southern Alberta Defence Lawyers’ Association voted in favour of job action. ‘Through escalating work stoppages, our members will make clear to the government that Legal Aid Alberta’s budget needs to be increased now,’ a joint statement read[.]”
- In Chenango County NY, “officials reported they may no longer be able to hold court or provide defense lawyers outside of regular, weekday work hours.”
- In Boston MA, “[i]nmates with local ties who are being held in solitary confinement at MCI-Cedar Junction, in South Walpole, have filed a class action lawsuit against the state prison system, alleging inhumane treatment during their extended time in isolation. Boston College Law School Civil Rights Clinic and the law firm of Holland & Knight announced in a press release that they had filed the lawsuit recently against the Department of Correction.”
- In Oregon, the state’s “federal public defender has asked a judge to appoint a special investigator to look into allegations that guards at the federal prison in Sheridan are retaliating against inmates for speaking out about their conditions behind bars.”
- Also in Oregon, the state’s “Public Defense Services Commission approved a plan to pay a rate of $158 per hour for in-custody felony cases to lawyers who are not currently under contract through the end of this year. The current rate is $105.”
- In New York NY, “[a] judge has ordered the New York Police Department to release documents pertaining to its monitoring of Black Lives Matters protests during the summer of 2020, requiring it to release 2,700 emails and other documents to the public or state why it fall [sic] ‘and/or allege with specificity that each document falls within one of the enumerated exemptions of Public Officers Law.’ ”
- In San Francisco CA, “[t]he process Arizona has in place for defendants challenging convictions in non-capital cases as of right was upheld by the Ninth Circuit against a challenge by an indigent defendant who said it violated his constitutional right to appellate counsel.”
Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform
- In San Francisco CA, “District Attorney Brooke Jenkins on Wednesday announced tougher new policies to hold drug dealers accountable, but her new crackdown brought swift criticism from the Public Defender, who called her philosophy ‘regressive,’ and [argued it] will disproportionately harm communities of color.”
- Relatedly, former San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin “announced [] that he would not run to wrest back the seat he lost in a June recall election, averting a second bruising clash over criminal justice.”
- In New Jersey, “[a]ccording to a lawsuit filed by the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender (OPD), [because a]ll babies born in the state of New Jersey are required to have a blood sample drawn within 48 hours as part of a mandatory testing program that screens them for 60 different disorders. [If] police are able to reliably obtain the samples through subpoena, then effectively, the disease screening process is entering all babies born in the state into a DNA database with no ability to opt out. According to the lawsuit, parents and the public at large are unaware that blood samples taken from their children could be used in this way.”
- In Bexar County TX, the district attorney’s office celebrated that “in three years police have issued more than 6,200 citations rather than arresting and jailing people for a variety of nonviolent, low-level crimes.”
- In Travis County TX, “[t]he Texas Department of Public Safety refused to publicly release official records related to the Robb Elementary School shooting at the request of the Uvalde County district attorney’s office[.]”
- In Kenly NC, “[t]he mass exodus of an entire police department after the hiring of a Black town manager…has opened a conversation about public safety and race relations in a small town of just over 1,500 residents.”