PSJD Public Interest News Digest – September 2, 2022
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello, interested public! Hope you’re all hanging in there. It’s been another week and the implications of President Biden’s student loan relief policy are still starting to sink in. In particular, policy analysis of the way loan relief restructures income-based payments going forward is starting to happen, and individual states are weighing in on whether loan relief will be treated as taxable income in their jurisdictions. In other news, a lawsuit filed in Texas alleges that new abortion restrictions infringe on individuals Constitutional freedom of travel, a bipartisan group of criminal justice leaders condemned Gov. DeSantis’ decision to remove a locally-elected district attorney, and the New Republic reported that “in 2019, the IRS’s watchdog evaluated a representative sample of organizations using the EZ form and found that nearly 50 percent did not qualify for their tax-exempt status.” All these stories and more are in the links below.
Take care of one another,
Sam
Editor’s Choice
- In last week’s digest, I referenced an article arguing that “perhaps even more significant is the Biden administration’s proposal to restructure how loans are repaid, giving future borrowers a lot more leeway when it comes to paying back debt.” This week, a policy paper elaborates on this point, arguing that “going forward, these new rules could quite radically alter the incentives of colleges and students when it comes to college prices, institutional financial aid, how much debt to take on, and how to approach repayment.”
- In St. Paul MN, “Maureen Onyelobi and Jeffery Young began classes with St. Paul’s Mitchell Hamline School of Law in pursuit of law degrees. Unlike most remote students, who might Zoom into their classes from home or a co-working space, they’re dialing in from two of Minnesota’s correctional facilities – Onyelobi from a women’s prison in Shakopee, Young from a men’s prison in Bayport. Thanks to a five-year variance from the American Bar Association that allows the school to admit up to two fully-remote incarcerated students annually, Onyelobi and Young last month became the first students in the nation to attend an American Bar Association-approved law school from prison.”
Student Loans & Student Debt
- Across the United States, “President Joe Biden’s announcement of up to $20,000 in student debt cancellation for millions of borrowers is expected to bring legal challenges to the executive branch’s authority to act on this issue…The president himself had questioned his ability to act unilaterally in the past, but top lawyers at the Justice and Education departments released legal opinions Wednesday saying the 2003 HEROES Act gives the administration “sweeping authority” to reduce or eliminate student debt during war or a national emergency.”
- Also across the United States, borrowers are learning on a state-by-state basis whether their student loan forgiveness will be taxable or not: As CNBC put it, “[w]hile the preliminary analysis shows some states may tax student loan forgiveness, there’s still time for policy changes.”
A few state-specific stories addressing this question:
- In Maine and Mississippi, “Mainers who see their student debt forgiven under President Joe Biden’s plan won’t get hit by a surprise tax bill. The same can’t be said for the people of Mississippi, where the state plans to count that forgiven debt as income.”
- In New York, “[t]he NYS Department of Taxation and Finance told the Gothamist …that New Yorkers can rest easy because the forgiven loans will not be considered income.”
- In Virginia, “representatives of two state agencies [announced that] Virginia will not tax as income student loans forgiven under a new plan announced by President Joe Biden[.]”
- In Wisconsin, “this loan forgiveness counts as taxable income, meaning borrowers will have to pay hundreds of dollars more in taxes. Wisconsin is one of six states in which forgiven student loan debt is likely to be taxed, according to the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.”
- Meanwhile, in Washington DC, “[n]early 100 House Republicans signed onto a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., calling on her to hold President Biden accountable for his $500 billion student debt handout.”
- Also meanwhile in Washington DC, “Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) told CNN…that President Biden prioritized the wrong people in his student loan relief announcement this week—despite previously calling for that relief just years prior ‘There are a lot of people hurting in our society right now,’ he said. ‘People are getting crushed with inflation, crushed with gas prices, food prices, and all the rest. And I think a targeted approach right now really does send the wrong message.’ But Ryan’s objection flew in the face of an October 2018 tweet in which he pleaded for student debt relief. He followed that tweet with House votes in 2020 that supported $10,000 in student debt relief.”
- Again also meanwhile in Washington DC, “Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is renewing the call to restore bankruptcy protections for student-loan borrowers…Warren wants Attorney General Merrick Garland to ensure bankruptcy becomes a viable route to providing relief.”
- Also again also meanwhile in Washington DC, “[Senator] Sanders aid, ‘I know it is shocking to some Republicans that the government actually on occasion does something to benefit working families and low-income people. I don’t hear any of these Republicans squawking when we give massive tax breaks to billionaires.’”
Rule of Law
- In Tallahassee FL, “a bipartisan group of 61 criminal justice leaders – including former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justices, U.S. Attorneys, judges and elected prosecutors – requested that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida accept an amicus brief urging the court to protect prosecutorial discretion and order the Florida governor to rescind his unlawful order removing Andrew Warren as the duly elected State Attorney of Hillsborough County, Fla.”
- In West Palm Beach FL, “[a] federal judge…appeared sympathetic to former President Donald Trump's request to appoint a special master to review the documents the FBI seized from his home in August, though she declined to issue a ruling immediately on the matter…’Ultimately, what is the harm of appointing a special master to review these materials?’ asked Cannon, a Trump appointee. ‘What I'm wondering from the government – what is the harm beyond delaying the investigation?’”
- In Philadelphia PA, “President Joe Biden…issued a warning against what he described as “MAGA Republicans” and extremist threats to the nation, reminding Americans that democracy is not guaranteed…The speech [] comes amid an ongoing investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and after the F.B.I. served a search warrant at Trump’s Florida residence for classified documents last month.”
Free and Fair Elections
- In Wisconsin, “a federal judge blocked the Wisconsin Elections Commission from enforcing a ruling that would have required voters living with disabilities to cast their ballots without assistance. Last month, a conservative majority in the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled voters cannot allow a third party to deliver their ballot for them.”
- In California, “election workers would be able to block their addresses from public view under a proposed expansion of a program set up to protect abortion providers from harassment and intimidation.”
Reproductive Rights
- In Texas, “a lawsuit…filed [] in the US District court for the Western District of Texas by a group of nonprofit funds…alleges that Texas’s threats to enforce its abortion laws against supporters or facilitators of out-of-state abortions violates individuals’rights to travel across state lines for the procedure, among other allegations.”
- In Tennessee, “[w]ith Tennessee's new abortion trigger law now enacted, a nonprofit legal resource center says a decades-old paperwork requirement may force Tennessee doctors to incriminate themselves after performing an abortion.”
Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring
- The New Republic published an article asserting that “[t]he IRS has lost its ability to investigate tax-exempt organizations,” questioning “[w]hat [that] will mean for our political system[.]”
- In Washington DC, “[t]he federal government wants input on the standards that baseline government data on race and ethnicity as it works on the first refresh to the policy directive since 1997.”
Access to Justice – Civil & Economic
- In Edmonton and Calgary AB, “lawyers who handle legal aid work are rallying…to push for more funding…They are frustrated that Justice Minister Tyler Shandro has not approved more money for the legal aid program, which lawyers say is already $80 million short of the government’s commitment.”
- Across the United States, since “the Supreme Court struck down the down the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) eviction moratorium one year ago…eviction filings have returned to pre-pandemic levels and, in some places, even exceeded them. Although the job market has mostly rebounded from the early days of the pandemic, inflation and skyrocketing rent prices have pushed many renters deeper into a financial hole.”
- In Washington DC, “a Democratic senator urged in a letter to the US labor secretary [that t]he Biden Administration should investigate and regulate how companies use technology to surveil and punish workers[.]”
- In Nebraska, “Native Americans shared their experiences in the judicial system as judges from state, tribal and federal courts listened during a meeting earlier this month. Judges and other representatives of the Nebraska Consortium of Tribal, State and Federal Courts traveled to the Panhandle on Aug. 15 and Aug. 16 to hear from Native American community members. The two sessions were the last of public engagement sessions held by the consortium as it sought to hear from the community about their experiences and perceptions of the tribal, state and federal courts.”
Access to Justice – Criminal
- In Alberta, “[c]riminal defence lawyers escalated job action [] in an ongoing dispute with the provincial government over the amount of compensation paid by Legal Aid Alberta…’We will also begin refusing certificates for new cases for the most serious criminal charges, including sexual offences, most firearms-related crimes and homicides,” said the statement on behalf of the groups.’”
- In El Paso TX, “El Paso County Courthouse continued with the dismissal of criminal cases…The cases dismissed were a total of 75 out of the 616 motions to dismiss that was filed by Chief Public Defender Kelli Childress last Wednesday. Childress added there are another 1,100 criminal cases that could also be eligible for dismissal due to them surpassing the 180 days to be indicted. ‘I’ve visited a number of counties' arrest and pre-indictment processes and I’m not aware of any county that has a situation like this,’ [Childress] said.”
- In Colorado, “public defenders launched a unionization drive…hoping to organize attorneys, paralegals, investigators, social workers, and administrative staff even though Colorado law blocks them from collective bargaining.”
Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform
- In Baltimore, “the Maryland Court of Appeals vacated the conviction of Office of the Public Defender (OPD) client Everett Smith, holding that his Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial was violated when court bailiffs wore facemasks with the thin blue line insignia during his trial.”
- In Glynn County GA, “Jackie Johnson, former district attorney[], has been arrested and charged with alleged mishandling of the case of Ahmaud Arbery[.]”