Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public! Lots of big news stories again this week. While some legal aid organizations are moving to capitalize on AI-powered tools, regulators in Italy have temporarily banned OpenAI’s ChatGPT based on an “absence of any legal basis that justifies [its] massive collection and storage of personal data to ‘train’ the chatbot[.]” Meanwhile, the United States and Canada revealed a major revision to their joint asylum policies that advocates warn will make asylum seeking more dangerous–and asylum officers called the Biden administration’s recent changes to the asylum process its “contrary to the moral fabric of our nation.” In South Carolina, the NAACP sued the state’s Attorney General in an attempt to defend its limited legal advice program from regulations aimed at the unauthorized practice of law.

As always, these stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

• In Ohio, “DOJ, on behalf of the EPA, has sued Norfolk Souther for the East Palestine derailment under the Clean Water Act.”

Dueling Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence

• Law360 published an article examining how “with access to e-discovery technology used by the biggest law firms and corporations, including the latest advancements in artificial intelligence, legal aid organizations can review documents faster, keep track of information more efficiently, handle higher case volumes, take on more complex cases and be better prepared to take cases to court.”

• Meanwhile in the US and Europe, “civil society groups have urged in a coordinated pushback against [OpenAI’s GPT and ChatGPT]’s rapid proliferation [that a]uthorities in the U.S. and Europe should act quickly to protect people against threats posed by OpenAI’s GPT and ChatGPT artificial intelligence models[;] the U.S.’s Center for AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP) filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, calling on the agency to ‘halt further commercial deployment of GPT by OpenAI’ until safeguards have been put in place to stop ChatGPT from deceiving people and perpetuating biases.” (formal complaint available from the organization’s website)

  • Relatedly, “Italy’s Data Protection Authority…temporarily banned OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot and launched a probe over a suspected breach of the artificial intelligence application's data collection rules…ChatGPT has an ‘absence of any legal basis that justifies the massive collection and storage of personal data’ to ‘train’ the chatbot, [the agency] said. OpenAI has 20 days to respond with remedies or could risk a fine of up to 4% of its annual worldwide turnover.”

• Relatedly, in Waterloo ON, “a University of Waterloo expert in ethics, law and technology [says c]ourts are not equipped to detect the fake video and audio evidence that will contaminate the justice system thanks to advances in artificial technology[.]”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona issued the following statement after Republicans introduced a congressional review act (CRA) to put a stop to the one-time debt relief plan that would benefit millions of working families: ‘Instead of working to support hardworking students and borrowers, Republicans in Congress would rather give trillions of dollars in tax breaks to the super wealthy and the biggest corporations. The Biden-Harris Administration will continue to fight to deliver much-needed support to borrowers trying to get back on their feet after the economic crisis caused by the pandemic.’”

• Also in Washington DC, the National Director of the NAACP’s Youth & College Division joined “a delegation of student loan borrowers from Howard University united with student debt cancellation advocates to support the fight against attempts to restrict [education as a key to financial freedom], stating ‘[t]he NAACP will continue to do everything in our power to ensure the economic mobility of the 40+ million Americans depending on the survival of this Student Debt Cancellation program.’”

• Again also in Washington DC, “[n]early half a million people have been approved for federal student loan forgiveness under a one-time waiver program geared toward borrowers working in public service jobs.”

• In Connecticut, “lawmakers are considering legislation that would give a student debt reimbursement of up to $20,000.”

Immigration & Refugee Issues

• In the United States & Canada, “[h]uman rights activists and immigration advocates expressed concerns over a new immigration deal between Canada and the United States that allows either country to turn away asylum-seekers who reach the border at unofficial crossings…Under the previous migration pact, U.S. and Canadian officials were able to turn back asylum-seekers in both directions at formal points of entry, but this did not apply to unofficial crossings. Canada had been pressing the United States to expand the deal, called the Safe Third Country Agreement, to include unofficial crossings…Critics of the deal say asylum-seekers will still attempt to cross the border but now will try to do so undetected and in more dangerous ways.”

  • Relatedly, in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, “[a]fter moving thousands of asylum seekers from Quebec to Ontario, the federal government relocated some 241 asylum seekers to the Atlantic provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia [but r]efugee claims are ineligible for legal aid in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, leaving some claimants who cannot afford their own lawyer without representation. New Brunswick’s immigration minister said in a statement the province is working to change this.”

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Biden’s administration’s plan to severely restrict asylum approvals is drawing outcry from the Homeland Security Department employees who would implement the policy, with the staffers calling it unlawful and ‘contrary to the moral fabric of our nation.’ Asylum personnel said they would have to violate their oaths to carry out the yet-to-be-implemented policy. They have voiced their concerns to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service leadership, who told them at a recent town hall that, assuming the proposal is finalized, they can either follow the guidance or find a new job.”

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, the Partnership for Public Service “released its first batch of rankings stemming from its annual analysis of the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, revealing that even some of the best performing agencies struggled with federal employee morale in 2022.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Montana, in a “new program, called [the Tribal Advocate Incubator Project], the Montana Legal Services Association [has] partnered with tribal courts statewide to recruit, train, mentor and support people to become tribal lay advocates.”

• In Denver CO, the University of Denver’s Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System published a report on unbundled legal services.

• In South Carolina, the “State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) sued the state's attorney general in federal court in Charleston[], arguing that applying South Carolina's unauthorized practice of law rules to its planned program would violate speech and association rights protected by the First Amendment. The group is asking the court to bar the state from enforcing the rules against its efforts to give "free, accurate and limited legal advice" to help low-income South Carolinians, the lawsuit said.”

• In New York NY, “[p]laintiffs have filed two putative class action complaints in 2023, alleging violations of New York City’s relatively new biometric information privacy law, signaling a new potential avenue for class action plaintiffs’ lawyer to seek statutory damages from companies that collect, use, or store biometric information of their customers, consumers, and members of the general public. Given the law’s provision for recovery of $500 to $5,000 per violation, combined with potentially enormous classes, it is imperative that companies take efforts to comply with its requirements.”

  • Relatedly, in Washington DC “the CFPB issued a Request for Information (RFI) about data broker business practices to inform planned rulemaking under the FCRA and provide the CFPB with insight into the full scope of the data broker industry. In particular, CFPB is seeking information about (i) new business models that sell consumer data and (ii) consumer harm and market abuses. The RFI applies to first-party data brokers that interact directly with consumers as well as third-party data brokers with no direct relationship with consumers.”

• Also in New York NY, “[t]he Adams administration had difficulty answering questions about the city’s struggling Right to Counsel program during a City Council oversight hearing[.]”

• In Los Angeles CA, the “City Council unanimously approved a motion…instructing its Department of Housing to create recommendations for the establishment of a right to counsel ordinance and program for tenants facing eviction in the city.”

• In Harris County TX, county government “will soon launch a program to provide free legal counseling to residents facing eviction.”

• In Baltimore MD, “[t]o help families hold onto their homes, Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service (MVLS) in partnership with the Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland and Stop Oppressive Seizures (SOS) Fund, will host three free tax sale prevention clinics to help struggling homeowners.”

• In Nova Scotia, “Justice Minister Brad Johns says officials in his department are reviewing the fees paid to lawyers who take on legal-aid work. ‘We recognize that they're below the average, that they are low,’ Johns said in an interview at Province House in Halifax…’They haven't been reviewed since 2014 so we're hoping to do that.’”

• In Maine, the Senior Associate Justice of the state’s Supreme Judicial Court argued that, “[c]ivil legal services are at the very heart of the goal of justice for all. We must invest in both our public defense system and our civil legal aid infrastructure. Without access to legal counsel in both kinds of cases, those who can’t afford a lawyer are at an unfair disadvantage as they attempt to navigate the legal landscape.”

  • Relatedly, the Portland Press Herald’s Editorial Board argued that “[while l]egislators are struggling to fix an indigent criminal defense program that they've allowed to fall apart[, work f]illing the gaps in aid for civil complaints, however, is much easier. A bill before the Legislature, L.D. 564, is asking for $11.2 million over the next two years, to be distributed through the Civil Legal Defense Fund, which supports the work of providers of civil legal services in Maine…these organizations provide crucial legal aid to tens of thousands of Mainers in every county every year.”

  • Relatedly, the Editorial Board of the Bangor Daily News argued that while “Maine’s chronic shortage of attorneys for low-income criminal defendants has rightly gotten a lot of attention[,] Maine also faces a critical shortage of lawyers to represent low-income Mainers in civil cases, such as those involving evictions, protection from abuse and discrimination…Additional state support for civil legal aid would be a good investment.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Kentucky, the “governor vetoed a bill that would have merged Louisville's Public Defender's Office with Kentucky's Department of Public Advocacy.”

• In Mercer County OH, “[a] criminal defense attorney with about a decade of local legal experience has been named Mercer County's first public defender.”

• In North Carolina, “[t]he House budget unveiled by Republican leaders Wednesday night would provide funding to establish new public defender offices serving eight counties across North Carolina, an infusion of funds to ensure poor people charged with crimes are adequately represented in court. But despite that there are such offices in less than half of the state’s 100 counties, lawmakers did not consider fully funding public defenders across North Carolina.”

• In Pennsylvania, the chief defender for the Defender Association of Philadelphia argued that despite the “proposed [] investment of $10 million to bolster public defense in Pennsylvania…[t]he disparity between what Pennsylvania’s defenders need and what we may receive — even with this investment — is cavernous.”

• In Georgia, the deputy director of the Southern Center for Human Rights argued in an op-ed that “[u]nderstaffing and underfunding continue to plague the important work of Georgia’s public defenders…As we recognize Gideon and the creation of our statewide public defender system, we must also recognize that a system without full investment will harm our public defenders, the many people the state decides to prosecute and the communities that will continue to shoulder bloated jail budgets.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Minneapolis MN, “[the] City Council [] approved an agreement with the state to revamp policing, nearly three years after a city officer killed George Floyd. The state Department of Human Rights issued a blistering report last year that said the police department had engaged in a pattern of race discrimination for at least a decade. City leaders subsequently agreed to negotiate a settlement with the agency.”

• In Connecticut, “[f]our members of the commission that oversees CT’s Public Defender office suddenly resigned this week. It’s been less than one year since the appointment of Chief Public Defender Tashun Bowden-Lewis…Attorney General William Tong has hired another law firm to investigate allegations inside the public defender’s office.”

  • Relatedly, “[a]n email circulated at the state Division of Public Defender Services, stunned earlier this week by mass resignations from its oversight board, called on staff to resist what it described as “racist” efforts to undermine division chief TaShun Bowden-Lewis by preventing her from hiring Black defense lawyers.”

• In Alameda County CA, “[a] veteran…prosecutor resigned from her post this week, saying in a scorching letter that she could no longer 'adequately and ethically protect the rights of victims’ under the administration of District Attorney Pamela Price.”

  • For context: “Barring ‘extraordinary circumstances’ and approval by District Attorney Pamela Price herself, the penalty for most crimes in Alameda County will soon be restricted to probation or the lowest-level prison term….Alameda County voters elected Pamela Price in November on her promise to address racial disparities and ‘disrupt the system.’…But, while criminal justice reforms remain critically important across the state and nation, numerous people from the DA's office have told The Berkeley Scanner that this approach is not the right way forward.”

• In Allegheny County PA, “[t]wo prosecutors in the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office said earlier this month that they couldn’t withdraw criminal charges in one case or make a plea deal in another because of politics. In both instances, the assistant district attorneys cited the upcoming primary election between their boss, six-term incumbent District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr., and challenger Matt Dugan, the county’s public defender…Legal ethics experts said the prosecutors’ alleged actions were unethical and an abuse of discretion.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public! Doorstop of a digest for you this week, with major news on a variety of fronts. In student debt, state lawmakers are exploring more local options as federal student loan relief looks as though it may founder. The public defender crisis continued in many places with New York City’s public defender services issued warnings they may collapse without better funding, while defenders in Alberta worried newly-allotted government funds may not be used to increase their compensation (the subject of job action last year). In Oregon, defenders brought a suit asking to be withdrawn from some cases—and for charges against people unable to obtain court-appointed counsel to be dismissed. In legal aid news, the US Department of Justice issued its 2022 White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable report and the Right to Counsel in Eviction movement made further progress in Kansas City, Boulder, and the State of Utah.

As always, these stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

• In Atlanta GA, “[a] legal observer and attorney with civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), was arrested and charged with domestic terrorism during a [] demonstration against the development of a 85-acre police training complex in Atlanta’s South River Forest…The attorney was acting as a legal observer at the time of his arrest, the National Lawyers Guild (which monitors protests) said in a statement, according to the Daily Beast.”

  • Relatedly, “[c]ivil liberties groups and defense attorneys say officials levied the disproportionate charges to scare off others from joining a movement that has only grown since January, when a 26-year-old known as Tortuguita was killed by a state trooper as authorities cleared activists from the South River Forest. Authorities said they fired in self-defense after the protester shot a trooper, but activists have questioned that narrative.”

• In Los Angeles CA, “[p]rosecutors [] have announced charges against Silverado CEO Loren Shook and two other company leaders in connection with a Covid-19 outbreak associated with the death of 14 people at a community in 2020…The trio faces 13 felony counts of elder endangerment and five felony counts of violation causing death…[According to DA Gascón,] ‘[t]he investigation revealed that the Silverado management team was aware of the risks associated with admitting a new resident from a high-risk area and failed to follow the appropriate procedures to protect their employees and the vulnerable people in their care’.”

Dueling Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence

• In The Hill, Dr. Jacy Reese Anthis (sociology) argued that “AIs are no longer mere tools like smartphones and electric cars, and we cannot treat them in the same way as mindless technologies[; ]we need to build a new field of digital minds research and an AI rights movement to ensure that, if the minds we create are sentient, they have their rights protected.”

• Meanwhile, in MercatorNet, Dr. Karl D. Stephan (electrical engineering) argued that “[o]ne big problem I foresee will arise from the defective anthropology that prevails in our modern culture. Human beings are different from other animals and from machines due to a difference in kind, not merely in degree. In the rush to embrace ever more impressive applications of AI, a lot of people have lost sight of this fact, if they ever believed it in the first place…A degraded view of humanity results when one assumes that there is no essential distinction between humans and advanced AI programs…And all the consequences of treating humans as machines will result from that attitude.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, John Cornyn of Texas, and Joni Ernst of Iowa said they will introduce a resolution under Congressional Budget Office to overturn the plan. The CRA allows Congress to overturn government agency rules by a majority vote.”

• Meanwhile, at the state level, “lawmakers in many states are looking to expand their own student debt repayment programs.”

Immigration & Refugee Issues

• In San Diego CA, “a federal court largely denied the Biden administration’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit, Immigrant Defenders Law Center et al. v. Mayorkas, brought on behalf of people seeking asylum who were stranded outside the United States as a result of the Trump administration’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy.”

• In New York NY, “[i]mmigration advocates rall[ied] for [a proposed] Right to Counsel [l]aw [to] boost the capacity of legal service providers to an estimated 65,000 people who lack access to representation in immigration court.”

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• In New York NY, “[n]onprofits serving the Big Apple say they can't pay their bills because the money from city grants is just too late…[for example,] the Center for Community Alternatives [is] one of thousands on nonprofits that rely on city funding and are being hamstrung by a city bureaucracy so filled with red tape that it can take as long as a year to get paid.”

• In Washington DC, “The Georgetown University Law Center has announced the first three court projects selected for its inaugural Judicial Innovation Fellowship, which will embed technologists and software designers in state, local and tribal courts to develop tech-based solutions to improve access to the judicial system…Three fellows, with backgrounds as technologists, designers, data scientists or product managers, will be selected to join the Georgetown University Law Center in September to work on projects from Tennessee, Kansas and Utah.”

• In Washington DC, a recent survey from the MissionSquare Research Institute found that “[j]ust over half of respondents (51%) report being very or extremely satisfied with their current employer.”

• In a Chronicle of Philanthrophy survey of nearly 700 fundraisers, “30 percent of respondents were somewhat or very dissatisfied with their organization’s diversity. In open-ended comments, respondents complained it was difficult to find ‘a diverse candidate pool’ and said that Black fundraisers hired after George Floyd’s death often ‘found themselves within hostile cultures.’ One person went so far as to say there is a ‘white supremacy culture in fundraising.’”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Washington DC, “Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and White House Counsel Stuart Delery jointly issued the 2022 White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable (Roundtable) Report. The report, entitled ‘Access to Justice through Simplification: A Roadmap for People-Centered Simplification of Federal Government Forms, Processes, and Language,’ highlights agency accomplishments and commitments in furtherance of the Roundtable’s mission to ‘increase the availability of meaningful access to justice for individuals and families, regardless of wealth or status.’”

• In Multnomah County OR, “voters will have a choice to make this May on a proposed new tax that would provide free legal representation for tenants facing eviction.”

• On “Common Law,” a podcast of the University of Virginia School of Law, Prof. Elizabeth A. Rowe argued that “[because f]acial recognition technology is so powerful and rife with the potential to be misused that regulators should treat faces like trade secrets…[a classification that] would offer consumers the kind of defense they will need in response to a significant threat to privacy[.]”

• In Boulder CO, “[t]he City of Boulder has released the Eviction Prevention and Rental Assistance Services (EPRAS) program annual report which highlights successes and challenges from the program’s second year.”

• In Kansas City KS, “[the city’s] right to counsel program, which provides free legal representation to tenants facing eviction…prevented evictions for hundreds of tenants [in less than a year]. Now, the program is poised to get more funding from Kansas City officials for the upcoming fiscal year — $1.6 million, up from $750,000. Legal organizations involved in the program say more money will give it needed stability.”

• In Utah, “[the State] Supreme Court has announced an innovative project that aims to provide free legal advice to people facing housing issues in the state. According to the press release, the Utah Supreme Court’s Office of Legal Services Innovation, along with Innovation 4 Justice, is launching the Housing Stability Legal Advocate Pilot Program that will train nonlawyers working within community-based organizations or nonprofits to become legal advocates who may bridge the gap in access to legal aid for vulnerable populations.”

• In New York NY, “[n]onprofit organizations providing legal services to low income New Yorkers rallied [] at City Hall to call on the mayor to increase funding in the fiscal year 2024 budget.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Colorado, Kiyomi Bolick of the Colorado State Public Defenders’ Service argued that “I no longer expect our greatest victories to be won inside of a courtroom. Rather, the future of public defense lies in unionized collective action, and the leverage it will afford us to demand true systemic change.”

• In Washington DC, “Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Richard Durbin, D-Ill., introduced legislation [] to create a new source of grant funding to hire public defenders and raise their pay to try to level the playing field with prosecutor salaries.”

• In Kansas, “Heather Cessna, executive director of the Kansas State Board of Indigents’ Defense Services, said the [public defender] shortage is a disaster that is years in the making.”

• In Iowa, “[f]ederal officials visited Des Moines [] to announce new plans to improve access to affordable legal services for Iowans, while also cautioning that the state may be requiring indigent defendants to pay more than they can afford for their state-appointed lawyers.”

• In Victoria County TX, “County Judge Ben Zeller said a new regional public defender office could be a solution [to challenges residents face getting access to a public defender].”

• In Pennsylvania, the Editorial Board of the Lewistown Sentinel argued that “[b]y allocating state funding for indigent defense for the first time in Pennsylvania, Mr. Shapiro has taken a commendable step toward making the Gideon decision a reality in the commonwealth.”

• In Alberta, “the [provincial] government will be spending tens of millions of dollars to increase assistance offered through legal aid and offer more timely justice services.”

  • In other news, “[t]he funding comes after Alberta’s criminal lawyers last December ended five months of job action that included refusing to take on legal aid certificates in protest of what they called underfunding that affected their pay…[but i]t’s not clear how much that new money will affect lawyers’ pay [] and it might simply make up for cuts the UCP government made in response to reduced court cases during the pandemic.”

• In New York NY, “[t]he Bronx Defenders is one of five public defender services demanding more funding from the city in this year’s budget, including a combined $125 million ask that would increase salaries for public defenders, meet the needs of New York’s ultra-strict discovery laws and combat attrition in those offices, that they say, is contributing to court delays in their respective boroughs.”

  • Relatedly, “New York City’s six major public defender groups are in such dire financial straits they fear they’ll collapse if they don’t see a $425 million funding increase in the next municipal budget.”

• In Marion County OR, “attorneys in Marion County filed a recent motion that many hope will quickly make its way to the state supreme court. It asks for public defenders to be withdrawn from certain cases, for a stop to appointing lawyers to some new cases and a dismissal of remaining charges for anyone left without court-appointed counsel.”

• In Brazos County TX, “the Brazos County Public Defender Office is open for business.”

• In Miami FL, “[the US Department of Justice] announced that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and [the DOJ] Access to Justice program are conducting a comprehensive review of access to counsel in BOP’s pretrial facilities.”

• In Oakland County CA, “Paulette Loftin…has been appointed Oakland County’s first chief public defender.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Chicago IL, “a new study from Professor Siegler’s Federal Justice Clinic…studied the decisions of federal judges presiding over the cases of people accused of a crime who are awaiting trial and presumed innocent. Their research shows that federal judges regularly violate the very bail laws that they are sworn to uphold, locking people in jail who should be released.” (Study available here.)

• In New York, “[p]ointing to ‘disproportionate rates of policing and prosecution experienced in communities of color,’ New York state’s Appellate Division [] announced it has pared back its bar-admission question on applicants’ law enforcement encounters as a way to promote better equity and diversity in the bar.”

• In Washington DC, “President Biden on Friday called on Congress to increase the enforcement authorities of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, saying the federal regulators should be more empowered to punish those involved in cases such as the recent Silicon Valley Bank collapse.”

• Also in Washington DC, “Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Tim Walberg (R-MI) reintroduced a bill [] that would significantly overhaul the federal government’s civil forfeiture laws.”

• Again also in Washington DC, “President Joe Biden [] nominated…a former public defender and a longtime federal prosecutor [] to the federal bench in Maryland following his pledge to appoint judges with diverse backgrounds and experiences.”

• In Seattle WA, “[t]he Seattle Attorney’s Office reported it had prevented more than 750 police referrals in Ann Davison’s first year as city attorney, an 11% reduction in the annual average of incoming cases from the Seattle Police Department (SPD).”

• In Ottawa, “Federal Justice Minister, David Lametti, said he will tighten access to bail in Canada. This comes in response to concerns about the potential release of dangerous offenders who may pose a risk to the public.”

(Retractions)

• In last week’s digest, I linked to an article about problems with funding at the Georgia Public Defender’s Council. Although it was posted recently, that article was a reprint of a new story from another publication from several years ago. I apologize for this error. Thanks to the reader who called this issue to my attention!

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public! The ongoing staffing shortage of public defenders across the United States continues to be a major story, but other important news has broken in the past week as well. As always, these stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

• In Florida, “[i]n an important victory for professors, other educators, and students across Florida, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals left in place a preliminary injunction blocking Florida’s HB 7 — also known as the Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids and Employees Act (Stop W.O.K.E. Act) — from being enforced in institutions of higher education, pending appeal. The procedural ruling maintains the preliminary injunction until the Eleventh Circuit issues a decision on the merits.”

• In California, “[a] would-be class action lawsuit alleges that the DoNotPay website is engaged in the unauthorized practice of law and is harming its customers by providing legal services that are ‘substandard and poorly done.’ The March 3 suit alleges that DoNotPay violated California’s unfair competition law by holding itself out as a lawyer to California residents and by selling legal services there without a law license.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• Across the United States, “[s]tudent loan borrowers are bracing for payments to resume[.]”

• Meanwhile, in Forbes, a contributor explored mechanisms for student loan forgiveness that are not blocked by the Supreme Court.

Immigration & Refugee Issues

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Biden administration is considering reinstating the practice of holding migrant families with children in long-term detention facilities as it prepares for the end of pandemic-era border restrictions in early May, three sources familiar with the internal deliberations tell CBS News.”

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• In Duluth MN, a sitting judge wrote “I have worked in the Duluth courthouse for more than 20 years. I have never seen staff turnover issues like we currently are experiencing. Statewide, staff departure rates increased by 52% from fiscal years 2019 to 2022. We have lost some very capable people not just to the private sector but to other public agencies…We have some good people who have stayed, but the constant turnover is wearing them out. The court system has to be able to recruit and retain staff to achieve our mission, and compensation is a major component of how we do that. Our court staff are long overdue for a significant pay raise.”

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Biden administration is looking to add 82,000 employees in fiscal 2024, a 3.6% increase that would bring civilian federal rolls to their highest levels since World War II.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Legal Services Corporation is asking for $1.5 billion from Congress in its fiscal year 2024 budget request, more than double its appropriation for 2023. LSC, which supports legal aid agencies across the country, including Indiana Legal Services, said in a press release the request addresses a projected increase in demand for civil legal services due to the impact of COVID-19 on low-income Americans, as well as the ongoing lack of resources to address the ‘widening justice gap.’”

• In Cleveland OH, the Executive Director of The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland wrote that “the firm Stout Risius Ross released an independent evaluation of Right to Counsel in Cleveland, providing proof that preventing eviction contributes to a healthy community. The study highlights that, because of the Right to Counsel, we are identifying and responding to poor housing conditions; responding to an eviction crisis that disproportionately impacts Black female heads of household; leveraging critical community interventions; and increasing access to justice.” (Independent evaluation available here.)

• In Nevada, a lawsuit is proceeding to the state Supreme Court that argues “[civil forfeiture] violates constitutional protections against double jeopardy by punishing defendants twice for the same crime[.]”

• In Montreal QC, “the Honourable David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, accompanied by Na'kuset, Executive Director of the Native Women's Shelter of Montreal (NWSM), announced support to improve access to justice for Indigenous families [via funding for NWSM’s Family Care Legal Clinic].”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Idaho, “[a] bill that creates a structure for transferring responsibility of public defenders to the state has passed the Idaho House of Representatives.”

• In Carroll County MD, “Carroll County State’s Attorney Haven Shoemaker says his difficulty in hiring and retaining employees is because of the low salaries he can offer them.”

• In Scott County IA, “[a]ll local private attorneys may be assigned to represent indigent clients as soon as Friday, whether they like it or not. In a letter sent to the Scott County Bar Association late this week, Seventh District Judge Henry Latham said the court will begin assigning private attorneys in Scott County to defend people who cannot afford an attorney as soon as March 17.”

• In Indiana, “[a state] Senate committee voted to advance House Bill 1605…with the aim to help attract and retain talent [for public defenders’ offices].”

• In Madison County IN, “the County Council deadlocked on American Rescue Plan funding for two requests by the prosecutor’s office but approved a request from the public defender’s office.”

• In Wisconsin, “Fond du Lac DA Eric Toney sa[id] prosecutor [and] public defender pay increases could make it in budget after talks with GOP[.]”

• In Ohio, “[c]ounties around the state…stand to see increased costs for public defense cases due to a possible reduction in the amount reimbursed by the state.”

• In Florida, “[p]ublic defender offices across Florida and the country are plagued with challenges like low pay, high caseloads, and a growing number of vacancies that seem harder to fill.”

• In Oregon, “[n]ew legal action filed [] over Oregon's beleaguered public defense system calls on the Marion County court to let overwhelmed public defenders withdraw from their cases and to dismiss those cases where no attorney is available.”

• In Pennsylvania, “[t]he governor’s proposed budget may provide a boost to a bill working its way through the Senate that would fund public defender offices and bring the state into compliance with constitutional mandates.”

• In Georgia, “some people accuse the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, which runs the system, of spending too much time and money on indigent people…[after a] technical glitch in state law left the council with a shortfall of about $10 million in the state budget…The Georgia Legislature is debating whether to approve a request for $9.5 million to keep the public defender system operating until July, the start of the next fiscal year.”

• In Walton County GA, “the County Board of Commissioners [received reports of] a ‘critical staffing’ shortage in the public defender’s office.”

• In Texas, “a two-tiered system of justice enshrined in the Texas Criminal Code is putting some of the poorest rural Texans at a disadvantage after an arrest. While indigent residents — those who can’t afford an attorney — of counties with more than 250,000 people must be provided with a court-appointed lawyer within one day of requesting counsel, the wait for rural Texans could stretch up to five days.”

• In Hollywood CA, “ABC has assembled the lead cast opposite Anthony Anderson of ABC’s single camera comedy pilot Public Defenders. In it, up to their earholes in student loan debt, four inexperienced public defenders work tirelessly to keep their clients out of jail. Along the way, they have to rely on one another to navigate their first defendants, the absurd court system and the copy machine that always jams.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In New York NY, “several law professors have urged the Manhattan federal court [that] the public should have the right to access the ultimate resolution by New York’s attorney grievance committee of complaints alleging prosecutorial misconduct.”

• In Virginia, “[p]rogressive Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano shared the results of a recent poll that—contrary to what his critics claim—reveals ‘94 percent of residents in Northern Virginia feel safe in their neighborhoods.’”

• In Orlando FL, “prosecutor Monique Worrell is not giving up the fight against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' scheme to remove her from office, The Daily Beast reports. During a press conference held to provide updates on the status of charges in a recent shooting which left two people dead and one injured, per The Daily Beast, Worrell said DeSantis is specifically targeting her ‘because she's a Democrat.’”

• In Olympia WA, “Daniel Landsman, Deputy Director of the criminal justice reform organization Families Against Mandatory Minimums, criticized the use of juvenile adjudications this week following the passing of a Washington state bill changing juvenile sentencing policy. The bill, passed by the Washington House of Representatives, ends the use of juvenile adjudications as a means to automatically enhance a person’s sentence as they enter the adult criminal system, though judges could still consider juvenile history in adult sentences.”

• In Seattle WA, “[t]he Seattle City Attorney's Office announced a 50% reduction in Seattle's case backlog over the course of 2022…The city attorney credited several key factors with the decline. The report noted that staffers meticulously weeded out certain cases that would not have been prosecutable[.]”

• Also in Seattle WA, “[a] public defender with a healthy skepticism of the police and justice system wants to be a voice for voters tired of disorder and crime in District 3’s neighborhoods. Bobby Goodwin tells CHS he also wants to bring his lived experience with mental illness into the race for the district’s seat on the Seattle City Council.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public! Major news this week revolved around DC, where the Supreme Court weighed the arguments against student loan relief and granted certiorari in a case challenging the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau while the Biden Administration adopted immigration policies that legal experts compared to Trump’s “transit ban”. On a more local level, governments continue to focus on funding for prosecutors and public defenders, including in Maine, private attorneys are stepping up to represent indigent clients after lawmakers nearly doubled their hourly rate–but advocates insist more reforms are needed, in New York, Governor Hochul’s Budget proposed tens of millions of new spending dollars for prosecutors while rejecting a request from public defender organizations for parity funding, and in Houston TX, where reporting revealed that a former prosecutor has collected over $1 million last year representing indigent defendants on a contract basis.

As always, these stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Supreme Court announced [] that it will hear a case on whether the funding structure of the federal consumer protection agency created after the 2008 financial crisis is constitutional.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “[p]rotesters camp[ed] outside [the] Supreme Court ahead of [the] student debt relief debate”

• Also in Washington DC, “President Joe Biden told reporters [] that he is “not confident” the Supreme Court will uphold his executive order to cancel up to $20,000 of federal student loan debt for tens of millions of borrowers—a day after the court’s conservative majority seemed skeptical of Biden’s authority to enact debt relief.”

• In the United States, “[a]fter Tuesday’s oral arguments, legal experts told TIME it is increasingly likely loan forgiveness will get thrown out by the conservative majority court. The restart of student loan payments would come at a time of high stress for many Americans.”

Immigration & Refugee Issues

• In the United States, “[m]ore than 100 organizations banded together to launch a public comment tool to ensure the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice hear from people who are against the [administration’s] new [more restrictive asylum] policy…Last week the administration said it will bar migrants from petitioning for asylum if they didn’t seek safe haven in another country while on their way to the U.S. border. The rule has prompted outrage from immigrant rights groups and legal experts who argue the move is akin to former President Trump’s extreme immigration policies.”

  • According to Prof. Karen Musalo (UCSF), “[t]he policy – which immigrant rights advocates, congressional leaders and faith groups are calling an ‘asylum ban’ or ‘transit ban’ – is almost identical to one implemented by the Trump administration in 2019. The Trump-era rule was later struck down by the courts as unlawful.”

  • Comment tool available here.

• In New York NY, the “City Council and several private foundations unveiled a $2.2 million dollar initiative called “Welcome NYC” [] to fund organizations currently providing migrants and other communities with legal services[.]”

Environmental Justice

• In Akron OH, “[a] nonprofit public interest law firm called We The Patriots USA (WTP USA) held a press conference [] to discuss newly-filed litigation against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and local authorities over how they handled the East Palestine railway incident…The lawsuit alleges that the federal government including the EPA handled the disaster improperly and neglected to carry out the necessary testing in the aftermath of the derailment.”

• In Wisconsin, “[t]he Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) is the latest to file a lawsuit against the Biden Administration for permitting the use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in 401(k) accounts under the Department of Labor’s (DOL) final rule. [The suit] accus[es] the administration of violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Administrative Procedure Act.”

Gender & Reproductive Rights

• In New York NY, “[a] U.S. appeals court [] revived an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center’s challenge to a New York state law that prohibits retaliation against employees for getting abortions or making other reproductive health decisions.”

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, Government Executive noted that “[when] a train carrying toxic chemical material derailed in eastern Ohio…a series of decisions by authorities created an evacuation zone in the community, as well as a controlled release of toxic fumes [while] one of the agencies tasked with safety regulations around hazardous materials, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, has been without a confirmed head since the end of the Trump administration.”

• In Colorado, “[i]n an atypical move not afforded to most judicial policymaking, the Colorado Supreme Court has invited the public to comment on a pair of proposals that aim to preserve access to live streamed court proceedings across the state and lay down uniform guidance for virtual hearings.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Alaska, the “Supreme Court issued an order [] lowering the minimum score needed to pass the bar exam and practice law as an attorney in the state, following a recommendation from the Alaska Bar Association to address difficulty in recruiting and retaining attorneys in the state.”

• On the Legal Talk Network, Prof. Quinten Steenhuis (Suffolk University) “discuss[ed] his team’s successful collaboration with legal aid orgs to use technology to scale help for the courtformsonline.org project and the potential to use tech to extend the reach of legal services.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In New York, “[t]he governor proposed an outsized boost worth tens of millions for prosecutors — drawing comparisons to New York’s history of public defense neglect.”

• In Miami FL, “the U.S. Department of Justice launched a nationwide tour in Miami to recognize the 60th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling, Gideon v. Wainwright, guaranteeing a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a lawyer and a fair trial….As part of the initiative, the Justice Department also launched a 100-day review of its efforts to ensure ‘timely access to counsel’ in Bureau of Prison facilities, which has been a source of complaints by defense lawyers seeking to meet with their clients detained before trial, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

• In Maine, “[m]ore private attorneys have stepped up to represent indigent clients since Maine lawmakers voted [] to nearly double the hourly pay they will receive over the next four months.”

  • Relatedly, “Zach Heiden, chief counsel for ACLU Maine, told lawmakers on two committees [recent changes to hourly reimbursement were] progress [but] a hybrid system of private attorneys and public defenders should have been adopted years ago rather than its standing, until recently, as the only state in the country to rely entirely on private attorneys. And he said additional reforms – such as increased training and supervision as well as for statewide offices to handle appeals and post-conviction reviews – will cost money.”

• In Ionia County MI, “[w]ith a state mandate to increase salaries for Ionia County Public Defender’s Office attorneys, the county’s Board of Commissioners is also increasing pay for the Prosecutor’s Office.”

• In the United States, “[a]s tech firms build ever more sophisticated means of surveilling people and their devices – technology that law enforcement is eager to take advantage of – the legal community is scrambling to keep up. Public defenders are often the most overworked and underpaid lawyers in the criminal justice system, with little time and few resources to research the new technology now being used against their clients. This, in turn, creates an uneven playing field that disadvantages the most vulnerable people: those who can’t afford private attorneys.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Harris County TX, the Houston Chronicle reported that “Harris County paid one private attorney just over $1 million last year to represent hundreds of low-income people accused of crimes, helping proliferate a system that critics say wastes taxpayer dollars and robs indigent defendants of a fair shake in court. Jeanie Ortiz, a former Harris County prosecutor, reported to the state that she earned the $1 million while working on about 400 felonies and 200 misdemeanors. A study funded by the Texas Indigent Defense Commission in 2015 concluded that attorneys could only reasonably handle at most 128 felonies or 226 misdemeanors a year.”

• In St. Louis MO, “Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey moved to fire embattled Democratic St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner [] after she refused to resign following a weekend accident involving a repeat offender who was free despite several violations of his bond terms.”

• In Norfolk VA, “[a] progressive prosecutor [has] ended up in the crosshairs of [the] debate over rising crime”