Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Photo: Harris and Ewing Collection, Library of Congress
Hi Interested Public,
We’ve made it to the end of another week. The Department of Government Efficiency met with the Legal Services Corporation this week, and also explored the idea of assigning a DOGE team member to the Vera Institute of Justice (an independent nonprofit). The IRS is planning to rescind Harvard University’s tax exempt status after the school refused to comply with a second list of demands issued to it by multiple federal agencies–including audit-based enforcement of a “viewpoint diversity in admissions & hiring” policy. The Department of Justice argued in court that the Trump Administration’s recent pattern of unilaterally deleting foreign students’ SEVIS records did not equate to a revocation of their legal status; some advocates say their clients have been told the opposite. Leadership at the CFPB have shrunk the agency to a staff of around 200; a federal judge held a hearing earlier today to examine whether those reductions failed to comply with a preliminary injunction she had issued against en masse RIFs.
As always, these stories and more are in the links below.
Solidarity,
“"Increasingly, I'm hearing about political considerations being an issue in firms deciding whether they're going to be able to assist," said Dustin Rynders, the legal director of the Texas Civil Rights Project.
"I have been turned down on some recent requests where people have expressed concern about political ramifications, about being involved in immigrant rights work in this time, about being involved in civil rights, voting rights cases, in challenges against the administration," he said.”
“The mass reduction in force, or RIF, comes nearly a month after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring the Trump administration from removing probationary employees at the CFPB and other agencies. On Friday, an appeals court ruled that the CFPB could begin terminations again so long as “individual assessments” were conducted for each terminated employee. Around 200 employees will be left at the CFPB, effectively gutting the agency Elon Musk has previously said should be ‘deleted.’”
“U.S. DOGE Service representatives told leaders of a nonprofit group Tuesday that it wants to assign members of its team to work at all institutes or agencies that receive federal funds, highlighting its aggressiveness as it attempts to reshape the federal government, according to several people familiar with the matter.
…A member of DOGE last week emailed the Vera Institute of Justice — an independent nonprofit organization that advocates for lower incarceration rates — to schedule a meeting about “getting a DOGE team assigned to the organization,” according to a copy of the email that was reviewed by The Washington Post.”
“The president’s remarks, during an event at the White House, began to confirm what advocacy groups have been quietly warning: Trump’s campaign of retribution is coming next for them.”
“In his statement to the Harvard community, Garber expressed why the university could not morally—or legally—comply with the demands of the federal government by linking to a letter he and Penny Pritzker, the leading member of the Harvard Corporation, had received just days prior from US Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service Josh Gruenbaum; US Department of Education Action General Counsel Thomas E. Wheeler; and US Department of Health and Human Services Acting General Counsel Sean R. Keveney.
…Harvard was not the first university to be targeted by the Trump administration, but it is the first to definitively resist stipulated demands and give the indication that it would be willing to fight the federal funds drain in court. “A very big shift from what we’ve seen from other universities, but if anyone could do it, it’s Harvard,” wrote Patty Culhane Al Jazeera’s Washington Correspondent.”
“Viewpoint Diversity in Admissions and Hiring. By August 2025, the University shall commission an external party, which shall satisfy the federal government as to its competence and good faith, to audit the student body, faculty, staff, and leadership for viewpoint diversity, such that each department, field, or teaching unit must be individually viewpoint diverse. This audit shall begin no later than the summer of 2025 and shall proceed on a department-by-department, field-by-field, or teaching-unit-by-teaching-unit basis as appropriate. The report of the external party shall be submitted to University leadership and the federal government no later than the end of 2025. Harvard must abolish all criteria, preferences, and practices, whether mandatory or optional, throughout its admissions and hiring practices, that function as ideological litmus tests. Every department or field found to lack viewpoint diversity must be reformed by hiring a critical mass of new faculty within that department or field who will provide viewpoint diversity; every teaching unit found to lack viewpoint diversity must be reformed by admitting a critical mass of students who will provide viewpoint diversity. If the review finds that the existing faculty in the relevant department or field are not capable of hiring for viewpoint diversity, or that the relevant teaching unit is not capable of admitting a critical mass of students with diverse viewpoints, hiring or admissions within that department, field, or teaching unit shall be transferred to the closest cognate department, field, or teaching unit that is capable of achieving viewpoint diversity. This audit shall be performed and the same steps taken to establish viewpoint diversity every year during the period in which reforms are being implemented, which shall be at least until the end of 2028.”
“The Internal Revenue Service is making plans to rescind the tax-exempt status of Harvard University, according to two sources familiar with the matter, which would be an extraordinary step of retaliation as the Trump administration seeks to turn up pressure on the university that has defied its demands to change its hiring and other practices.”
“A recent letter from the American Bar Association (ABA) has revealed that all grant funding from the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women has been terminated, effective immediately. The abrupt announcement has left organizations scrambling to assess the potential impact on their operations and services. The ABA's letter states, "As we consider our next steps, we must pause all work related to these grants."”
“Among the Trump administration’s sweeping changes to our immigration system are new policies that threaten to limit pro-bono legal services in immigration court.
…Atkinson helps oversee the Attorney of the Day program, and said their team of volunteer attorneys are not respondents’ official legal representatives, but appear as “friends of the court,” to help proceedings run smoothly and ensure immigrants know their rights and understand the daunting legal path ahead. They also help connect immigrants with local -bono legal services who might be able to take on their cases.
…The memo reinstates a policy enacted at the end of President Trump’s first term but later rescinded by President Biden. It says anyone appearing as a friend of the court can’t engage in legal advocacy unless they’re the respondent’s official attorney.
…Since the DOJ’s memo went out in February, Atkinson said they’ve continued to send lawyers with the Attorney of the Day program to immigration court. So far, she said, San Francisco Immigration Court judges and government attorneys haven’t objected to their presence.”
“In court filings [an] assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Michigan…argued that deleting a student’s records from the Student Exchange and Visitor Information System, a database that holds international students’ information, did not equate to a revocation of their status.
…[S]ome immigration lawyers working closely with affected students and institutions say their clients have been told the very opposite regarding their legal status in the country.
The filing appears to be the first time the government has responded in writing to lawsuits that have been filed against the Trump administration for its attacks on international students, excluding high-profile cases where the students were also detained. This particular response was to a lawsuit brought by four students from the University of Michigan and Wayne State University who lost their F-1 student statuses. So far, at least 50 students have sued across 16 lawsuits, according to an Inside Higher Ed review of court records.”
Conflicts Over Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Photo: Harris and Ewing Collection, Library of Congress
Hi Interested Public,
It’s been another eventful week, both in the news and for NALP–I’m so glad to have had a chance to see so many readers face-to-face over the past few days here in Cleveland. (If you weren’t able to make it, I look forward to catching you up on our conversations!) In the world outside our sessions, appellate decisions blocked lower court’s efforts to reinstate federal probationary workers, Berkeley Law students issued a public statement on the federal government’s expanding program for revoking student visas on a variety of bases, and a US House of Representatives committee withdrew its probe of a law school clinic after the clinic filed a lawsuit.
As always, these stories and more are in the links below.
Solidarity,
“The Justice Department is building a roster of lawyers willing to defend in court the most controversial parts of President Donald Trump’s agenda, firing career attorneys whom leaders view as standing in their way and hiring dozens of political appointees to carry out the president’s agenda.”
“The illegality doctrine gives the IRS sweeping authority to define and enforce “the law” using a single provision of the Internal Revenue Code. And the Trump administration’s creative use of this doctrine reveals that it is seriously capable of transforming tax law into a tool of ideological enforcement.”
“The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the Trump administration to oust two board members who oversee independent agencies, for now. The action seems to signal the court’s support for President Donald Trump’s effort to remove limits on his power to hire and fire. Chief Justice John Roberts signed an order pausing a ruling from the federal appeals court in Washington that had temporarily restored the two women to their jobs. They were separately fired from agencies that deal with labor issues, including one with a key role for federal workers as Trump aims to drastically downsize the workforce.”
“The Supreme Court on Tuesday halted a federal judge's ruling requiring several federal agencies to reinstate around 16,000 workers the Trump administration had sought to fire. The decision to grant the administration's request means the federal government doesn't have to take steps to bring back some workers who were laid off while litigation moves forward before a federal judge in California.”
“In a win for President Trump, a panel of judges on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has vacated a lower court ruling ordering 20 federal agencies to reinstate tens of thousands of employees they had fired.”
“In a memo, the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, said that the bar association was “free to litigate in support of activist causes” but that the department’s employees “must conduct themselves in a manner that does not undermine or appear to undermine the department’s core mission of administering justice in a fair, effective, and evenhanded manner.” The department, Mr. Blanche wrote, “will no longer use taxpayer funds to pay for any travel to or engagement with A.B.A. events.” Any department employees who work in policy-related positions also may not “speak at, attend, or otherwise participate in” the association’s events in their official capacity, the memo continued, adding that those employees may not hold positions in the association or renew their memberships.”
“The Students Association at Berkeley Law, or SABL, condemned UC Berkeley School of Law administration for its silence regarding the revocation of student visas, and several officers stepped down from their positions Monday. In a statement titled “SABL Statement on Berkeley Community Member Visa Terminations” issued on the SABL Instagram, the organization expressed discontent that administration “is so quick to condemn student protest” but “remains silent in the face of current visa revocations.”
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil should be deported because his presence in the United States harms the country’s foreign policy interests even if his beliefs and statements are “otherwise lawful.”…Rubio said Khalil’s presence in the US “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” a determination based on his “past, current, or expected beliefs, statements or associations that are otherwise lawful.”
“Now, an increasing number of student deportation threats involve the revocation of visas based on relatively minor offenses like years-old misdemeanors, according to immigration attorneys, or sometimes no reason at all…“All of these tools that exist in the (immigration) statute have been used before, but they use them in a way that causes mass hysteria, chaos and panic with the hope that students won’t get proper legal advice and they’ll just, through attrition, leave the country,” said Jeff Joseph, president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.”
“As of April 10, over 120 colleges and universities have identified 640-plus international students and recent graduates who have had their legal status changed by the State Department.”
“Ten national unions [including the American Association of University Professors] and dozens of locals representing more than 3 million members have issued a joint statement demanding the release of immigrant workers recently snatched by Immigration and Customs Enforcement…The unions are also calling on employers, university administrators, and local governments to refuse to cooperate—and demanding that elected officials ‘find their spines.’”
“We thus call on the Regents, President, and Chancellors of the University of California to expend every effort, commit necessary resources, and use all legal measures to defend our ability to conduct consequential, transformative research and provide high-quality teaching and mentoring. We call on our leaders to ensure the safety and privacy of students, faculty, and staff. And we further call on our leaders to protect academic freedom and faculty control of the curriculum—proactively and publicly.”
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Photo: Harris and Ewing Collection, Library of Congress
Hi Interested Public,
This week, efforts by the federal government to restrict access to the legal profession for certain classes of potential clients spread from the federal executive to the legislative branch this week, when a U.S. House of Representatives committee opened an investigation into the manner in which Northwestern Law’s Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic chooses its clients. (Law School faculty & legal educational associations released additional statements addressing these efforts.) The arrangement Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP negotiated with the Trump administration next week suggests changes to the Skadden Fellowship Foundation’s program may be imminent. The Department of Education announced hearings as a first step toward restricting the availability of the PSLF program, and civil service workers courts had ordered reinstated and civil society groups courts had ordered refunded are still waiting to see whether those orders will be obeyed. As always, these stories and more are in the links below.
Solidarity,
“A U.S. House of Representatives committee is investigating a Northwestern University's legal clinic over its decision to represent protesters it alleges engaged in "illegal, antisemitic conduct," in what appears to be the first U.S. school to be subjected to a Congressional inquiry over legal representation.”
“The Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law (Northwestern Law) is providing free legal representation in a civil suit to the organizers of an anti-Israel blockade of highway traffic to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport…The fact that Northwestern, a university supported by billions in federal funds, would dedicate its resources to support this illegal, antisemitic conduct raises serious questions.”
“A four-decade-old launchpad for public interest attorneys is getting an overhaul as part of President Donald Trump’s deal with Wall Street law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
Skadden committed $100 million in pro bono work on causes aligned with Trump’s priorities, the president announced March 28. It also agreed to make changes to its prestigious, left-leaning fellowship program, pledging to include politically conservative participants and dedicate at least five spots to projects like “ensuring fairness” in the justice system and fighting antisemitism.”
“At least 300 international students who are “destabilizing” college campuses have had their visas revoked, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a press conference on March 27. “Maybe more, it might be more than 300 at this point,” Rubio said. “At some point I hope we run out because we’ve gotten rid of all of them, but we’re looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up.”
The effort has raised questions about free speech and the rights of legal noncitizens, and it’s prompted legal challenges and protests in support of the targeted students.”
“In the weeks since Donald Trump took office for his second term, we have seen the considerable erosion of democracy and the rule of law in the United States. The latest evidence is the unprecedented request for disclosure by the House Committee on Education and Workforce issued on March 27, 2025, seeking extensive information about Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Bluhm Legal Clinic, including its policies, procedures, sources of funding, and budget. This request specifically targets Clinical Professor of Law Sheila Bedi, Director of the Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic, and her constitutionally protected representation of clients.
…
As experiential faculty members teaching and practicing law, we have duties beyond those as faculty members with academic freedom — we are representatives for our clients, officers of the court, and public citizens. Seeking to punish a lawyer for their ethical and zealous representation and advocacy compromises these core responsibilities. This, in turn, threatens the viability of our legal system — a system critical to the preservation of our democracy.”
“We, the undersigned law faculty members, write in solidarity with our colleagues at Northwestern Law’s Bluhm Legal Clinic and Professor Sheila Bedi, director of Northwestern’s Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic, in the face of an unfounded and unprecedented request from the House Committee on Education and Workforce for clinical program and faculty employment records.
…
The government’s demand for such materials is intentionally designed to chill clinicians from representing unpopular clients — a core mission of lawyers, particularly those who represent clients disfavored by the majority and those who work to protect civil rights and civil liberties. To interfere with a lawyer’s representation of a client undermines the system of legal ethics that binds all lawyers and undermines the rule of law. Nothing in the Education Committee letter alleges that Professor Bedi, the Bluhm Legal Clinic, or Northwestern University have acted unlawfully or unethically. The letter instead rests on innuendo and threatens constitutionally protected legal advocacy. If such insinuations lead to document production and capitulation, no clinician can feel safe from harassment.”
“We write to you as state attorneys general and colleagues in the practice of law. Recent actions by the Trump administration targeting individual law firms and attorneys and statements attacking, and calling for the impeachment of, federal judges represent a clear threat to our system of justice and our profession. President Trump’s recent orders and statements – plus recent letters to law firms from the Acting Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) – lay bare the administration’s desire to silence and suppress opposition to its policies, including by making it harder for those who oppose the administration’s policies to secure legal representation.
As state attorneys general, we stand for the rule of law. As members of the legal profession and of our state bars, we all must stand together. The President’s attacks on the practice of law must not, and will not, subvert our zealous representation of our clients.”
“Lawyers have special obligations to protect and uphold the rule of law. As the Model Rules of Professional Conduct provide: “A lawyer is … an officer of the legal system and a public citizen having special responsibility for the quality of justice.”
…
Reasonable people may disagree about how to characterize particular incidents in the news, but we are all gravely worried that the rule of law is under severe threat. We strongly condemn efforts to undermine these basic legal norms.”
“Each of us brings different, sometimes irreconcilable, perspectives to what the law is and should be. Diverse viewpoints are a credit to our school. But we share, and take seriously, a commitment to the rule of law: for people to be equal before it, and for its administration to be impartial. That commitment is foundational to the whole legal profession, and to the special role that lawyers play in our society. As the Model Rules of Professional Conduct provide: “A lawyer is … an officer of the legal system and a public citizen having special responsibility for the quality of justice.”
…
While reasonable people can disagree about the characterization of particular incidents, we are all acutely concerned that severe challenges to the rule of law are taking place, and we strongly condemn any effort to undermine the basic norms we have described.”
“In “dissent”to the letter, Professor Adrian Vermeule penned “An Open Letter To My Students” in The New Digest, a substack for essays on the classical legal tradition and common good constitutionalism (which Vermeule defines as a legal theory for which “the central aim of the constitutional order is to promote good rule, not to ‘protect liberty’ as an end in itself”)…He attacks how the open letter acts as a “consensus statement” and the effect that may have on conservative students or students who oppose Trump but do not agree with the fears conveyed in the open letter. (HLS website lists 141 individuals between their HLS Professors and Emeritus Professors – 91 signed the Saturday letter).”
“Legal aid clinics that sued the Trump administration after it canceled legal services for migrant children alone in the country say they are still in limbo a day after a federal judge in California ordered the reinstatement of direct legal assistance.”
“The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation along with two other organisations are facing allegations of running scholarship and career advancement programs that discriminate against white Americans. The American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) has accused the Gates Foundation, the Lagrant Foundation, and the Creative Capital Foundation of “intentionally” excluding white people, a claim detailed in letters sent to the IRS. The AAER argues that these alleged discriminatory practices may violate federal law and provide sufficient grounds for the IRS to revoke the organisations’ tax-exempt status.”
“On Thursday, the Education Department announced it would be holding two public hearings to solicit feedback on its plans to refine the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and income-driven repayment plans. This is part of the negotiated rulemaking process, a lengthy process federal agencies are required to undergo to change existing regulations. The department said public hearings would be held in person on April 29 and virtually on May 1.” (emphasis added)
““Our office was the backstop of the federal student loan system,” said Gittleman. “We helped people get into repayment, fix credit reporting errors, and access public service loan forgiveness.”
She described the job cuts as devastating not just to staff but also to the borrowers left behind, who now face uncertainty and potential delays in their cases. Her email access was cut off abruptly on March 11, the day the layoffs were announced. She couldn’t tie up loose ends or redirect cases.”
“Christian Alvarez made what he believes to be his 120th and final qualifying payment toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) on March 5. Then Alvarez, already worried about President Trump’s executive order targeting PSLF, read a news article online about the Department of Education halving its staff. Now he’s on the edge of his seat, hoping his remaining federal student loan balance — over $143,000 — is still eligible to be wiped away.”
“Departments and agencies named as defendants in the lawsuit must now return the probationary workers’ jobs to status quo by 2 p.m. Eastern on April 8, Bredar ordered. The agencies also “shall not conduct any future reductions in force (“RIFs”) — whether formally labeled as such or not” involving the affected probationary employees unless the process follows the law, Bredar wrote.
The enjoined defendants include:
The departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense (civilian employees only), Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, General Services Administration, Office of Personnel Management, Small Business Administration and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The order will remain in place while the case is pending.”
“It has been three weeks since courts ordered the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of probationary workers it terminated in a flurry of mass cuts across the federal government. Many of the workers — already off-boarded, locked out of their offices and disconnected from emails when the rulings came down — have yet to return to their jobs. While they wait to learn their fate, many probationary employees appear to have been left in the dark, with some saying they face daily uncertainty made worse by limited and confusing communications about their benefits and positions.
"I'm hoping I get my job back, but it doesn't seem that way," said one probationary worker who was fired from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and rehired because of a court mandate…About six weeks after receiving that letter, he was on administrative leave with pay and benefits. Justice Department lawyers have said that administrative leave placement is "a first part of a series of steps to reinstate probationary employees" and an "intermediate measure taken by a number of the agencies in order to return probationary employees to full duty status."”
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