PSJD News Digest – May 30, 2025

May 30, 2025 at 8:54 am · Filed under Public Interest Law News Bulletin

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Photo: Harris and Ewing Collection, Library of Congress

Hi Interested Public,

Another major week for news. Most significantly, the Supreme Court lifted a preliminary order, allowing President Trump’s acts firing top officials at the MSPB and NLRB to stand pending the final outcome of litigation. Meanwhile, a lower court blocked the Trump Administration’s plan to transfer its student loan management from the Department of Education to the Small Business Administration. The US State Department has ceased issuing all student visas as it works to overhaul its approval process in order to scrutinize applicants’ social media profiles; students at Harvard weigh in on the personal effects of the Administration’s recent move to revoke visas at that institution specifically. Multiple stories discuss the nonprofit sector as civil society begins to feel the effects of federal funding cuts.

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

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

  • Supreme Court Lets Trump, for Now, Remove Agency Leaders (NY Times; 22 May 2025)

    “The majority wrote that Mr. Trump could remove officials who exercise power on his behalf “because the Constitution vests the executive power in the president.” They wrote that this authority was subject to only “narrow exceptions recognized by our precedents.” In her dissent, Justice Kagan countered that the majority was chipping away at longstanding precedent that, she wrote, “forecloses both the president’s firings and the court’s decision to award emergency relief.”

    …Weakening the power of the two boards is part of Mr. Trump’s campaign to reshape the government and the workplace. The Merit Systems Protection Board reviews federal employment disputes, while the National Labor Relations Board safeguards the rights of private-sector workers.”

  • Exclusive: White House rolling out new "merit-based" federal hiring plans (Axios; 29 May 2025)

    “The Merit Hiring Plan released to agencies Thursday afternoon by the Office of Personnel Management…explicitly orders agencies not to take race and gender into consideration in hiring…Agencies are ordered to immediately stop releasing data on workforce demographics, and to stop hiring people based on race and gender. That data was key, proponents say, to understanding if there was widespread discrimination in hiring practices. The numbers will still be collected, just not released.”

Federal RIFs

  • Appeals board creates new path to renew reversals of probationary firings (Government Executive; 27 May 2025)

    “Hundreds of recently hired and subsequently fired employees at the Homeland Security Department will be part of a class action alleging their dismissals were unlawful after a Merit Systems Protection Board administrative judge granted the request. The DHS ruling was the first to come down after a consortium of lawyers filed similar challenges on behalf of fired probationary employees at 20 federal agencies.”

Civil Society

Non-Federal Funding

Student Debt & Other Student Concerns

  • 'Profound Fear, Concern and Confusion' Plague Harvard University, Law School (Law.com; 29 May 2025)

    “At Harvard University and Harvard Law School, students and faculty have expressed “profound fear, concern and confusion” in response to the Trump administration's efforts to block international students from attending the school, according to court documents in the university's federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security over the mandate.”

    • “I am a Harvard student until someone tells me I’m not”: A Torontonian on Trump’s attack on international students (Toronto Life; 29 May 2025)

      “How has Harvard supported its international student community? When Harvard filed its suit in the district court to stop the action, we received a copy of the complaint from the school president and a message reiterating his support for international students and scholars on campus. And then we got an email from the international office where the very first line said, “You belong here.” This goes back to what I was saying about how it felt when I first started at Harvard Law, and it’s such an important message to hear right now. When the government is telling us that we are not wanted, our school is standing behind us.”

Conflicts Over Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

  • Harvard Law Review Forcefully Denies Racial Discrimination Accusations That Sparked Federal Inquiry (Harvard Crimson; 29 May 2025)

  • The federal government should not interfere with local prosecutors [opinion] (R Street; 28 May 2025)

    “The Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched an investigation into a state prosecutor’s office—not for breaking the law, but for how the law is applied. This should concern anyone who believes in local control and limited government. In Minnesota, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty directed her team to consider race and age during plea negotiations. The policy’s stated purpose is to address racial disparities and account for youths’ still-developing brains—and although Moriarty emphasized that those factors alone do not justify departing from sentencing guidelines, the DOJ claims the policy might violate civil rights law.”

Access to Justice