PSJD News Digest – July 11, 2025

July 11, 2025 at 2:58 pm · 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,

Apologies for a doorstop of a digest this week, covering this week and the one prior to the July 4 holiday. Let me explain. No, it’s too much. Let me sum up.

In Washington DC, the federal judiciary cleared the way for the Trump Administration to proceed with portions of its agenda hugely significant to public interest law: the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump Administration’s effort to radically reduce and restructure the federal civil service (the State Department seems to be the first agency in line) and D.D.C. determined that the DOJ’s decision to terminate grants to immigration legal service providers is not subject to judicial review. In Congress, the President’s budget reconciliation bill passed, including significant changes to the Department of Education’s student loan programs. In the Executive Branch, the Department of Education completed a multi-day negotiated rulemaking process without reaching consensus with the civil society representatives it had invited and the Trump administration extended its hiring freeze through this October. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the United States, governments are adapting: New York City, Los Angeles, and Massachusetts expanded funding for immigrant legal services and Arizona funded civil legal aid within its state budget for the first time in history. Also at the city level, labor actions; Boston’s public defender strike drags on and NYC public interest lawyers look increasingly ready to start one of their own.

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

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

  • Federal Hiring Office Walks Back Essay Questions for New Hires (Bloomberg Law; 3 Jul 2025)

    “The Office of Personnel Management sought to soften the importance of essay prompts for federal job applicants after critics warned the test would screen applicants based on how they’d help President Donald Trump’s agenda…OPM notified federal agency heads last week in a written notice that the essay questions outlined in a May 29 memo “must not be used as a means of determining whether the candidate fulfills the qualifications of a position.”…The notice represents a rare reversal on the Trump administration’s push to root out those disloyal to Trump and to cut tens of thousands of jobs from the federal workforce. The new memo was made public by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a worker advocacy group that filed a complaint with the US Office of Special Counsel alleging that the new essay questions amounted to a loyalty test for nonpartisan civil servants.”

Federal RIFs & Grant Cancellations

  • Federal workforce likely to shrink further under extended hiring freeze (Federal News Network; 8 Jul 2025)

  • Lutnick’s Commerce Department Innovating New Ways to Keep Potential Employees Away (Splinter; 7 Jul 2025)

    “The memo, viewed by Splinter, changes the official policy surrounding probationary employees, flipping the script on how the end of a probationary period will generally go. If you were a potential employee, well, you might not be now. “If not terminated sooner, the appointment of an employee serving a probationary or trial period terminates [emphasis theirs throughout] before the end of the tour of duty on the last day of his/her probationary or trial period,” the memo states, “unless the appropriate DOC management official certifies that finalizing his/her appointment advances the public interest.“”

  • Sources Say Zeldin’s EPA Is Retaliating Against Declaration Signers (Splinter; 3 Jul 2025)

    “According to multiple sources inside the Environmental Protection Agency, an “upset” Administrator Lee Zeldin has begun retaliating against agency staff who signed a Declaration of Dissent opposing his destructive tenure. This is pretty obviously illegal.”

  • DOJ Can Halt Legal Aid Services for Immigrants, Judge Rules (Bloomberg Law; 7 Jul 2025)

    “The Justice Department convinced a federal district judge to dismiss a lawsuit that challenged President Donald Trump‘s pause on funding for legal orientation service provider contracts to aid immigrants. DOJ’s decision to terminate immigrant assistance programs isn’t subject to judicial review, said Judge Randolph D. Moss of the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Sunday, granting in part the agency’s motion for summary judgment and dismissing the remainder of the suit from a dozen subcontractor groups.”

Non-Federal Government

Civil Society

Non-Federal Funding

Student Debt & Other Student Concerns

  • Final Day of Neg Reg Concludes Without Consensus on Proposed PSLF Rules (NASFAA; 2 Jul 2025)

    “The Department of Education (ED) began its final day of negotiated rulemaking (Neg Reg) with hopes of reaching a consensus on its proposed rules on changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. ED sent out updated proposed language Tuesday evening, and even provided a newer updated version just minutes into the session's start, but ultimately, consensus eluded the committee…Negotiators Abby Shafroth of the Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project and Betsy Mayotte of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors argued that while the higher standard was an improvement, it failed to address the core issue: the proposal grants the Secretary the power to adjudicate violations of complex laws (such as immigration or medical regulations) that fall far outside ED’s expertise.”

    • Trump May Weaponize Student Loans Against Public Servants (New York Magazine; 9 Jul 2025)

      “Following a muddled consultation process with a panel of experts, the Department of Education is on its way to implementing that new policy, which would target people involved in whatever Secretary of Education Linda McMahon deems to be “illegal activities,” like assisting undocumented immigrants, supporting transgender people, and so-called terrorism (supporting Palestinians). But as the Associated Press points out, the possible wrongdoing is so open-ended that the policy could be used as a tool of retribution against a wide range of people and organizations:”

  • U.S. Treasury’s Next Target: Student Loan Debt (Tampa Free Press; 3 Jul 2025)

    “With the ink barely dry on monumental trade deals and the 2017 tax cuts now permanently extended, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a pivotal new focus for his department: the nation’s sprawling student loan debt…He was quick to differentiate the upcoming Treasury approach from previous efforts, explicitly rejecting former President Joe Biden’s debt forgiveness strategies. “I do think that just forgiving student debt was unacceptable,” he asserted. Instead, Bessent promised a more nuanced and impactful solution. “I think that there is a firm and humane way to deal with the student debt crisis. And we are going to be focused on that here at Treasury,” he continued. The Secretary highlighted the significant burden student loans place on young Americans, noting that many graduate “post-college with the equivalent of a mortgage.””

Conflicts Over Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

Access to Justice