Archive for September, 2025

PSJD News Digest – September 26, 2025

September 26, 2025 at 3:19 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,

Hope this message finds you. Big week for public service legal news. It’ll take time for some of the lines cast this week to fully play out. Beyond the “editor’s choices”, you’ll find reporting that IRS & DOL are working to re-hire some workers who took the “fork in the road” retirement offer last Spring, and that the Supreme Court of Arizona is setting aside briefly-floated plans to provide create a pathway to criminal legal practice in the state based on a single year of classroom legal education. Solidarity,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

  • Executive Order: Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence (Presidential Memo; 25 Sept 2025)

    “(b) The [The National Joint Terrorism Task Force and its local offices] shall investigate potential Federal crimes relating to acts of recruiting or radicalizing persons for the purpose of…conspiracy against rights; … (c) The JTTFs shall also investigate: (i) institutional and individual funders, and officers and employees of organizations, that are responsible for, sponsor, or otherwise aid and abet the principal actors engaging in the criminal conduct described in subsections (a) and (b) of this section.”

  • Justice Dept. Official Pushes Prosecutors to Investigate George Soros’s Foundation (New York Times; 25 Sept 2025)

    “A senior Justice Department official has instructed more than a half dozen U.S. attorney’s offices to draft plans to investigate a group funded by George Soros, the billionaire Democratic donor whom President Trump has demanded be thrown in jail. The official’s directive, a copy of which was viewed by The New York Times, goes as far as to list possible charges prosecutors could file, ranging from arson to material support of terrorism. The memo suggests department leaders are following orders from the president that specific people or groups be subject to criminal investigation — a major break from decades of past practice meant to insulate the Justice Department from political interference.”

Federal Restructuring

  • Fired watchdogs can’t be reinstated despite Trump’s ‘obvious’ law breaking, court decides (Government Executive; 25 Sept 2025)

    “District Judge Ana C. Reyes, a Biden appointee, wrote that it is “obvious” that Trump broke federal law when he fired 17 of the governmental watchdogs on the fifth day of his second term because he ignored requirements to notify Congress 30 days in advance and provide the “substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons” for the removals…Reyes determined they could not show that they suffered irreparable harm. She noted that, if they were reinstated, Trump could easily remove them again after 30 days by providing notice and rationale to Congress.”

  • Support networks grow for workers impacted by Trump’s federal job cuts (Government Executive; 18 Sept 2025)

  • Agencies should prep for mass layoffs if shutdown occurs, White House says (Government Executive; 25 Sept 2025)

    • Trump HR Chief Says Resignations Cut Too Deep for Some Agencies (Bloomberg Law; 24 Sept 2025)

      “The Internal Revenue Service and the US Department of Labor have taken steps to rehire workers who took the deferred resignation offer. The DOL is considering rescinding about 100 deferred resignations in “mission-critical roles,” a spokeswoman said last week, while the IRS is hiring back an unspecified number of the 26,000 workers who accepted the incentive…The scope of the rehirings is still unknown. Agencies are required to notify the OPM whenever they reverse a deferred resignation, Kupor said. He declined to say how many notices he had received, but said it’s “very small” compared to the roughly 150,000 people who took the incentive.”

    • The end of the ‘Fork in the Road’ (Government Executive; 25 Sept 2025)

      “A new online retirement system, coupled with record summer claim volumes, has created delays and confusion for federal employees transitioning to annuitant status, even as OPM works to streamline processing and reduce errors.”

Civil Society

  • No Legal Basis Seen for Trump’s Threats to Strip Exemptions (Tax Notes; 19 Sept 2025)

    ““Nothing in the Internal Revenue Code authorizes the administration to distinguish between organizations whose messages with which they agree and those whose messages they dislike,” David A. Super of Georgetown University Law Center told Tax Notes. “As long as an organization meets the Code’s broad definition of a charitable or educational purpose, the administration has no basis for challenging them.””

  • I sought to protect an immigrant legal client. Instead, I’m facing Trump’s new sanctions (The Guardian; 22 Sept 2025)

    “Though I’m a solo practitioner with limited resources, I took the case pro bono because my values drive me to help indigent clients. I was aware of the government’s catch-me-if-you-can scheme to move detainees around without notice to escape court oversight, but I felt prepared for the challenge because I’m also an independent legal scholar who published a practice guide to help lawyers navigate habeas corpus actions for immigrant clients…I knew President Trump had issued a proclamation attempting to justify removals after the fact, but I used my best judgment and skills to ask the court to enforce the actual law as written. The government nevertheless proceeded to take my client out of the United States. So I was taken aback when the government asked the judge to punish me for my efforts via a motion for sanctions – which is a novel strategy by the administration to go after immigration attorneys personally by attempting to ruin their record or fine them. I was now a target.”

  • Democrats seek details on pro bono legal work for Trump administration (Straight Arrow News; 25 Sept 2025)

    “In a letter to law firms, Democrats cited a law which prohibits the government from accepting any voluntary services. The law is intended to ensure that the government does not owe any debts or money which has not been approved by Congress. “I hope these law firms realize there is no safety in appeasement,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., stated. “Once we get through this nightmare, we have to make sure nobody in the White House or in state power can shake down law firms, media, colleges and universities again for his or her personal enrichment.””

  • Most Legal Aid Groups Are Using AI Tools In Their Work (Law360; 25 Sept 2025)

  • The AI Lie That Legal Tech Companies Are Selling…. (JD Supra; 22 Sept 2025)

    “Consider what happens when AI makes brief writing 10 times faster. A junior associate who previously drafted one motion per week can now produce 10. But here's what the efficiency prophets miss: opposing counsel also has AI. They're filing 10 motions too. The court's docket explodes. Every case becomes a war of attrition fought with infinite ammunition…The transformation won't be in quantity of work but in its nature.”

Student Debt & Other Student Concerns

Conflicts Over Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

Access to Justice

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PSJD News Digest – September 24, 2025

September 24, 2025 at 1:56 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,

Hope this message finds you. Apologies for leaving you hanging again last Friday; ongoing illness. Today, I bring you last week’s news; more to come on Friday. Major stories include a class action from the AFT aimed at restoring affordable student loan repayment programs, reports of significant changes to hiring processes within the US DOJ’s civil rights division, and further market indicators of the widespread effects of restarted student loan repayments. As always, these stories and more are in the links below. Solidarity,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

  • Student loan forgiveness delays under Trump prompt class action effort (CNBC; 15 Sept 2025)

    “The American Federation of Teachers, a union representing some 1.8 million members, has said that the U.S. Department of Education is denying student loan borrowers their legally required rights to affordable repayment plans and loan forgiveness programs.”

  • Former SDNY prosecutor Maurene Comey sues White House, DOJ over ‘politically motivated termination’ (NY Daily News; 17 Sept 2025)

    “Veteran Manhattan prosecutor Maurene Comey on Monday sued the Trump administration over her abrupt firing this summer — days after she’d been assigned to take the lead on a major public corruption case — alleging she was targeted based on the president’s long-held animus toward her father.”

    • TRUMP v. SLAUGHTER (Supreme Court of the United States; 22 Sept 2025)

      “The parties are directed to brief and argue the following questions: (1) Whether the statutory removal protections for members of the Federal Trade Commission violate the separation of powers and, if so, whether Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U. S. 602 (1935), should be overruled. (2) Whether a federal court may prevent a person’s removal from public office, either through relief at equity or at law.” (emphasis added)

Federal Restructuring

  • Trump DOJ Said to Unwind Apolitical Civil Rights Career Hiring (Bloomberg Law; 18 Sept 2025)

    “The revised process diverges from procedures that put hiring in the hands of career staff in response to a politicized recruitment scandal during President George W. Bush’s administration. At least two of the new hires were removed or suspended from prior local prosecutor positions while facing legal and professional complaints, according to their former supervisors and court filings in one instance…Three of the four managers selecting new hires had no prior DOJ supervisory experience, said multiple former civil rights division colleagues.”

Non-Federal Funding

Civil Society

  • Liberal nonprofit groups push back against Trump’s crackdown after Kirk’s killing (The Hill; 17 Sept 2025)

    “In the joint letter, signed by 136 organizations, they condemned political violence and any potential retaliation directed their way…The letter comes as the scrutiny against left-leaning organizations in the U.S. by the Trump administration has increased after the killing of Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA. The president and other administration officials have characterized those left-leaning groups as playing a part in inciting violence, raising concerns that they might be targeted.”

Student Debt & Other Student Concerns

Conflicts Over Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

Access to Justice

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PSJD News Digest – September 16, 2025

September 16, 2025 at 3:24 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,

Hope this message finds you. Apologies for leaving you hanging last Friday at the end of (another) eventful news cycle. Today, I bring you last week’s news; more to come on Friday. The major stories last week concerned a judgment out of the Northern District of California vindicating fired federal probationary employees’ rights but declining to craft them remedies and an order out of the US Supreme Court allowing the Trump administration to continue its “pocket rescission” of billions in foreign aid pending the final disposition of a lawsuit accusing the President of exceeding his authority. In student loan news, most reporting focused on proposed changes to the PSLF program (the deadline for public comment on the matter is tomorrow, 9/17). Outside of the federal government, the Second Circuit ruled that the First Amendment could not shield a non-profit’s novel strategy for involving non-attorneys in its operations from accusations of the unauthorized practice of law. Solidarity,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

  • Mass Firing of Probationary Federal Employees Was Illegal, Judge Rules (New York Times; 13 Sept 2025)

    • Opinion available here:

      “In the ordinary course, this order would, as required by the APA, set aside OPM’s unlawful directive and unwind its consequences, returning the parties to the ex ante status quo, and as a consequence, probationers to their posts. But the Supreme Court has made clear enough by way of its emergency docket that it will overrule judicially granted relief respecting hirings and firings within the executive, not just in this case but in others. And, too much water has now passed under the bridge since the Supreme Court stayed this Court’s preliminary injunction reinstating probationary employees. The terminated probationary employees have moved on with their lives and found new jobs. Many would no longer be willing or able to return to their posts. The agencies in question have also transformed in the intervening months by new executive priorities and sweeping reorganization. Many probationers would have no post to return to.” (emphasis added)

  • Feds fired en masse seek to compel oversight agency to investigate their cases (Government Executive; 10 Sept 2025)

Federal RIFs & Grant Cancellations

Non-Federal Funding

Civil Society

Student Debt & Other Student Concerns

Conflicts Over Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

Access to Justice

  • US appeals court overturns free speech ruling for legal advice nonprofit Upsolve (Reuters; 9 Sept 2025)

    “A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday set aside a ruling [based on the First Amendment] that blocked New York from enforcing rules prohibiting the unauthorized practice of law against a nonprofit that provides limited legal advice to poor people in the state…[by] train[ing] people who aren't lawyers to provide free legal advice to people facing debt-collection lawsuits[.]”

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PSJD News Digest – September 5, 2025

September 5, 2025 at 1:31 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,

Lots of news this week. The New York Times has reporting on the scope and the demographics of the federal government’s sweeping reductions in force. Meanwhile, some federal agencies have reassigning staff to cover gaps while other agencies are beginning to staff up again. The Skadden Foundation announced it’s new Executive Director, the defender strike in New York City wound down, and the State of Arizona began exploring the possibility of lowering the training requirements for criminal law practitioners for government-employed defenders and prosecutors. Solidarity,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

  • Year Will End With 300,000 Fewer Federal Workers, Trump Official Says (New York Times; 22 Aug 2025)

    “That amounts to the loss of about one in eight federal civilian workers, and would be the largest single-year reduction since World War II. …The figure is the clearest picture yet from the federal government of the extent of Mr. Trump’s downsizing. The president has said the effort is about eliminating waste, saving money and making the government run more efficiently. But it also represents a reduction of a bureaucracy that he believes has tried to thwart him. Many federal employees say the depth of the cuts has threatened to cripple vital services, drained the government of expertise and wreaked havoc on workers and their families.”

    • In Trump’s Federal Work Force Cuts, Black Women Are Among the Hardest Hit (New York Times; 31 Aug 2025)

      “While tens of thousands of employees have lost their jobs in Mr. Trump’s slash-and-burn approach to shrinking the federal work force, experts say the cuts disproportionately affect Black employees — and Black women in particular. Black women make up 12 percent of the federal work force, nearly double their share of the labor force overall.

      …The most recent labor statistics show that nationwide, Black women lost 319,000 jobs in the public and private sectors between February and July of this year, the only major female demographic to experience significant job losses during this five-month period, according to an analysis by Katica Roy, a gender economist…Experts attribute those job losses, in large part, to Mr. Trump’s cuts to federal agencies where Black women are highly concentrated.

      White women saw a job increase of 142,000, and Hispanic women of 176,000, over the same time period. White men saw the largest increase among groups, 365,000, over the same time period.

      Ms. Roy said that with the exception of the pandemic, Black women have never seen such staggering losses in employment. And over the last decade, the experiences of that population have consistently signaled what is to come for others.”

  • The Trump administration is moving staff into jobs they know nothing about (Washington Post; 4 Sept 2025)

    “Many staffers have been moved from civil rights jobs, workers say. At the Justice Department, for example, attorneys who protected employees from workplace discrimination were moved to roles handling human resources complaints or Freedom of Information Act requests. At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, civil rights lawyers who pursued cases of housing discrimination were shifted to defend the agency from complaints. At the Transportation Department, an employee who spent a decade working in civil rights is now reviewing highway grants.”

  • Defense Dept. to send up to 600 military attorneys to serve as temporary immigration judges (CBS News; 4 Sept 2025)

    “The immigration courts are struggling with a backlog of more than 3.4 million cases. But the plan to turn possibly hundreds of military lawyers into immigration judges comes after the Trump administration has fired more than two dozen immigration judges nationwide so far this year. Unlike federal district court judges, immigration judges work for the Justice Department…The Trump administration loosened the job requirements for temporary immigration judges last month, allowing a wider group of government lawyers to handle cases in immigration court.”

    • The Military Has Officially Entered the Deportation Business (The Nation; 4 Sept 2025)

      “fThe order, approved by Secretary of Gender Binaries Pete Hegseth, is yet another violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, which is supposed to prevent the president from using the military to engage in domestic law enforcement…Immigration judges are employees of the Department of Justice, hired by the attorney general, who has broad discretion over whom they hire and why.”

Federal RIFs & Grant Cancellations

Non-Federal Funding

Civil Society

Student Debt & Other Student Concerns

Conflicts Over Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

Access to Justice

  • Cook County Public Defender anticipating surge in immigration detention cases (CBS News; 4 Sept 2025)

    “With an enforcement blitz by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement anticipated in the coming days, more people could be in immigration custody are in need of legal help. Now, they could possibly get that help from the Cook County Public Defender's office. The Public Defender's office is known for representing people accused of crimes in Cook County. But after a pilot program that started in 2020, public defenders are now being used to represent people with Cook County addresses who are being detained for immigration cases.”

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