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[.]”