Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hi Interested Public,

Welcome to the end of another week. I’ve highlighted five big stories across a range of issues that have consumed much of this newsletter’s attention over the past 10 months. Still, lots of big stories lurking in the lower headings as well.

Solidarity,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

• National Council of Nonprofits Launches Nonprofit Resilience Fund (NonProfit Pro; 23 Oct 2025)

• Court Deal Accelerates Student Loan Forgiveness, Protects Borrowers from Tax Bills (IndexBox; 20 Oct 2025)

• Trump’s latest order requires strategic plans reflective of presidential ‘priorities’ to resume hiring (Government Executive; 17 Oct 2025)

• Oregon immigration rights groups sue ICE alleging it is preventing access to lawyers (News from the States; 17 Oct 2025)

• How the president expanded his power without a government [opinion] (Government Executive; 21 Oct 2025)

  “When the government shutdown ends, Donald Trump will have succeeded in staging the single biggest expansion of presidential power in American history because of the single largest shift in the constitutional balance of powers ever…This is vastly more important than Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, an unguided bulldozer rambling through government. Vought’s strategy is all out of a single piece of carefully woven cloth.”

Federal Restructuring

• The Caribbean Strikes and the Collapse of Legal Oversight in U.S. Military Operations (Just Security; 23 Oct 2025)

  “A striking number of former government attorneys who have served both Republican and Democratic administrations agree that a red line has been crossed and that the garbled legal justifications provided by the administration are inconsistent with the facts and the law. Based on reporting by the Wall Street Journal and CNN, there are lawyers currently serving inside DoD who also agree and have tried to push back. …the current administration’s approach has been to centralize legal authority, discourage dissent, and marginalize career legal professionals—including military attorneys with deep operational law expertise. Reports suggest that Combatant Command and Pentagon lawyers were excluded from meaningful review of the Caribbean strikes, which, if true, would be a troubling departure from long-established practice. This sidelining reflects a broader pattern that predates the Trump Administration but has only accelerated: a “post hoc” approach to national security lawyering—where legal reasoning is developed after operational decisions are made, often without the benefit of full interagency legal review.”

• Senate Democrats grill inspector general nominees over their independence from Trump (Government Executive; 23 Oct 2025)

• Trump fires another inspector general, raising fears about oversight independence (Government Executive; 21 Oct 2025)

  “The White House did not provide a rationale for the removal, as required by law. The president has fired nearly 20 watchdogs since the start of his second term.”

• Shutdown layoffs would boost energy costs, increase overdoses and slash oversight, Democrats say (Government Executive; 21 Oct 2025)

• Congressional Dems Push For No Layoffs At Interior And EPA (Law360; 17 Oct 2025)

• Treasury, HHS Say Court’s Firing Pause Doesn’t Apply to Them (Bloomberg Law; 17 Oct 2025)

• Trump admin vows to follow court order on layoffs, but some cuts may still be imminent (Government Executive; 17 Oct 2025)

• After Justices Scold Judges, Some Worry About Public Perception of Lower Courts (Law.com; 17 Oct 2025)

• Court to decide whether Trump's appointment of two federal prosecutors was valid (NPR; 20 Oct 2025)

  • DOJ defends making Alina Habba New Jersey’s top prosecutor to skeptical court (The Hill; 20 Oct 2025)

Federal Shutdown

• Supreme Court Will Soon 'Run Out of Funding,' Close to Public (Law.com; 17 Oct 2025)

• IRS Remains Fully Staffed For Now As Government Shuts Down (Mondaq; 24 Oct 2025)

• Senate rejects shutdown pay plan for some federal workers (Politico; 23 Oct 2025)

• Shutdown or not, there are things to do (Government Executive; 23 Oct 2025)

  “The government shutdown has raised lots of questions about the retirement process, and retirement benefits, for federal employees while agencies remain closed. Here are some of the most pressing answers.”

• Unions Pursue More Protection For Federal Workers In Shutdown (Law360; 22 Oct 2025)

• House Dems urge utilities to keep lights on for feds amid shutdown (Government Executive; 22 Oct 2025)

• Nashville's federal court stays open without pay. Public defender calls it devastating (The Tennessean; 21 Oct 2025)

Non-Federal Governmental Issues

• NC House committee probes legal aid spending, as organizations face funding cuts and uncertainty (BPR; 22 Oct 2025)

  “North Carolina House lawmakers held a hearing Wednesday to question how millions of dollars in legal aid grants are distributed through a state program. The House Select Committee on Oversight and Reform questioned the Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts. Under that program, the interest from certain accounts held in escrow is distributed to nonprofits that provide legal services for people who can't afford them. The General Assembly froze the program's grantmaking in July while lawmakers investigated how funds are given. Rep. Allison Dahle warned that the freeze could jeopardize hundreds of jobs at Legal Aid of North Carolina, the state's largest nonprofit law firm.”

• Four sue head of [LA] state public defender board, say they were wrongly terminated (ABC local; 22 Oct 2025)

Civil Society

• Top U.S. Trial Lawyers Sound the Alarm on Attacks on Democracy at National Speak Up for Justice Forum (PR Newswire; 21 Oct 2025)

• Disability Rights Arkansas to furlough staff and stop taking new cases (CBS Local; 24 Oct 2025)

• Inside the Trump-Induced ‘Chilling Effect’ on Liberal Philanthropy (The Free Press; 20 Oct 2025)

• Facing Nonprofit Fury, GoFundMe Reverses Course (Chronicle of Philanthropy; 24 Oct 2025)

  “After a week of backlash from nonprofits angry that donation pages GoFundMe created for their organizations were showing up high in searches by donors, the company has announced it is making the pages opt in and removing and de-indexing pages that have not been claimed. Tim Cadogan, GoFundMe’s CEO, also issued an apology to nonprofits for the initial policy.”

• ‘Can I go outside?’ Richmond immigrants voice ICE fears as city launches legal aid (RichmondSide; 23 Oct 2025)

• Revenue Diversification Targeted By A Majority of Organizations (The NonProfit Times; 23 Oct 2025)

• Emergency Funding Takes On New Urgency Amid Government Shutdown (Chronicle of Philanthropy; 20 Oct 2025)

Student Debt & Other Student Concerns

• How PSLF Buyback Amounts Are Calculated (The College Investor; 21 Oct 2025)

Conflicts Over Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

• Columbia University Group Sues U.S. Government Over Trump Administration’s Law Firm Pledge Records (JD Journal; 23 Oct 2025)

  “The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, a nonprofit dedicated to defending freedom of speech, press, and government transparency, brought the suit after the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) allegedly failed to respond adequately to formal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. These requests sought the release of correspondence, memoranda, and agreements connected to pledges that several elite law firms reportedly made earlier this year to provide nearly $940 million in pro bono legal services to the Trump White House.”

• What Did the University of Virginia Agree To? (Inside Higher Ed; 24 Oct 2025)

• Amid Trump’s Assault on Higher Ed and DEI, Free Speech Advocates Stay Busy (Inside Higher Ed; 23 Oct 2025)

• Fifteen voluntary bar associations unite for the landmark Florida Black Lawyers Summit in Orlando (Florida Bar News; 23 Oct 2025)

• The EEOC is dropping discrimination claims — time to lawyer up (The Hill; 19 Oct 2025)

  “The primary federal agency charged by Congress with enforcing the federal employment discrimination laws recently made it easier for employers to discriminate against workers, according to a new internal memo, reported but not yet publicly released.”

• [Ed Note: I also refer readers out to NALP’s Weekly Industry News Digest, which has separate coverage of this topic]

Access to Justice

• Pritzker [IL] forms independent commission to document misconduct of federal agents (WIFR; 23 Oct 2025)

  “After urging Illinoisans last month to record concerning actions by federal agents, Gov. JB Pritzker signed an executive order Thursday creating a commission to review documentation submitted by the public.”

• [Portland, OR] Delayed court appearances for ICE protesters becoming ‘an issue,’ says defender (Spokesman-Review; 22 Oct 2025)

• [San Francisco, CA] Defender Shortage Spurs Pretrial Releases (San Francisco Chronicle; 23 Oct 2025)

• Washington state to reduce public defender caseloads by 2026 (CBS local; 23 Oct 2025)

• Legal nonprofit launches new 'mobile justice vans' to reach more Illinoisans (NPR; 20 Oct 2025)

• Outside court, ICE agents lay in wait. Inside, these lawyers are immigrants’ last hope (San Francisco Standard; 20 Oct 2025)

  “An unusual program providing attorneys for unrepresented asylum seekers is facing its greatest test.”