Archive for November, 2025

PSJD News Digest – November 14, 2025

November 14, 2025 at 3:44 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,

Welcome to the end of another week–and the end of the United States’ longest shutdown of the federal government. Welcome back, to all the federal workers who returned to work yesterday. The “Federal Shutdown” section below includes a number of stories picking apart what reporting indicates we can expect next. The “Editor’s Choices” section includes a number of additional, noteworthy stories. Additional stories, as always, are in the links below.

Solidarity,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

  • Justice Department struggles as thousands exit — and few are replaced (Washington Post; 10 Nov 2024)

    “The Justice Department has lost thousands of experienced attorneys since the start of the Trump administration and has backfilled a fraction of the open jobs, with the process snarled by a lack of qualified candidates, bureaucratic delays and hiring freezes, according to people familiar with hirings in the department. …Employment law experts said they worry that some Trump officials are finding work-arounds in the hiring process to ensure that new hires for nonpolitical career positions align with the president’s politics. When prospective Justice Department employees apply for a job, for example, they are asked to detail a Trump executive order or policy that is significant to them and how they would advance that initiative. The question is also asked of people applying to other executive branch agencies.”

  • Why I Am Resigning, by Mark L. Wolf [D. Mass.] (The Atlantic; 9 Nov 2025)

    “In 1985, President Ronald Reagan appointed me as a federal judge. I was 38 years old. At the time, I looked forward to serving for the rest of my life. However, I resigned Friday…My reason is simple: I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom. President Donald Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment. This is contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench. The White House’s assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me that I feel compelled to speak out. Silence, for me, is now intolerable.”

  • Maurene Comey’s Case Is More Consequential Than Her Father’s [opinion] (New York Times; 13 Nov 2025)

    “The resolution of Ms. Comey’s challenge to her dismissal could affect the legal rights of nearly all federal employees…According to the latest version of the law, passed in 1978, employees are entitled to “fair and equitable treatment … without regard to political affiliation … and with proper regard for their privacy and constitutional rights,” and personnel actions (including firings) must be based on merit and fitness, and must not be arbitrary, capricious or discriminatory. According to her legal claim, Ms. Comey was fired in violation of these provisions. Her lawsuit is a nearly perfect test case, because she had an impeccable record as a prosecutor.”

    • Justice Dept. Struggled to Find Lawyers to Handle Maurene Comey Suit (New York Times; 13 Nov 2025)

      “Two months later, the Justice Department, hobbled by scores of resignations and firings and strained by a crisis in morale, has not responded to the lawsuit. The department, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, has struggled to determine which of its offices and lawyers will handle Ms. Comey’s lawsuit, leading to the highly unusual lapse. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal Justice Department affairs.”

Federal Restructuring

  • The DOJ has been firing judges with immigrant defense backgrounds (NPR; 6 Nov 2025)

    “Nemer was one of the first immigration judges fired by the Trump administration after a slew of dismissals of leaders at the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the branch of the Justice Department that houses immigration courts. Later that month, the administration fired 12 judges — an entire incoming class that had just been trained and was about to take the bench…The pattern has been consistent. Every few months this year, a new class of judges gets termination notices in the middle of the day, often while they are in the middle of immigration court proceedings. The notices often target those who have reached the end of their two-year probationary period, a trial period for federal workers before they are "converted" to permanent employees. It was previously common for these civil servants to be converted to permanent employees of the DOJ. …She wonders if her past experience representing immigrants got her fired, even though she also worked at DHS as an asylum officer. Her hunch has some correlation with the data.”

  • Trump administration declares CFPB funding illegal (Politico; 11 Nov 2025)

    “The Trump administration has formally determined the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s current funding mechanism is unlawful, a move that puts the agency on track to close in the coming months when its existing cash runs out. The decision, disclosed in a court filing late Monday, marks the administration’s most direct effort yet to dismantle the consumer watchdog and sets up a new front in the ongoing legal battle over its future. The administration said it now considers the CFPB legally barred from seeking additional money from the Federal Reserve, which is the agency’s typical source of funding.”

Federal Shutdown

  • Senate moves shutdown-ending deal that would ensure backpay and unwind some federal layoffs (Government Executive; 9 Nov 2025)

    “In one concession to Democrats, the bill will unwind the more than 4,000 layoffs the Trump administration issued during the shutdown. Those reductions in force are currently paused by a federal court…The legislation would ban all agencies from carrying out any RIFs through January. The package of three full-year funding bills would largely reject funding cuts proposed by President Trump, particularly those within USDA.”

  • End of government shutdown won’t stop SNAP mayhem (WBJF; 13 Nov 2025)

    “[S]tates that have issued partial benefits this month may run into more complications when the shutdown ends, as they will have to recalculate the remaining benefits for their beneficiaries. For some states, this could mean hiring third-party vendors to handle this administrative task, as many don’t have the necessary infrastructure to process the unprecedented disruption. States that managed to maintain full benefits so far have run into roadblocks of their own…Green noted this disruption has crucial implications. Because of provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, states will have to begin paying for part of SNAP benefits beginning in 2028, with this percentage determined by payment error rates. Error rates hovered around 11 percent nationally in 2024.”

  • Federal workers question whether the longest government shutdown was worth their sacrifice (AP; 14 Nov 2025)

    “With the longest shutdown ever over, Sweet and hundreds of thousands of other federal workers who missed paychecks will soon get some relief. But many are left feeling that their livelihoods served as political pawns in the fight between recalcitrant lawmakers in Washington and are asking themselves whether the battle was worth their sacrifices…But the whiplash of the past six weeks, coupled with the concern that the longest shutdown ever may not be the last they face, has shaken many in the workforce…For Sweet, the feelings of frustration are only compounded by a feeling that she was betrayed by the Democratic-aligned senators who broke with the party on the health care subsidies…“There are other federal workers who understood what we were holding the line for and are extremely unhappy that line was crossed and that trust was breached,” she said. The federal workers who spoke to The Associated Press had one common message: that they were reeling but ready to get back to work.”

Non-Federal Governmental Issues

Civil Society

Student Debt & Other Student Concerns

  • Warren, Senators Urge Trump Administration to Stop Imminent “Tax Bomb” for Student Loan Borrowers (Protect Borrowers; 10 Nov 2025)

    “In 2021, Congress passed into law a provision excluding student debt cancellation from taxable income. As a result, borrowers who received student debt relief after years of repayment were not faced with high and unexpected tax bills. However, that provision is set to expire at the end of this year. Absent action from President Trump or Republicans in Congress, this expiration will mean that borrowers on IDR plans who have legally earned debt cancellation after 20 or 25 years of repayment will be hit with significant tax bills.”

Conflicts Over Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

Access to Justice

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PSJD News Digest (Last Week of October, First Week of November)

November 13, 2025 at 11:15 am · Filed under Public Interest Law News Bulletin

Hi Interested Public,

Okay. We’ve got some catching up to do. This digest covers the last week of October and the first week of November. I’ll be releasing another one tomorrow at the regular time to cover this week. The news below primarily concerns the new final rule from the Department of Education giving them the authority to disqualify PSLF payments from borrowers employed with public service organizations with a “substantial illegal purpose” (read all about that in Student Loans, below). In tomorrow’s digest, I’ll look at news from this week–including stories analyzing the Continuing Resolution ending the federal shutdown, which included a number of provisions related to federal employee compensation and reductions in force. (So, you won’t find that story below; check in again tomorrow.)

Solidarity,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

Federal Restructuring

  • Hegseth fired the Air Force’s top lawyer. The JAG who took on the job is stepping away. (Government Executive; 24 Oct 2025)“It’s been eight months since the service had a Senate-confirmed leader in the role.”
  • Federal Whistleblowers Sound an Alarm Over Civil Rights at HUD (The Nation; 31 Oct 2025)“[F]our attorneys and staff workers at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD’s Office of General Counsel and Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, went public with an emergency complaint…Civil rights enforcement at HUD and throughout the federal government is being dismantled…When you come to us with a complaint, it might not even get investigated because of the staffing cuts or because political appointees say that, “We don’t want to look into that type of case anymore. That’s DEI now. We’re just not going to do that.”
  • DOE beefs up legal staffing (Politico; 27 Oct 2025)
  • Interior misuses ‘acting’ titles, nonprofit watchdog says (E&E News [Politico]; 31 Oct 2025)“The Interior Department failed to follow federal law by letting senior officials who lack Senate confirmation serve in “acting” roles, according to a nonprofit watchdog group. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is planning to send a letter Friday to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, accusing four senior Trump administration officials of serving with improper titles.”

Federal Shutdown

Non-Federal Governmental Issues

Civil Society

Student Debt & Other Student Concerns

Conflicts Over Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

Access to Justice

Comments off