Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hi Interested Public,

Lots of big stories this week, leading with a few editors’ choices below. Solidarity,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

• DHS memo directs ICE to ramp up asylum-related fraud cases (CBS; 26 May 2026)

  “In a memo dated May 26 and obtained by CBS News, DHS General Counsel James Percival instructed ICE attorneys within the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor to develop "anti-fraud policies" designed for "robust enforcement" of existing federal anti-fraud law. The memo said that any effort "should include enforcement against immigration attorneys filing false asylum claims in immigration court."” [emphasis added]

• Law Schools Sent Fewer Grads to Government, Public Interest Roles in 2025 (Law.com; 13 May 2026)

  “the number of grads who went to government and public interest positions declined by about 14% in 2025 compared to the year prior, and federal clerkships dropped by 11%, according to data from the American Bar Association. Some of this decline may be attributed to the 2025 graduating class shrinking by 7% compared to the previous year.”

• UC Berkeley Law School bans most AI use following plagiarism issues (San Francisco Chronicle; 22 May 2026)

Federal Restructuring & Funding

• The White House is ordering agencies to place its new app on all employees’ government phones (Government Executive; 22 May 2026)

  “The push to install the app on the devices of millions of government employees drew surprise from current and former federal officials, who called the move highly unusual and even dangerous. In at least one agency, the automatic downloads will start next week in a move directed by the White House itself, according to internal communications obtained by Government Executive. A button gives the option to “text President Trump,” which, when clicked, opens a text message to a pre-selected number with the default text “Greatest President Ever!” Sending the text signs the user up for alerts, which individuals can also do through the app itself.”

• Trump administration proposes NDAs for all federal workers (Washington Post; 26 May 2026)

• Federal employees may see faster path to promotions (Federal News Network; 27 May 2026)

• DOJ antitrust exits feed steady hires by private firms (Reuters; 27 May 2026)

• Immigration courts are using a new tactic to speed up deportations (NPR; 26 May 2026)

  “Immigration courts inside the Justice Department are drastically accelerating immigrants' hearings and bunching them together with the goal of issuing more deportation orders…Immigrants are now being scheduled for massive master calendar hearings — or "mega masters" — that include 100 or more people at a time. That's up from two or three dozen people at a time, which had been typical before for a first hearing.”

• Supreme Court sides with Trump in dispute over immigration judges’ speech restrictions (AP; 26 May 2026)

• DoD launches a departmentwide review of the military legal system (Federal News Network; 13 May 2026)

State & Local Restructuring & Funding

• Illinois Supreme Court Amends Rule to Allow Newly-Admitted Attorneys to Participate in Pro Bono Pilot Program (Illinois State Bar Ass’n PR; 28 May 2026)

  “Under the pilot program, which began on July 1, 2025, an attorney may earn one MCLE credit hour for every two hours of pro bono participation in Illinois Free Legal Answers, up to five credits per MCLE reporting period. The amendment to the language of Rule 795 will now permit newly-admitted attorneys who have not yet entered their first two-year MCLE reporting period to participate in the pilot program.”

• Immigration Legal Defense Funding in NYS Budget is Dangerously Insufficient Amid Escalating Crisis Facing Immigrant Communities, According to CARE for Immigrant Families Coalition (Vera Institute PR; 27 May 2026)

• New state law will increase civil legal aid for Alaskans in need (Anchorage Daily News; 22 May 2026)

Civil Society

• Immigrant Justice Lab Receives Grants to Expand Access to Immigration Resources and Study AI’s Role in Legal Education (Michigan Law PR; 29 May 2026)

• In Search of University Democracy (University of Pennsylvania Law Review; 19 May 2026)

  “Virtually all institutions of higher education in the United States share the same basic governance structure…boards are unrepresentative of and unaccountable to the campus community. This governance model does not reliably produce better educational or operational outcomes; it sits in stark tension with universities’ aspirations to be autonomous intellectual communities; and it has been rejected by prominent universities abroad. Why is it ubiquitous here? …at a time when higher education faces mounting threats from political actors at the federal and state levels, there are good reasons to believe that more stakeholder-oriented governance models could help to safeguard the academic mission of universities as well as the democratic capacity of the broader society.”

• Southern Poverty Law Center seeks dismissal of 'vindictive' Justice Department indictment (PBS; 26 May 2026)

• Wilson Sonsini Offers Nearly $1M in Stipends to Summer Associates, Nonprofits to Encourage Pro Bono Partnerships (Law.com; 14 May 2026)

• Harvard Law School expands resources for public interest work (Harvard Law Today; 22 May 2026)

Student Debt & Other Student Concerns

• Taking Out a Federal Student Loan Will Get More Expensive Next Year (Money; 29 May 2026)

• The Trump administration is already taking a bite out of your Social Security payments, and they may be going in for a second (Parade; 27 May 2026)

  “The second garnishment that appears to be added involves those who have defaulted on their federal student loans. According to the publication, there's been an increase in senior borrowers defaulting on these loans, and now an estimated 452,000 Social Security recipients could stand to have their benefits garnished if they are behind on those federal student loan payments.”

• 26 States Sue Trump Administration To Block Steep Cuts To Student Loans (Tampa Free Press; 23 May 2026)

Conflicts Over Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

• Federal Judge to Law Grads: DEI Is ‘Absolutely Intrinsic' to Equal Justice (Law.com; 21 May 2026)

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

Access to Justice

• [MA] State public-defender system runs out of money for clinicians and other professionals (Universal Hub; 28 May 2026)

• Critics say WA is neglecting to fund public defenders amid caseload cut (Fox13 Seattle; 26 May 2026)

• Spokane Public Defenders accuse Spokane County of 'bad faith bargaining' in months of pay negotiations (KREM2; 22 May 2026)

• San Fran­cisco left without immig­ra­tion court (Santa Fe New Mexican; 24 May 2026)

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hi Interested Public,

Lots of big stories this week; you can read about them in the links below. Solidarity,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

• Fewer law school grads head to government, public interest or clerkship jobs (ABA Journal; 14 May 2026)

• Legal Nonprofit Files Bar Complaints Against Carr (Communications Daily; 20 May 2026)

  “The Legal Accountability Center (LAC) has filed bar complaints against FCC Chairman Brendan Carr in Washington, D.C., and Maryland over his recent actions against Disney and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the agency's conduct during Skydance’s purchase of Paramount, and his “leveraging [of] regulatory authority in a manner that appears retaliatory toward protected speech and selectively targets broadcasters who President [Donald] Trump dislikes.””

  • Justice Dept. Sues DC Bar Over Disciplinary Action Against Trump Attorneys (The Well; 20 May 2026)

    “The Justice Department is suing to block disciplinary proceedings by the District of Columbia Bar against attorneys who served in the Trump administration in a lawsuit that asserts politics not ethics violations is the key issue.”

• Federal workers sue Trump regime over pro-Christian nationalist proselytizing (People’s World; 20 May 2026)

  “[A] federal workers union sued Trump Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins for Christian proselytizing to USDA’s 110,000 workers[:] The National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), a Machinists sector, seven USDA workers, the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and Democracy Forward—pro bono lawyers who help unions and individuals oppose Trump’s dictatorial actions—told the U.S. District Court in San Francisco on May 13 that Rollins violated the U.S. Constitution’s 1st Amendment.”

Federal Restructuring & Funding

• Trump administration expects to strip hundreds at US health agencies of job protections (Reuters; 18 May 2026)

  “U.S. President Donald Trump's administration expects hundreds of health department officials will lose civil service job protections, making them easier to fire, as it carries out a plan to revamp the federal workforce, according to an internal memo reviewed by Reuters.”

• Survey: Feds were less engaged, less satisfied and more burnt out in 2025 (Government Executive; 20 May 2026)

  “But quarterly federal employee workplace scores generally showed improvements by the end of last year and the beginning of 2026.”

• Attorney General Ellison urges funds to reevaluate decision to cut off Southern Poverty Law Center (MN AG PR; 21 May 2026)

  “Today, Attorney General Ellison led a coalition of 15 other attorneys general in urging several large donor-advised fund sponsors to carefully evaluate their decision to stop payments to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) following the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) highly controversial indictment of the SPLC. In their letter to the donor-advised fund sponsors, the coalition warns the institutions of the harm that could result from them helping the Trump administration target nonprofits for simply exercising their First Amendment rights.”

• EOIR Announces 77 Immigration Judges and 5 Temporary Immigration Judges (DOJ PR; 21 May 2026)

  “Largest Class in Agency’s History”

  • Fired US immigration judge sues over alleged targeting by Trump administration (Westlaw Today; 18 May 2026)

    “A former immigration judge in Massachusetts has filed a lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump's administration of unlawfully firing him in part because of his past advocacy on behalf of people from Latin America.”

• Treasury lawyer quits as government settles Trump IRS suit (Wall Street Journal; 19 May 2026)

  “The Treasury Department’s top lawyer resigned Monday as the government announced a controversial settlement with President Trump, according to people familiar with his departure. Brian Morrissey joined the Trump administration last year as the president’s pick to be Treasury Department’s general counsel, after previously serving at the agency and at the Justice Department during Trump’s first term. A former clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, Morrissey didn’t respond to a request for comment late Monday.”

• Appeals court upholds order reinstating [Dept.] VA’s union contracts (Government Executive; 21 May 2026)

• White House withholds $1.3B in Medicaid payments to California amid broader fraud crackdown (Government Executive; 15 May 2026)

• DoD launches a departmentwide review of the military legal system (Federal News Network; 13 May 2026)

State & Local Restructuring & Funding

• State pays law school tuition in exchange for rural public service (Roswell Daily Record; 20 May 2026)

  “New Mexico is expanding legal resources for some of the state’s most underserved communities, placing trained attorneys in acequias, land grant-merced communities and colonias across New Mexico. The Community Governance Attorney Program, housed within the New Mexico Higher Education Department, supports up to two eligible third-year University of New Mexico School of Law students each year. Recipients receive financial support for tuition, fees and a living stipend during their final year of law school.”

• It’s hard to get legal help in rural Kansas. Now the state will pay new attorneys to practice there (Hays Post; 9 May 2026)

  “To help meet the needs of these rural areas lawmakers passed a two-pronged plan. * Give law students $3,000 stipends if they promise to work in a rural area. * Give practicing lawyers $20,000 for each year they serve in a rural area for up to five years.”

• Texas governor proposes creation of state prosecutor position (Fox26 Houston; 18 May 2026)

Civil Society

• Trump's Budget Cuts, Funding Squeeze Deepen Nonprofit Strain As Demand For Services Surges — 60% Of Them Say Grants Are Harder To Secure (Beninga; 15 May 2026) [report available here]

  “The report, titled "State of Nonprofits 2026: What Funders Need to Know," surveyed 380 nonprofit CEOs in February and found that 46% said their own burnout was "very much a concern," up from 29% in 2025.”

• The United States Labels Nonprofits as Foreign Threats, Borrowing from an Authoritarian Playbook (Non-Profit Quarterly; 18 May 2026)

• Chicago judge shoots down special prosecutor to investigate ICE (Courthouse News Service; 21 May 2026)

  “A Cook County judge said the petitioners failed to show the state's attorney abandoned her duties by refusing to prosecute ICE agents involved in shootings last year.”

• The Prosecution of the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Tradition of Citizen-Led Investigation (Non-Profit Quarterly; 19 May 2026)

  • Over 440 Civil Rights, Faith, and Labor Organizations Call Department of Justice Indictment of Southern Poverty Law Center a “Naked Attempt to Weaponize the the Criminal Justice System to Silence Speech” (Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights PR; 20 May 2026)

Student Debt & Other Student Concerns

• Why New Student Loan Changes May Raise Bills for Those Least Able to Pay (Bad Credit; 12 May 2026)

  “At present, a limited amount of income needed to cover a borrower’s basic needs gets left out of the payment formula…the new Repayment Assistance Plan, an income-driven repayment plan from the U.S. Department of Education, eliminates this exception. This results in higher monthly payments for the lowest-income borrowers, according to the NCLC.”

• Student Loan Update: Millions of Borrowers Now in Default After Big Changes (Newsweek; 13 May 2026)

• Democratic-led states challenge the Trump administration's new caps on federal student loans (Las Vegas Sun; 19 May 2026)

Conflicts Over Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

• EEOC Plan to Cut Race, Sex Reports Carries Downsides for Agency (Bloomberg Law; 19 May 2026)

• ABA Legal Ed council votes to repeal diversity and inclusion standard (ABA Journal; 15 May 2026)

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

Access to Justice

• Advocates Press for More ‘Right to Counsel’ Funds, As New Yorkers Facing Eviction Still Struggle to Get Legal Help (City Limits; 20 May 2026)

• Public defenders sue Spokane County [WA] over work standards (The Spokesman-Review; 11 May 2026)

• Shasta County [CA] DA's Office faces prosecutor exodus over pay (Redding Record Searchlight; 11 May 2026)

• Lawmakers Examine Rural Attorney Shortage (The Texas Lawbook; 21 May 2026)

  “Solving a lawyer shortage in rural parts of Texas requires a coordinated pipeline effort involving law schools, the bar and the legislature, representatives from North Texas law schools told the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee this week during a hearing on how the state’s law schools can help address the crisis.”

  • ‘Constitutional Crisis’: Attorneys share concerns about the State of criminal law in rural Texas (KXAN Austin; 19 May 2026)

    “Concho Valley First Assistant Public Defender, Ted Wenske, drove over three hours from Abilene to the Texas Capitol to advocate for an increase in criminal attorneys in rural areas across rural Texas as his office faces bigger workloads.”

• Maryland Public Defender calls past legislative session an ‘important shift’ for justice reform (WYPR; 21 May 2026)

  “Five justice reform bills championed by the Maryland Office of the Public Defender (OPD) have been signed into law, which has sparked a newfound sense of optimism within State Public Defender Natasha Dartigue around Maryland’s criminal justice system.”

• LawDroid Launches Free Open-Source Claude AI Plugin for Civil Legal Aid (LawDroid PR; 20 May 2026)

  “The launch follows Anthropic’s recent expansion of Claude for Legal, including new workflows, integrations, and practice-area tools for the legal profession. While the announcement marked a major step forward for legal AI, much of the focus centered on commercial practice areas, leaving a significant gap for the access-to-justice community. The 132 LSC-funded legal aid programs, hundreds of court self-help centers, and public-interest legal providers that serve low-income and vulnerable communities were largely overlooked.”

• [FL] Supreme Court asked if capital defendants with private lawyers can get taxpayer-funded co-counsel (Florida Bar News; 21 May 2026)

• [CAN Federal] Court strikes application regarding right to counsel in immigration cases (Law360 Canada; 15 May 2026)

• California has a public defender crisis. A new bill seeks to force the state to confront it (Cal Matters; 13 May 2026)

• Answering the Call for Evidence on Nonlawyer Legal Service Providers (Stanford Law School Blogs; 19 May 2026)

  “In a recent article, “Unauthorized Practice: Assessing Available Evidence,” Professor Nora Freeman Engstrom and Rhode Center Associate Director Natalie Knowlton get to ground on this enduring debate. Compiling nearly a century of research on nonlawyer providers, conducted at different times, in different places, and using a wide array of methodologies, Engstrom and Knowlton tackle an enduring question—can nonlawyers offer high-quality legal services?—with fresh insight.”