PSJD Public Interest News Digest – July 29, 2022
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello, interested public!
Life continues to be interesting. In Washington, the Biden Administration is strategizing with civil society lawyers on how to protect people seeking abortions post-Dobbs, while also delaying a promised decision on student loan forgiveness until the end of August. Meanwhile, new reporting suggests that Trump allies are planning changes to the federal civil service (if Trump is re-elected) that commenters are characterizing as a “purge”. Public defenders in New York State are on track for a pay increase that will see their spending power rise relative to inflation, while federal employees’ pay increase may not be sufficient to keep up with the times. And the nationwide struggle over the future of progressive prosecution continues. All these stories and more are in the links below.
Take care of one another,
Sam
Editor’s Choices
- In Washington DC, “more than two dozen advocacy groups said in a letter sent to President Joe Biden” that “[p]an-coronavirus vaccine technology currently in development by the U.S. military must remain public and should be shared with the world[:] ‘Current production and distribution agreements have empowered corporations while limiting the promise of life-saving coronavirus vaccines,” said Timi Iwayemi, senior researcher for the Revolving Door Project. “Continuing down a path that restricts widespread manufacturing and distribution of COVID vaccines would lead to unnecessary deaths and easier opportunities for the virus to mutate.’”
- Also in Washington DC, “[f]ormer aides close to President Trump are working to revive and expand his signature proposal to upend the federal civil service, according to a new report, and are working in conjunction with the former commander in chief to quickly purge thousands of federal employees if he were to return to office.”
Reproductive Justice
- In Washington DC, “[t]he White House and Justice Department [] will host their first meeting with outside lawyers to discuss how to protect those who seek abortions from legal repercussions [thirteen weeks after receiving advance warning and five weeks after] after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.”
- Relatedly, The Marshall Project explored how “[i]n rescinding the 49-year-old constitutional right to abortion care, the [Supreme C]ourt ‘suddenly dumped the abortion question back into the realm of criminal law.’”
- Also in Washington DC, “Democratic Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri plans to introduce legislation that would establish a new reproductive health office in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and provide grant money to reproductive care services.”
- Again also in Washington DC, “Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has backed out of teaching a seminar at George Washington University’s law school in the nation’s capital, following student protests and the university’s statement of support for the conservative justice’s role on campus.”
- In Cheyenne WY, “[a] lawsuit filed [] by a Casper women's health clinic and others seeks to block Wyoming's new abortion ban just before it's scheduled to take effect. The lawsuit claims the new law violates the state constitution with restrictions that will discourage potentially lifesaving pregnancy healthcare in Wyoming, forcing pregnant women to go to other states for necessary procedures.”
Climate Crisis
- In St. Paul MN, “Republican-endorsed attorney general candidate Jim Schultz is calling on Democratic incumbent Keith Ellison to reject activist requests to review criminal cases tied to oil pipeline protests as a special prosecutor.”
- In Austin TX, “Environmentalist groups and their allies held a press conference…to pressure Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton into litigating polluters.”
- In Massachusetts, “Biden announced millions of dollars in funding for climate change measures, including upgrading infrastructure, weatherizing buildings and installing cooling in homes[, but] did not declare a national climate emergency – a step that some Democratic officials and activists have urged after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin seemingly blocked legislative action and the Supreme Court limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.”
Rule of Law
- Also in Washington DC, “U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan warned Thursday that it would be dangerous if the Supreme Court loses touch with public sentiment or appears to be implementing political preferences.”
- In Uvalde TX, “[d]espite having in-house counsel, the city of Uvalde and its police department are working with a private firm to seal records of the horrific shooting at Robb Elementary School, records obtained by VICE show.”
Free & Fair Elections
- In Washington DC, “[l]egal experts [] warned lawmakers on the U.S. House Administration Committee that if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a North Carolina case that embraces a fringe election theory, it would undermine future elections across the country.”
- In Topeka KS, the state Court of Appeals ruled that “Kansas' top elections official violated the state's open records law when he had office computer software altered so that it could no longer produce data sought by a voting-rights advocate[.]”
- In Atlanta GA, Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled that “[t]he prosecutor who’s investigating whether former President Trump and his allies illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 election in Georgia cannot question a lawmaker who signed a certificate falsely stating that Trump won the state[.]”
- In Pennsylvania, “[m]ore than a dozen Pennsylvania Republicans are trying, for a second time, to throw out a mail voting law that many of them helped pass in the first place.”
Human Rights
- In Tampa, “a private school [] is taking on the Biden administration and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried in federal court, arguing it's being punished because its religious beliefs clash with new federal guidelines extending sex discrimination protections to LGBTQ individuals…An attorney for Grant Park Christian Academy said the school's failure to comply with the feds will force it to forfeit tens of thousands of dollars under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National School Lunch Program, which provides reduced-price or free meals to children from low-income families.”
- In New Haven CT, “a listserv used to organize several recent protests at Yale Law has been shut down. ‘If students want to “debate important questions,” the dean of Yale Law School Heather Gerken announced in an email on Wednesday, they can post on a physical bulletin board in the law school’s hallway.’”
- In Houston TX, “[t]he Justice Department opened an investigation against the city of Houston [] to determine whether complaints of illegal dumping — including dead bodies and animals — in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods amount to civil rights violations.”
Student Loans & Student Debt
- In Washington DC, “Sens. Chuck Schumer, Bob Menendez, Cory Booker, and Elizabeth Warren, along with Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Lauren Underwood, and Tony Crdenas, led 100 of their Democratic colleagues in sending a letter to Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona pushing for an extension of the federal pause on student-loan payments. The pause, currently set to expire after August 31, is just over a month away, and millions of borrowers are still waiting for news on whether it might be extended again, along with Biden's decision on broad student-loan forgiveness.” (open letter available via Sen. Menendez’ office)
- Also in Washington DC, “[f]ederal student loan servicers have been told to hold off on sending out payment reminders to borrowers, according to two sources familiar with the matter.”
- Again also in Washington DC, “[t]the Supreme Court’s June ruling in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, which curbed the agency’s authority to set certain climate change regulations, could now add another factor to the Biden administration’s decision-making process.”
Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring
- In the United States, “public pension funds are on pace for their deepest financial setback since the Great Recession as turmoil in global markets this year threaten to leave taxpayers and government workers on the hook.”
- In Washington DC, “[t]he odds that Congress would increase the average 4.6% pay raise planned for federal employees in 2023 got a little longer Thursday, after Senate appropriators revealed that they would effectively endorse President Biden’s pay increase proposal.”
- Editor’s Note: According to the Department of Labor’s Inflation Calculator, the inflation rate between June 2021 and June 2022 was 9%. By my math, this means that the spending power of federal wages will decline by 4.4% if this pay raise is approved.
- Also in Washington DC, “[t]he official in charge of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility efforts at the State Department told lawmakers on Tuesday that ‘this time is different,’ while recapping their process and acknowledging the work ahead of them.”
- In Macomb County MI, “[t]he Michigan Supreme Court has sided with Macomb County Prosecutor in a spat [between the prosecutor’s office and the county executive] over four jobs that [Prosecutor] Pete Lucido wants posted.”
- In Canada, “the federal government released its proposed Regulations Amending Certain Regulations Made Under the Canada Labour Code (Medical Leave with Pay) (the "Proposed Regulations"), with respect to paid sick leave for federally regulated employees.”
Access to Justice – Civil & Economic
- In New York NY, “[t]he number of evictions in New York City has increased every month from January to June, according to new city data. The state’s eviction moratorium expired on January 15 after officials extended it several times after it first took effect in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic. The data comes as more bad news for renters, who are facing record-high rents after prices fell early on in the pandemic.”
- Also in New York, “[a] judge overturned a law that allowed the state government to place even healthy citizens in quarantine camps for an indefinite time without review.”
- Again also in New York, “Attorney General Letitia James[] filed a lawsuit against the pharmacy conglomerate [CVS],” alleging they “diverted millions of dollars from underserved communities as part of an anticompetitive scheme involving Medicare 340B drug programs[.]”
- In Palo Alto CA, “Stanford Law School’s Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession and Legal Design Lab announced today a collaboration with court systems in six states – Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, Texas, and Virginia – to simplify filings in civil cases affecting millions of Americans.”
- In the United States, Truthout surveyed the nationwide “right-to-counsel in evictions” movement.
Access to Justice – Criminal
- In New York, “attorneys assigned to represent defendants who cannot afford to hire their own counsel are getting a raise for the first time in two decades. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lisa Headley’s decision and order directed New York state and New York City to pay assigned counsel a rate of $158 per hour, up from $90 per hour. The 75% pay increase is retroactive from February. Assigned counsel last received a pay increase in 2004.”
- Editor’s Note: According to the Department of Labor’s Inflation Calculator, the inflation rate between June 2004 and June 2022 was 56%. By my math, this means that the spending power of New York defenders’ wages will rise by 19%.
- Also in New York, “[t]he controversial circumstances surrounding the case of New York bodega worker Jose Alba exposes a fundamental flaw in how the New York state criminal legal system operates. In the state system, unless you happen to work for the New York Police Department, prosecutors often charge first and investigate later.”
- In Eaton County MI, “officials say, because of some policy changes at the state level, they are able to help more people who can't afford to hire a lawyer of their own…[after] the American Bar Association took a look at how these cases were being handled and coordinated some changes at the state level to bring the quality of legal care up to the same standard as the prosecutor's offices.”
- In Portland OR, Governor Kate Brown has asked the court to dismiss “[a] lawsuit filed in May [] asking the court to dismiss charges against five individuals who continuously had their case rescheduled because the state of Oregon does not have enough public defenders.”
Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform
- In Baltimore MD, “Marilyn Mosby, a high-profile prosecutor who aligned herself with criminal justice reformers but ended up with legal problems of her own, has lost the Democratic primary for Baltimore state’s attorney to Ivan Bates, a defense attorney…Mosby, who was a two-term incumbent, rose to national prominence in 2015 when she pursued criminal charges against six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, a Black man who suffered a spinal injury after police handcuffed, shackled and placed him headfirst into a van. His death triggered riots and protests. None of the officers was convicted.”
- In Chapel Hill NC, “[t]he Institute for Innovation in Protection launched a new project named “Protecting Workers: Wage Theft Enforcement for the Local Prosecutor,” designed to help prosecutors take on wage theft prosecutions.”
- In New York NY, “defense attorneys are asking judges to drop gun possession cases following this June’s Supreme Court decision striking down the state’s restrictive gun licensing regulations for violating a newly found Second Amendment right ‘to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense.’”
- Also in New York NY, “[t]he Bronx Defenders and The Bronx Community Foundation, along with U.S. senate majority leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer, State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33), and Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson, joined Bronx community leaders…to announce the launch of The Bronx Cannabis Hub…The Bronx Cannabis Hub is a new resource designed to give Bronx residents, who advocates say have been harmed by decades of cannabis prohibition, the means to participate in the new, legal cannabis industry.”
- In New York, gubernatorial candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin (Republican) stated that “the governor of the state of New York has the authority and I would argue the obligation to remove a district attorney who refuses to enforce the law. And Alvin Bragg, across the board since the first day he's been there, has refused to do his job. The first act will be notifying Alvin Bragg that he is being removed as a district attorney in Manhattan. We need to start securing our streets from day one, repealing cashless bail.”
- In Cook County IL, “high turnover has left State’s Attorney Kim Foxx with a significant backlog. A former state prosecutor says it's her own fault.”
- In Maricopa County AZ, “[t]he office has dozens of unfilled prosecutor jobs, which has slowed the pursuit of justice and frustrated police.”
- In Hennepin County MN, district attorney candidate Martha Holton Dimick argued that “our more lenient approach to prosecution is good as long as we fulfill our core responsibilities as prosecutors and law enforcement. Over the last two years, we have not. Car thieves know they will be released on the same day without bail; juvenile carjackers have nowhere to be placed for short-term detention or treatment, and dozens of homicides in Minneapolis from 2021 remain unsolved. And our leaders stood on a stage and told the world that we would end policing in Minneapolis. Since the murder of George Floyd, many criminals have heard the message that we don't care about their actions, and they have acted accordingly. My first priority right now is to restore the effectiveness of the office by emphasizing our core responsibility: swift, effective and fair prosecution.”
- In Tennessee, “[n]ewly proposed rules covering juvenile detention centers in Tennessee are supposed to ban solitary confinement. But critics say they were written with the exclusive help of juvenile detention operators and would allow facilities to continue locking children in solitary confinement.”
- In Pennsylvania, “[a] former public defender turned Philadelphia County judge has been nominated by President Joe Biden to serve on the federal bench in Pennsylvania.”