PSJD Public Interest News Digest – March 3, 2023
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello, interested public! Major news this week revolved around DC, where the Supreme Court weighed the arguments against student loan relief and granted certiorari in a case challenging the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau while the Biden Administration adopted immigration policies that legal experts compared to Trump’s “transit ban”. On a more local level, governments continue to focus on funding for prosecutors and public defenders, including in Maine, private attorneys are stepping up to represent indigent clients after lawmakers nearly doubled their hourly rate–but advocates insist more reforms are needed, in New York, Governor Hochul’s Budget proposed tens of millions of new spending dollars for prosecutors while rejecting a request from public defender organizations for parity funding, and in Houston TX, where reporting revealed that a former prosecutor has collected over $1 million last year representing indigent defendants on a contract basis.
As always, these stories and more are in the links below.
Take care of one another,
Sam
Editor’s Choice
Student Loans & Student Debt
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In Washington DC, “[p]rotesters camp[ed] outside [the] Supreme Court ahead of [the] student debt relief debate”
Immigration & Refugee Issues
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According to Prof. Karen Musalo (UCSF), “[t]he policy – which immigrant rights advocates, congressional leaders and faith groups are calling an ‘asylum ban’ or ‘transit ban’ – is almost identical to one implemented by the Trump administration in 2019. The Trump-era rule was later struck down by the courts as unlawful.”
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Environmental Justice
Gender & Reproductive Rights
Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring
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In Washington DC, Government Executive noted that “[when] a train carrying toxic chemical material derailed in eastern Ohio…a series of decisions by authorities created an evacuation zone in the community, as well as a controlled release of toxic fumes [while] one of the agencies tasked with safety regulations around hazardous materials, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, has been without a confirmed head since the end of the Trump administration.”
Access to Justice – Civil & Economic
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On the Legal Talk Network, Prof. Quinten Steenhuis (Suffolk University) “discuss[ed] his team’s successful collaboration with legal aid orgs to use technology to scale help for the courtformsonline.org project and the potential to use tech to extend the reach of legal services.”
Access to Justice – Criminal
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In Ionia County MI, “[w]ith a state mandate to increase salaries for Ionia County Public Defender’s Office attorneys, the county’s Board of Commissioners is also increasing pay for the Prosecutor’s Office.”