July 28, 2023 at 12:31 pm
· Filed under Public Interest Law News Bulletin
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Photo: Harris and Ewing Collection, Library of Congress
Hello, interested public! The Digest has finally caught up with current events, which continue to move at a whirlwind pace. This week sees major stories in almost every area we follow together, including the State of Alabama’s decision to disobey an order from the Supreme Court to rework its election districts, a lawsuit brought by the DoJ against the State of Texas for deploying spiked barriers into the Rio Grande, a congressional budgeting error that threatens to dramatically cut funding to the federal defender service, an effort by landlords in New Jersey to undo recent right-to-counsel in eviction legislation…I could go on, but I’ll stop there and invite you instead to keep reading. As always, these stories and more are in the links below.
Take care of each other,
Sam
Editor’s Choice
Free & Fair Elections
Reproductive Rights
Student Loans & Student Debt
In Washington DC, “[m]ore than 175 advocacy groups representing borrowers want the Biden administration to move quickly to discharge student loans, as the president promised last August. Such a move would protect borrowers from harm and would be legal, the groups argued in a joint letter, citing an unsigned legal memorandum that outlined how the Higher Education Act of 1965 and other federal laws allow the administration to provide relief quickly. ”
In the United States, “[w]hen you take inflating college tuition costs into account, not only is Gen Z more likely to have student debt, they also have higher balances than any other generation. On average, Gen Z had outstanding student debt balances of $20,900 — 13% higher than millennials…Going by this trend, Gen Z is sprinting headfirst into what some economists refer to as a “student loan cliff” that will have a lasting impact on the American economy. ”
Environmental Crisis
In New York NY, “[s]peaking at UN Headquarters, the [UN] Secretary-General underscored the need for global action on emissions, climate adaptation and climate finance. He warned that ‘the era of global warming has ended’ and ‘the era of global boiling has arrived.’…He said leaders ‘must step up for climate action and climate justice’, particularly those from the G20 leading industrial nations, responsible for 80 per cent of global emissions. He pointed to upcoming summits – including the UN Climate Ambition Summit in September and the COP28 climate conference in Dubai in November – as critical opportunities. ”
In Washington DC, “President Biden unveiled several measures [] aimed at addressing the extreme heat affecting large swaths of the nation, including ramped-up enforcement of safety protections for workers in fields such as construction and agriculture who are most vulnerable to high temperatures. ”
Meanwhile, also in Washington DC, “[t]he Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a controversial $6.6 billion natural-gas pipeline spanning just over 300 miles, from West Virginia’s northwestern border to southern Virginia. In a brief unsigned order, the justices lifted orders by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit that had put construction in the Jefferson National Forest, in southern Virginia, on hold while challenges from environmental groups to the construction continue. There were no recorded dissents. ”
In the United States, “PFAS, short for per- and polyfluorinated substances, are a class of chemicals used to make heat, grease, and water-resistant coatings…Given their widespread use, they can be found virtually everywhere, including in myriad consumer and other products, and in soil and groundwater—including on farmland and other sites not typically associated with environmental contamination. Moreover, EPA and state regulators have determined that exposure to almost any level of PFAS can result in health risks. Consequently,…[t]he volume of PFAS-related lawsuits will almost certainly rise in the coming years. With pressure mounting on the federal and state governments to more tightly regulate PFAS, these “forever chemicals” may well be the contemporary version of asbestos or PCBs when it comes to environmental litigation. ”
Also in the United States, “[m]ore and more companies are pledging to zero out their greenhouse gas emissions using ‘voluntary carbon offsets’… Experts have described offsets as a ‘climate scam’ and the voluntary market for them a ‘Wild West.’ Now, federal regulatory agencies are beginning to take note. One of these is the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, an independent government body charged with ensuring the stability of the country’s derivatives markets[;…]recent actions suggest that it’s gearing up for a more proactive regulatory role in this space. ”
Immigration & Refugee Issues
Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring
In a webinar, “[the] Taproot Foundation team[ed] up with TrustLaw, the global pro bono legal service of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, [to discuss] how nonprofits and social enterprises can access their network of law firms for free legal assistance. ”
In the United States, “[a] congressional budgeting error in pending spending bills has cast a dark cloud over the future of federal public defenders, as they may be forced to lay off up to 500 staff members. If not promptly addressed, the budget cut could slash the Federal Public and Community Defenders’ budget by 3% to 5%, jeopardizing their ability to provide crucial legal representation to the most vulnerable members of society. ”
In Connecticut, “the first Black woman to lead the Division of Public Defender Services…[i]n an exclusive interview with The Connecticut Mirror…maintains that she has openly communicated her goals from day one and finds that much of the backlash [to her leadership] has materialized in unexpected ways…The public narrative suggests her arrival was the catalyst for the troubles. But her supporters say many of the problems have long persisted. Absent from some people’s treatment of Bowden-Lewis, they say, is respect for her leadership…‘I was here for two white women that were previous chiefs. That never happened. There was never this undermining,’ said Amy Baez, who works within the division’s financial unit and, in 2018, filed a discrimination complaint against the agency. ”
In New York NY, “[t]he city is chipping away at its notoriously tardy payments to nonprofit contractors through a new reform that could eliminate nine months of delays each year, Mayr Eric Adams and City Comptroller Brad Lander announced[.] ”
In Washington DC, “[w]hile President Biden has revoked his mandate that all federal employees receive a COVID-19 vaccine, his administration is asking the Supreme Court to vacate the decision that blocked the requirement…the administration is now seeking to prevent a wider, precedent-setting ruling that would rewrite presidential authorities by instead having the case dismissed as no longer relevant. ”
Access to Justice – Civil & Economic
In Nashville TN, the Nashville Scene profiled the practice of “Code Snitching”, describing how “Nashvillians are weaponizing metro codes against ‘undesirable’ neighbors[:]…‘Think about who a system like this targets, and who it benefits,’ says Joanna Weiss, co-director of the Fines and Fees Justice Center in New York. ‘Poor people don’t typically call Codes on their neighbors, because poor people don’t trust the legal system. The people who benefit from complaint-driven systems are people for whom the legal system already works perfectly. Wealthy people. White people. Developers. And they usually use it as a weapon against people who don’t have the means to fight back’[.] ”
In Jersey City NJ, “[t]he Jersey City Property Owners’ Association is challenging the recently approved right-to-counsel law, claiming it is unconstitutional, in a new court filing…JCPOA contends that tenants’ right to counsel ‘is not a power delegated to municipalities by the State of New Jersey’. ” (For more on the history of Jersey City’s Right-to-Counsel in Eviction law, see previous editions of this Digest.)
In San Antonio TX, “[t]he City of San Antonio has joined a lawsuit against the State of Texas over a newly passed law that critics say would sharply curtail the ability of cities and counties to pass local regulations…The new law, which takes effect on Sept. 1, will prevent cities like San Antonio from making or enforcing local laws across broad areas of state law, including on issues like evictions or employment benefits. ”
In Colorado, “[f]or the first time, Colorado's second-highest court has recognized there is a right to effective assistance of counsel for people involved in criminal cases whom the government wishes to forcibly medicate. ”
In Michigan, the State Supreme Court ruled that “[p]ro bono representation should not be a factor in determining a reasonable attorney fee award,…finding a judge wrongly slashed Honigman LLP's fee award when it represented a pair of journalists for free in a public records case. ”
In Florida, “[a]n indigent man contesting a parental rights dispute effectively ‘forfeited’ his right to public counsel after at least five lawyers assigned to him dropped him as a client for not following their advice or threatening them, a Florida appeals court ruled[.] ”
In Manitoba, “[a] 45-page report released [by the auditor general] outlined seven recommendations for Manitoba’s Department of Justice which include improving administration and outdated technology, hiring more staff and providing better service in northern Manitoba. The report examined the efficiency of Manitoba's provincial court system and found case backlogs and court delays have stalled justice. ”
In California, “there's a new state effort offering free legal assistance to farmworkers confronting workplace disputes. ”
In Nebraska, “[a]ttorneys for renters facing eviction are expressing optimism that help will be coming for their clients, despite the dismissal [] of an appeal before the Nebraska Supreme Court. In the appeal, attorneys with Legal Aid of Nebraska and the Nebraska Appleseed Center argued that those facing eviction have a constitutional right to a jury trial before they lose their home. The court ruled that the appeal was moot because an Omaha woman who had appealed had already been evicted from her apartment. ”
Access to Justice – Criminal
In Washington DC, “President Biden is set to give final approval [] to the biggest reshaping in generations of the country’s Uniform Code of Military Justice, stripping commanders of their authority over cases of sexual assault, rape and murder to ensure prosecutions that are independent of the chain of command. ”
In the United States, “[t]he public defender community is praising new recommendations from the U.S. Department of Justice aimed at finding ways to improve the ability of criminal suspects in federal custody to communicate with attorneys and access materials related to their cases. ”
In Washington DC, “President Joe Biden announced [] he would tap a senior litigator with Kansas' federal public defender office to fill the state's vacant seat on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. ”
In Wisconsin, “[f]our decades ago,…[r]esponding to the outcry from The Milwaukee Journal’s 1985 investigation, the city stopped automatically jailing residents who failed to pay civil fines and expanded its Court Alternatives Program…But in May, [the alternatives program’s vendor’s Exec. Dir.] suffered a ‘gut punch’ when the city terminated her organization’s contract before it expired in 2024. Officials provided little explanation as to why and did not line up another vendor to take over what many see as vital work to curb mass incarceration. ”
In Miami-Dade County FL, “The Agape Network, a nonprofit dedicated to helping people overcome addictions, has partnered with the Miami-Dade public defender to establish a state-of-the-art call center on the Agape Wings campus. The call center will be staffed by women receiving services at Agape and will provide them with opportunities to earn a living wage, receive health insurance and develop essential work skills. ”
In Riverside County CA, “[t]he ACLU Foundation of Southern California and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP this week filed a lawsuit against Riverside County for violating the state’s Public Records Act (PRA) by refusing to respond to requests concerning how it provides competent legal counsel to indigent defendants. The plaintiff is the ACLU of Northern California. ”
Prosecutorial and Public Defense Office Hiring Crises
Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform
In Memphis TN, “[t]he Justice Department said [] it has opened a civil rights investigation into the city of Memphis and its police department, which came under fire following the death of Tyre Nichols after a traffic stop in January. ”
In Georgia, The Guardian reported on a moment that it claimed “provided a roadmap for Republicans throughout Georgia to fight back against progressive prosecutors”: In the Augusta GA judicial circuit, “[in] 2020 [] a Black lawyer named Jared Williams upset a conservative, pro-police candidate with just more than 50% of the vote…The day after his election, a lawyer and state lawmaker in the area proposed…that the circuit’s whitest county separate itself from the Augusta circuit, creating a new judicial circuit in Georgia for the first time in nearly 40 years…Following the Augusta split, two Republican lawmakers in Georgia proposed a circuit split in Oconee county after the election of a progressive prosecutor who ran on a platform of addressing systemic racism. Since then, Republican legislators statewide created a prosecutor oversight commission that holds the power to remove prosecutors for misconduct. ”
In the United States, “[t]he use of police drones is ‘poised to explode’ in the next year as law enforcement takes advantage of the technology’s proliferation, leaving public regulation and transparency efforts in danger of being caught woefully behind, civil rights advocates warn [in a new ACLU report]. ” (ACLU Report available in full .)
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