Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! It shouldn’t shock anyone at this point to learn that a lot has happened in the past week. Various authorities are either making or entertaining fundamental changes to the way the legal system functions in response to the extraordinary conditions under which we must all now live; similarly fundamental changes to related systems such as the penal system and the educational finance system are also underway.

In this digest, I’ve done my best to highlight articles and resources that describe overall trends that are beginning to emerge in the way these systems are adapting. In some instances, I haven’t been able to find resources that capture these overall trends. Where possible, NALP’s Public Service team is working on creating these materials. We hope to be able to share them with you soon. In the meantime, I will note the existence of a trend and reference a few key articles below.

I hope you all find this approach helpful. Please feel free to reach out to me and let me know if you have thoughts about how I can best keep you all informed in this period of uncertainty.

One more thing: In each section, news that is not related to the current crisis appears at the section’s end, separated from Coronavirus content with a horizontal line (—).

Stay well,

Sam

Remote Court Practice & Lawmaking

• In Above the Law, a California attorney posed a crucial question that the pandemic has forced upon the legal profession: “Is The Court a Place or a Service?” The author argues that “If one of the things we should be doing is to make legal services more affordable and more accessible, then COVID-19 may prompt, indeed, mandate changes in our thinking and delivery of those services.”

  This is the most succinct formulation of an issue with which attorneys and courts across the country are currently grappling. Many courts are developing policies related to remote appearances (and, alternatively, continuances of cases); we hope to collect these various policies into a centralized document for everyone to review sometime within the next week. For now, I will focus on sharing reports from the perspective of attorneys practicing before courts that are beginning to adapt their procedures in this way.

  In related news:

  • In The Washington Examiner, the VP of Criminal Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation argued that “this is [] a good time to assess the extent to which all hearings must be held in-person. Defendants have a sacrosanct constitutional right to confront their accuser at trial, but trials are very rare in the modern criminal justice system. Many court hearings are status conferences that could be handled through commonplace virtual meeting applications.”
  • JDSupra argued that “ ‘Social distancing’ is now a public health imperative everywhere, and it’s clear that remote computing technology will play a large role in providing both business continuity and health safety within the legal community over the next few weeks and months.”
  • In Texas, a criminal defense lawyer observed that on Law.com that “Normal for me involves a lot of wasted time. At least once a week I drive an hour in traffic (each way) to sit through a calendar that takes a judge an hour to call, just to say, “not guilty.” That’s three hours to speak for three seconds…This pandemic has been an expensive lesson in [how] arraignment calendars need to give way to a system that spares judges, prosecutors, defendants, and their attorneys from using half their day in court to say two little words.”
  • Lawfare published an overview of how federal courts are adapting their operations to comply with social distancing.
  • In Bernalillo County NM “District Attorney Raul Torrez [announced] that his prosecutors will no longer physically go to ‘non-essential’ hearings…Torrez says prosecutors from the 2nd Judicial District will only appear in hearings via telephone or video connection.”
  • In New York NY, “Public defenders in New York City say the state courts are putting staff and attorneys at risk of COVID-19 exposure during arraignments. The Office of Court Administration has set up video conferencing, but the only person in the court who is on the video and not there in person is the defendant.”
• In Washington DC, “Republican Rob Portman[, of Ohio,] joined with Democrat Dick Durbin, of Illinois, to introduce a bipartisan resolution to allow senators to vote remotely during a national crisis. During certain crises, such as the current COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, guidelines from the CDC may advise against convening the full Senate in the Capitol.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, fundamentals of the existing student loan debt system are in flux. There are many articles out there, but a good place to start is Inside Higher Ed’s discussion of current proposals being floated at the federal level. Some key points (from the article):
  • Although Trump announced last week that “he will be waiving the interest of federal student loans[, ] student aid experts have said it doesn’t appear that the proposal would lower how much borrowers have to repay each month.”
  • A short-term break from monthly payments would likely be acceptable to right-leaning policy experts, “at least, as long as it is deferment and not some sort of forgiveness[.]”
  • In contrast, “the stimulus package put together by Senate Democrats…would not only defer monthly payments, but pay down the amounts owed[.]”
• Also in Washington DC, “Congressman Danny K. Davis (D-IL) along with Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL) introduced the Retirement Parity for Student Loans Act of 2020, which would permit 401k, 403b, SIMPLE and governmental 457b retirement plans to make matching contributions to workers as if their student loan payments were salary reduction contributions.”
• In New York, “Governor Andrew Cuomo has suspended collections on certain student loans in the state.”
• US News & World Report published advice on “what to do if the Coronavirus affects your student loan payments.”
• The VP of Research for Savingforcollege.com said “he would expect the [student loan interest] rates for the upcoming academic year, which will be announced this spring, to fall to 1.9% for undergraduates, and to 3.5% and 4.5% for graduate students and PLUS loans, respectively.”
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• MarketWatch published an article arguing that “getting student loans erased in bankruptcy, while technically possible, is so hard and expensive that few people try; even fewer succeed. Without intervention by Congress and a change of heart at the Education Department, struggling borrowers will continue to be trapped in a virtual debtor’s prison: unable to pay what they owe and unable to move on with their lives.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• JdSupra published “some action steps nonprofit executives, leaders and board members can take to minimize risk and mitigate the impact of the pandemic.”
• In Chicago, the ABA “launched a task force that includes representatives from the Legal Services Corp, the National Legal Aid & Defender Association, the National Center for State Courts and other groups, to address legal needs that could arise from the pandemic, including an uptick in domestic violence cases, employment-related cases and bankruptcy filings[.]”
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• Also in Chicago IL, the ABA released “Principles for Legal Education and Licensure in the 21st Century,” a document “aimed at aligning legal education and licensure more closely to better address the public’s legal needs.”
• In New York, “[a] New York State Bar Association task force has recommended several strategies to address an expected shortage of small-town lawyers set to hit rural areas across the state over the next few decades. The NYSBA’s Task Force on Rural Justice has recommended loan repayment programs, tuition assistance, relaxed residency requirements for public positions and increased hourly rates for assigned counsel in rural areas. The reforms would enable attorneys, typically saddled with major student loan debt, to take jobs in rural areas that pay lower than positions in cities and suburban towns.”

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• In Boston MA, “[c]oncerns over exposure to COVID-19 are increasing among Boston’s immigration attorneys after one of the courtrooms in Boston abruptly closed earlier this week.”
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• In Tennessee, the state’s “Republican-led Legislature has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider their failed challenge of the federal refugee resettlement program, which claims the state shouldn’t be forced to spend money on Medicaid and other services for refugees.”

Decarceration

• The Marshall Project put together a fantastic resource “rounding up [visitation] closures and other changes [to prison facilities across the country].” Their resource focuses on which facilities have suspended or limited visitation.
• Data for Progress released a memo, “Fighting the Coronavirus with Decarceration,” finding “strong, cross-ideological support for the strategy of dramatically reducing jail and prison populations to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Sixty-six percent of likely voters, including 59% of those who are “very conservative,” said that elected officials should be considering measures to reduce overcrowding in prisons and jails as a response to coronavirus.”

  Across the United States and Canada, various actors including NGOs, Public Defenders, and District Attorneys have begun to call for these measures–and some elected officials have agreed. We hope to collect as many of these various policy changes as possible into a centralized document to which we can all refer sometime within the next week. For now, I’ll leave you with the overview from Data for Progress.

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Canada, “law societies across the country are enabling staff to work from home, while providing direction to legal professionals as they try to maintain practices during a time of social distancing.”
• In the United States, Newsweek published a list of “all the cities [and states] who have announced moratoriums on evictions during [the] Coronavirus pandemic.” (As of Monday March 16; things have continued since then but this article will get you started).
• In Baltimore, “pro bono groups…have begun implementing remote services to stay connected with clients in need of free legal aid.”
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• In Canada, National Magazine reviewed “judgments rendered by our top court over the last five years [which] show[] it has increasingly relied on the idea of ‘access to justice’ in handing down its rulings.”
• In Manitoba, the provincial “law society is welcoming proposed legislation that would allow for ‘limited practitioners’ in that province.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Ontario, “Attorney General Doug Downey has been left with little choice but to virtually shutter the Ontario Court of Justice after an unprecedented mutiny by all levels refusing to continue to attend the lower court in the face of COVID-19. The associations for criminal defence and Legal Aid lawyers have announced they’ll no longer appear at any OCJ courtroom after the chief justice ignored their repeated pleas to close the halls of justice to any in-person appearance.”

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• In British Columbia, “Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA-Plus) is now a required component of all cabinet, budget and Treasury Board submissions.” Writing for the Lawyer’s Daily, the Assistant Deputy Minister of Justice Service Branch of the BC Ministry of the Attorney General wrote about the implications of this policy for Access to Justice.

Criminal Justice Reform

• Across the United States, “[l]ocal law enforcement officials across the country are rapidly making major operational changes in preparation for the continued spread of coronavirus, as they face potential strains in resources and staffing without precedent in modern American history.” In some places, these measures include changes long sought by advocates of criminal justice reform. For example, in Dane County WI the sherriff told ABC that they were“working with all of our law enforcement partners, local, state and federal, to decrease the number of people who are physically arrested and brought to jail.”

  For one more example, in related news:

  • In Baltimore MD, “City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby told prosecutors [] to drop all pending charges for drug possession, attempted distribution, prostitution, trespassing, minor traffic offenses, open container and public urination…to reduce the potential spread of the virus in detention centers.”
• In New York, the District Attorneys Association of New York “called on Governor Andrew Cuomo to suspend new discovery and speedy trial reforms as the coronavirus pandemic grinds criminal court operations to a halt.”
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• Also in New York, “there [remains] a big divide over whether to roll back the state’s new bail law.”
• In Chicago IL, “Kim Foxx…took a major step toward re-election on Tuesday with a victory in the Democratic primary.”
• In Los Angeles CA, “[i]t’s looking more and more like there will be a November runoff in the race to be L.A. County’s next District Attorney.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! We have a theme this week. There’s news I don’t need to share with you all currently affecting every corner of our society–including the topics we cover together in this Digest. (For those of you who are interested, you can find NALP’s statement concerning COVID-19 here.) Here’s how COVID-19 is playing out in the Public Interest Legal world:

Some courts have begun suspending in-person operations. Some public defenders’ offices have begun calling for the release of pretrial detainees and vulnerable members of our incarcerated population. Some cities have begun placing moratoria on eviction proceedings and water utility shutoffs. It is not clear yet how federal immigration policy will affect public health in this moment. After the Fed announced plans to “pump in up to $1.5 trillion into the financial system in an effort to combat potential freezes brought on by the coronavirus,” some politicians on both sides of the aisle have begun asking whether other stimulus options, such as student loan debt relief, should also be considered.

Stay well,

Sam

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• “Hundreds of advocates across the U.S. are pressing the Trump administration to not allow the coronavirus response to trigger immigration enforcement…In [an open letter to Vice President Pence], the group presses the government to deem hospitals as ‘enforcement-free zones,’ similarly to immigration officials’ position during hurricanes and other major emergencies…Though neither the White House nor the Department of Homeland Security has commented on whether it will officially declare healthcare facilities enforcement-free zones amid the outbreak, ICE told the Miami Herald on Tuesday that[, ] ‘Coronavirus is not considered an exigent circumstance, and individuals seeking medical treatment for the virus should continue to do so without fear or hesitation[.]’”
  • Meanwhile, Vox noted that “the Trump administration’s public charge rule, which makes it harder for immigrants to obtain a green card when they receive government benefits, went into effect two weeks ago. The rule discourages immigrants from using Medicaid, and potentially leaves these people without access to affordable health care — which is particularly dangerous during times like this.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “OPM has told agencies to report on their calendar year 2019 use of student loan reimbursements, one authority agencies can use to attract and keep employees in high-demand occupations.”
• Also in Washington DC, after “coronavirus fears sent markets into free fall, leading to the worst day in the stock market since 1987. In response to the dip, the Federal Reserve announced that it would be injecting more around $1.5 trillion in the market to help smooth short-term funding markets. Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, questioned why the Fed was ready to aid the markets but not Americans struggling with student debt. She tweeted, “FYI, the amount that the Fed just injected almost covers all student loan debt in the US. There is absolutely NO excuse for not pausing student debt collections, planning for mortgage &rent relief, etc. We need to care for working people as much as we care for the stock market.”
  • Meanwhile, also also in Washington DC, “Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday that the Trump administration would consider suspending people’s student loan payments as part of a larger strategy to limit the economic consequences of the coronavirus.“

Legal Technology

• Here on the Internet, Pro Bono Net published its Remote Legal Support Guide: A Best Practices Manual for Nonprofit and Pro Bono Innovation.

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “the Supreme Court announced that it would close its doors to the public “until further notice” “[o]ut of concern for the health and safety of the public and Supreme Court employees.” The announcement follows the news earlier on Thursday that the Capitol would close to visitors until April 1, the first disease-related closure of the building to the public since the Spanish flu outbreak in 1918.”

Rule of Law

• In Georgia, “[t]wo would-be candidates have filed suit against Georgia’s top election official, saying he illegally cancelled a scheduled May 19t election for a seat on the state’s highest court to allow the governor to fill the position by appointment when it becomes vacant months later.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Tennessee, “the Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court…declar[ed] a state of emergency for the Judicial Branch of Tennessee government” the court has suspended “[a]ll in-person proceedings in all state and local courts in Tennessee…subject to exceptions[.]”
• In Kentucky, ,”[m]ost in-person court proceedings…have been suspended due to the state’s ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.”
• Across the U.S., “[i]n hopes of avoiding mass evictions in the coming weeks and months, tenant advocate groups and city council members nationwide are pushing for moratoriums on evictions in hopes of limiting the economic damage. If the coronavirus leads to evictions on a massive scale, the fallout could end up being one of the most consequential effects of the virus’s spread.”
  • In Oakland CA, “[m]ore than a dozen activists and tenant rights attorneys lined up to demand the city protect unhoused residents and low-income renters who may miss work and paychecks because of coronavirus fallout. They asked the City Council to halt eviction lawsuits in Alameda County courts, forbid landlords from pushing out tenants who can’t pay rent due to a coronavirus-related loss of income, and to stop closing homeless encampments in the city.”
  • In New York State, “lawmakers have introduced legislation to enact a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures during New York’s coronavirus outbreak. State Senators Brad Hoylman and Brian Kavanagh announced the bill on Thursday, echoing the economic concerns raised by a growing coalition of housing advocates and elected officials.”
  • In Boston MA, “Local officials and housing advocates are demanding a halt to the housing court’s ‘eviction machine’ in an effort to protect vulnerable residents from exposure as coronavirus spreads throughout the city.”
• In Atlanta GA, “To make sure everyone has access to water over the next two months, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms issued an administrative order to halt water service termination for any Watershed Management customer due to non-payment.”
  • In Detroit MI, “The city of Detroit will temporarily restore running water to thousands of households who have been disconnected due to unpaid bills. This action comes on the heels of public outcry that lack of water poses a serious public health threat amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In the Eastern District of Virgnia, the court continued “all misdemeanor, traffic, and petty offense dockets scheduled in all Divisions…from March 16, 2020, through April 30, 2020[.]”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In New York NY, The Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Defender Services, The Bronx Defenders, New York County Defender Services, and The Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem called for “Immediate Release of Vulnerable Incarcerated New Yorkers in Response to Coronavirus”.
• Also in New York, after “Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that prison inmates are producing 100,000 gallons of hand sanitizer in response to price-gouging retailers[,… p]rison advocates call[ed] out the governor and the state’s correctional department for subjecting the prioners to work that equates to ‘slave labor.’”
  • Meanwhile, in a related story, “Jails and prisons are often dirty and have really very little in the way of infection control,” said Homer Venters, former chief medical officer at New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex. “There are lots of people using a small number of bathrooms. Many of the sinks are broken or not in use. You may have access to water, but nothing to wipe your hands off with, or no access to soap.”
• In the U.S., “some public health officials…are proposing [] large-scale [prisoner] releases, like those already underway in Iran. There, officials approved the temporary release of more than 54,000 prisoners in an effort to combat the spread of the new virus.”
  • Mother Jones also reported that “Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez joined criminal justice advocates and public health experts to call on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to grant emergency clemencies to older and sick prisoners.”
• In San Francisco CA, “in an effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus, the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office will begin filing motions to seek the immediate release of all clients being held pre-trial in San Francisco county jails who are at heightened risk of illness from the virus.”
• In New Orleans LA, “the Orleans Parish Public Defenders [asked] the Criminal District Court to immediately release from jail people being held on non-violent offenses and ensure inmates and detainees are safe.”

• Email from a public defender

  “I visited two in-custody clients today.
  Both learned about the virus and recent local cases from TV news. Neither received any information about the virus from anyone at the jail. No additional soap for handwashing. No PSAs. No literature. Nothing.”

  — Radley Balko (@radleybalko) March 12, 2020

   

• Talked to two different clients to in custody today. They’re scared. The people they’re with are scared. They’re vulnerable and they’re the last people anyone will try to help and they know it.

  — OneMileContainmentHat (@Popehat) March 13, 2020

  • (Ken Whitem, Brown White & Osborn LLP)

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Major stories this week include the 9th Circuit’s decision temporarily blocking the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, three Senators’ concern over racial disparities in the federal student loan system, and widespread condemnation of Montgomery County Pennsylvania’s decision to fire its Chief and Deputy Chief Public Defenders after they filed an amicus brief critical of the county’s bail practices.

As always, these stories and more are in the links below.

See you around,

Sam

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• In San Francisco, “[a] federal appeals court has decided to block the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” plan in two states along the U.S. border, following back-and-forth rulings over the program.”
• In the US, “[t]hose who provide services to immigrants and those who advocate on their behalf say the [Trump administration’s ‘Public Charge’ rule, which took effect on Feb. 24,] has a chilling effect on the greater immigrant community, including those who have become naturalized citizens.”
• In Houston TX, “President Donald Trump’s administration is fast-tracking the legal proceedings of thousands of immigrant children in its care and unveiling a pilot program in Houston to video stream their hearings — a move advocates say will jeopardize their asylum cases and speed up deportations.”
• In San Francisco CA, “Federal immigration agents arrested a man in front of San Francisco’s Hall of Justice this week, prompting outrage from the city’s public defender and district attorney.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), along with Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), wrote to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) requesting information about how OCR plans to address alarming racial disparities in the federal student loan system through vigorous enforcement of the nation’s civil rights laws.”

Legal Technology

• In Florida, “the Florida Supreme Court will consider whether [ticket dispute app] TIKD poses a legal risk to its customers or merely represents the evolution of legal technology [after] traffic ticket attorneys complained to the Florida Bar that TIKD and its founder, Christopher Riley, were practicing law without a license.”
• In Washington State, the Seattle Times editorial board in favor of the State Senate’s version of the “groundbreaking privacy law” currently making its way through the state house, which differs from the House version in a number of respects. The board took particular care to note that “[u]nder the original Senate version, the state AG was given authority to enforce the law on behalf of Washington residents. The House version allows private parties to enforce the law, potentially creating a flood of litigation.”
• In New Jersey, “[l]awmakers…are proposing a bill to solidify data privacy guidelines and inflict tougher limits on the tech industry.”

Non-Profit Management & Hiring

• In New York NY, “the Public Interest Law Center (PILC)’s annual Public Interest Legal Career Fair marked its highest attendance ever, as 2,048 students from NYU Law and 19 other law schools met with representatives of 277 public interest employers from all over the country.”
• In Oregon, “[t]he Public Interest Environmental Law Conference that was scheduled to be held at the University of Oregon this weekend was canceled due to concerns about the coronavirus[.]”
• In Pennsylvania, “[t]he leader of Pennsylvania’s system of 14 state-owned universities told lawmakers Tuesday that it is urgent they act to help the schools in the face of sinking enrollment, rising student debt and a lagging commitment of public tax dollars to higher education.”

Rule of Law

• In Amsterdam, “[j]udges at the International Criminal Court…ruled that the prosecutor can open an investigation into alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan. The decision…opens the way for prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity that may have been committed by the Taliban, by Afghani forces, and by the U.S. military and intelligence forces during the conflict.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• CityLimits.org reported on the nationwide impact of New York City’s Right to Counsel law: “it created a ripple effect. So far, Washington, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Newark, San Antonio, and Philadelphia have established the right to counsel laws, programs or initiatives. Other cities, such as Cleveland, Boston, Seattle, Detroit, Los Angeles and Santa Monica are considering or pushing for right to counsel in their respective communities.”
• In Wyoming, “[a] renewed effort to create an independent Guardian Ad Litem office has recently emerged in the state Capitol, largely to address a conflict of interest regarding the office’s current location inside the Wyoming Public Defender’s Office.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Montgomery County PA, “the county’s Board of Commissioners fired the two leaders of the Montgomery County Public Defender Office, Dean Beer and Keisha Hudson, shortly after they had filed an amicus brief recounting injustices in the county’s bail practices.”
  • In further news, “[t]wenty-seven lawyers and support staff in the [] County Public Defender’s Office wrote a letter of support for the former chief and deputy chief who were fired last week by the county commissioners…The letter [came] as the ACLU of Pennsylvania and other advocates, including NAACP- Pennsylvania, [were] co-sponsoring a 10 a.m. rally and press conference outside the courthouse [] to demand the county commissioners reinstate Beer and Hudson.”
  • Further in further news, The executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and Fair and Just Prosecution wrote that “[r]ecent deeply troubling events in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, have undermined confidence in the independence that is required of public defenders.”
• In Trenton NJ, “[l]egislation…which would expand the Office of Public Defender (OPD) representation of juveniles[] cleared the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee[.]”
• In Macomb County MI, “longtime longtime criminal defense attorney Thomas Tomko was formally introduced as the first administrator of the [county’s Public Defender] office.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Santa Clara County CA, “a small group of [public defenders] are…fight[ing] the routine jailing of defendants who can’t afford bail or a private attorney [through] a pilot program called Pre-Arraignment Representation and Review, a county-funded initiative in which public defense attorneys and investigators meet with select defendants within 48 hours of their arrest.”
• In San Francisco CA, “the media has declared both [Maria Evangelista and Michelle Tong, deputy public defenders] to be winners in two of the three open judge seats.”
• In New York NY, “[a] Manhattan public defender is the latest addition to a crowded field of candidates for the 2021 New York County District Attorney race.”
• Also in New York NY, “[a] decrease in the number of criminal cases city prosecutors are pursuing suggests that the crime spike recently reported by the NYPD could be a ruse to incite fear over criminal justice reforms, a coalition of public defenders said[.]”
• In Harris County TX, “Democratic primary voters in the nation’s third-largest county instead chose [DA] Ogg’s more cautious, incremental approach to reform [over that of challenger Audia Jones].”
• Meanwhile, in Travis County TX, incumbent DA Margaret Moore will likely face a runoff election against Jose Garza, “a former public defender and labor rights lawyer who has vowed to end low-level drug prosecutions as a way to curb mass incarceration.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! It’s been a busy few weeks, with ICE officials continuing to make arrests in California state courthouses despite a new state-level ban on the practice and the Supreme Court hearing arguments concerning a 1986 statute making it a crime to “encourage” unauthorized immigration. Student loan debt also remains a key topic, with a new report from the Student Borrower Protection Center arguing that “the use of education data in underwriting private student loans creates economic and racial inequality for borrowers.”

As always, these stories and more are in the links below.

See you around,

Sam

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• In Maryland, “Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have been permitted to run facial-recognition searches on millions of Maryland driver’s license photos without first seeking state or court approval, state officials said — access that goes far beyond what other states allow and that alarms immigration activists in a state that grants special driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants[.]”
• In Sonoma County CA, “U.S. immigration agents arrested two people at a Northern California courthouse, including a man detained in a hallway on his way to a hearing, flouting a new state law requiring a judicial warrant to make immigration arrests inside such facilities.”
  • Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, “[state] officials suing Immigration and Customs Enforcement over warrantless arrests at state courthouses got a boost Thursday from Harvard Law School’s immigrant and refugee clinic, whose leadership said state courts are being illegally forced to carry out a federal agenda not enumerated in the Constitution and to sideline Sixth Amendment trial rights.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he Trump administration is waiving certain procurement regulations to help speed up construction on the border wall…The waivers affect 10 statutes, including requirements for open competition and justifying selections[.]”
• Also in Washington DC, “[t]he Trump administration has issued a hiring freeze for non-asylum officers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, pausing any new onboarding for positions related to benefits and programs for legal immigrants.”
• Also also in Washington DC, “[t]he Supreme Court…seemed doubtful that a 1986 federal law that makes it a crime to “encourage” unauthorized immigrants to come to or stay in the United States could be squared with the First Amendment.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “Trump’s 2020 budget and 2021 budget proposes…the consolidation of income-driven repayment plans and the elimination of Public Service Loan Forgiveness.”
  • Meanwhile, “[a] recent report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) indicated that income-driven repayment (IDR) plans for student loans are growing rapidly.”
  • Also meanwhile, new Department of Education data “[shows that as] more time passes, it is very likely more borrowers will receive forgiveness.”
• Also also in Washington DC, “[l]obbyists on both sides of the debate over U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s borrower-defense rule say it’s increasingly possible that the Republican Senate could join the Democratic House in rebuking the administration over the rule critics say makes it harder for defrauded students to have their education loans forgiven.”
• The Student Borrower Protection Center released a report titled “Educational Redlining”, finding that “the use of education data in underwriting private student loans creates economic and racial inequality for borrowers.”

Legal Technology

• In Washington State, LegEx, “[a] new data visualization tool…developed by [the] University of Washington…draws on bill information made available by the state to enable students, journalists and voters to visually explore the lawmaking process.”
• In New York NY, the N.Y.P.D. announced it “will start expunging some of the 82,000 people in [its DNA] database who have never been convicted of a crime.”
• In Ithaca NY, “Cornell is joining the Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN), a collaboration of 36 colleges and universities committed to building the field of public interest technology and preparing a generation of civic-minded technologists.”

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• In the United States, “law students from some of the best law schools in the country…signed a letter to the Judicial Conference asking for specific reforms [to workplace misconduct policies], specifically: publicly reported federal judiciary “climate surveys,” expanding the Office of Judicial Integrity, centralized employment discrimination responses for federal judges, and information-sharing between law schools and the federal judiciary for reports of judicial misconduct.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he IRS is nearly done with proposed rules that require nonprofits to report income streams separately, an agency official said.”
• Also in Washington DC, “Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) …introduced a bill to provide the District of Columbia Courts and the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia with the same authority that federal courts and federal agencies have to offer voluntary separation incentive payments, or buyouts, to their employees.”

Pro Bono Publico

• In Tennessee, “[t]he Tennessee Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission has released its annual report detailing the pro bono legal service reported by attorneys, bar associations, law firms, law schools, legal service providers, mediators and other organizations.”
• Law.com reported that “[t]he increase of lawyers who spend 50% or more of their time on pro bono work has been driven in part by law firms’ willingness to treat pro bono work the same way they do billable work.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Austin TX, “[t]he American Bar Association has passed a resolution that encourages states to consider regulatory changes that could increase low and middle-income Americans’ access to affordable legal services.”
• In Long Beach CA, “[a] new pilot program will bring free representation to low-income renters facing evictions[.]”
• In Alberta, “a group of prominent lawyers sa[id] in an open letter to Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer [that] Alberta’s legal system is in a crisis that may become irreversible if the right steps to fix it aren’t taken.”
• In San Francisco, Open Door Legal, a non-profit “committed to building the nation’s first system of universal access to legal help, has opened two new offices in the Excelsior and Fillmore-Western Addition neighborhoods. ODL was able to open the new legal aid centers thanks to a surge in funding by the City of San Francisco and is now halfway to achieving its vision in the city.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Hays County TX, the County Commissioner’s Court “approved a grant from the Texas Indigent Defense Commission (TIDC) to participate in a study examining potential benefits of [legal representation at a first appearance before a magistrate for arrestees].”
• In Minnesota, the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder reviewed the ongoing controversy surrounding the abrupt suspension of the Hennepin County Chief Public Defender by the Minnesota Board of Public Defense.
• In Indiana, “[l]egislation headed to the governor’s desk will require judges in all 92 counties to consider the same criteria when determining whether a person lacks sufficient financial resources to hire a private attorney to represent them.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Houston TX, “[c]riminal justice advocacy groups…protested the Harris County District Attorney’s Office for using pro bono civil litigation attorneys to help prosecute misdemeanor cases in the Justice of the Peace courts.”
• In Los Angeles CA, “[t]he…County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously…to eliminate many county-imposed criminal justice fees and forgive related debt.”
• In Orlando FL, “[o]ne of Florida’s biggest court jurisdictions plans to start a fund to help low-income people charged with nonviolent offenses pay for bail. The chief prosecutor and the public defender for metro Orlando’s court jurisdiction joined with a prominent law firm on Thursday to create the Community Bail Fund.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public!

Major news this week includes regulatory changes concerning student loans, with a new MOU between the Department of Education and the CFPB, as well as a streamlined application process for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Additionally, the ABA received pushback about its proposal to encourage state bars to explore “new approaches” in the practice of law. And in the top story below, Mother Jones spoke with immigration judges and attorneys about the logistical challenges they face implementing the Trump administration’s “Migrant Protection Protocols”.

As always, these stories and more are in the links below.

See you around,

Sam

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• Mother Jones published a piece examining the impact of the Trump administration’s “Migrant Protection Protocols” on immigration courts:

  According to immigration judge Ashley Tabaddor, who spoke to me in her capacity as union president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, MPP has constituted a fundamental change to the way courts are run. DHS, she says, is “creating a situation where they’re physically, logistically, and systematically creating all the obstacles and holding all the cards.” The MPP program has left the court powerless, “speeding up the process of dehumanizing the individuals who are before the court and deterring anyone from the right to seek protection” All this while the Department of Justice is trying to decertify Tabbador’s union—the only protection judges have, and the only avenue for speaking publicly about these issues—by claiming its members are managers and no longer eligible for union membership. Tabaddor says the extreme number of cases combined with the pressure to process them quickly is making it difficult for judges to balance the DOJ’s demands with their oath of office.

  Immigration attorneys in El Paso, San Antonio, and San Diego have told me they are disturbed by the courtroom disarray: the unanswered phones, unopened mail, and unprocessed filings. Some of their clients are showing up at border [sic] in the middle of the night only to find that their cases have been rescheduled. That’s not only unfair, one attorney told me, “it’s dangerous.” Central Americans who speak only indigenous languages are asked to navigate court proceedings with Spanish interpreters. One attorney in El Paso had an 800-page filing for an asylum case that she filed with plenty of time for the judge to review, but it didn’t make it to the judge in time.

• In Olympia WA, “[s]tate lawmakers are crying foul after a series of Immigration Customs Enforcement arrests outside of the Grant County Courthouse in Ephrata and Adams County District Courthouse in Othello last year [and considering] House Bill 2567[, which] ultimately could put an end to ICE courthouse arrests.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “[t]he U.S. Department of Education and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) – essentially a cooperation agreement – to address and better manage student loan complaints. The agreement calls for the Education Department and CFPB to meet quarterly and share complaint information, data, recommendations and analytical tools. Importantly, the MOU more clearly defines role and responsibilities.”
• Also in Washington DC, “the Department [of Education] said it would create one application for both PSLF and TEPSLF [Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness]. This would make it much easier as [forgiveness-seekers] could apply once and no longer be denied and forced to reapply if they qualified.”
• Also also in Washington DC, “House Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney [] threatened Education Secretary Betsy DeVos with a subpoena, saying DeVos’ office “stonewalled and delayed” when the committee tried to confirm a date for her testimony…about ‘critical issues facing the Department,’ including oversight of federal student loans.”
• In Virginia, “the Virginia Senate joined the House of Delegates in passing what’s known as the ‘Student Borrower’s Bill of Rights.’”
• A new report from the Student Borrower Protection Center revealed that “[f]inancial companies often use data on borrowers’ higher education to determine access to credit and the price of consumer financial products. And those education data can lead to redlining, a form of discrimination against borrowers who attended community colleges, historically black colleges and universities, or Hispanic-serving institutions.”
• Nationwide, “a coalition of attorney generals…from [26] states as well as the District of Columbia…renewed a request that the U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos discharge federal student loans for people who were enrolled in now closed schools operated by Dream Center Education Holdings, LLC.”

Legal Technology

• In Memphis TN, “[t]he Memphis Bar Foundation, Community Legal Center and Memphis Area Legal Services are joining to spearhead [a] new initiative [whose] goal is to provide resources and information through an online legal portal[.]”
• In Washington DC, “the Federal Circuit heard oral argument in this case involving the $0.10 per page fee for downloading documents from PACER. The basic argument here is that ‘PACER fees must be limited to PACER costs.’”
• In Chicago IL, ChicagoInno profiled JusticeText, “a software platform that allows public defenders to quickly and efficiently sift through video footage that can be imperative in how they build a case and defend a client.”

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• In Bowling Green KY, “[a] new full-time staffed federal prosecutor’s office opened[.]”
• In Montgomery AL, “[t]he executive director of Amnesty International USA will take over as chief executive of Southern Poverty Law Center, which is trying to steady itself after months of turmoil that included the firing of its founder.”
• In Allendale MI, “[n]ew research by Teri Behrens and Tory Martin of the Grand Valley State University Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy shows nonprofits are succeeding in changing with the times [and accommodating millenials’ new role as the largest sector of the workforce] in some areas but struggling in others.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Chicago IL, “[a] proposal before the American Bar Association that would encourage states to consider “new approaches” in the practice of law is facing mounting opposition by some state bar leaders who say it will lead to outside investment of law firms and nonlawyers practicing law.”
  • Meanwhile, in Arizona “[t]he University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law has started a two-year pilot project that licenses a small group of nonlawyers to give limited legal advice on civil matters stemming from domestic violence.”
• In California, the California Commission on Access to Justice (CalATJ) published a report finding that “California’s housing crisis stems from an inadequate supply of affordable housing coupled with insufficient legal protections for renters and homeowners. The resulting access-to-justice challenge for low-income and modest-means residents is aggravated in rural areas by the underfunding of legal-aid organizations and the state’s rural lawyer shortage. …Free, high-quality Legal Aid is needed urgently.”
• In Brooklyn NY, “[a] community legal service planted a new home in a Brooklyn neighborhood in growing need of help with housing displacement, deed theft and foreclosure.”
• In New York NY, “State Supreme Court justices from Arizona and Utah…said they support considerations to open up the legal industry to greater participation from nontraditional players largely to tackle the country’s growing access to justice gap.”
• In Little Rock AR, “[a] state Supreme Court justice and a chief judge on a federal appeals court emphasized the need to increase access to civil legal aid for people with low incomes at a Legal Services Corp. board meeting[.]”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Seneca County OH, “County Commissioners [] approved a pay increase for attorneys who handle the defense in court matters for indigent people to $60 per hour. The increase was recommended by the judges of Seneca County.”
• In Virginia, “[b]ills to create a public defenders’ office in Prince William County and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park were approved by the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates with bipartisan support[.]”
• In Manitoba, “criminal defence lawyers are taking job action, resulting in the halting of bail court services for Legal Aid Manitoba clients.”
• In Travis County TX, “commissioners announced [] they had hired Adeola Ogunkeyede to serve as chief of the county’s forthcoming public defender’s office. She will begin April 20.”
• In Louisiana, “[f]or the sixth consecutive year, an annual report has declared Louisiana’s public defense system is in crisis.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Washington DC, “Justice Department lawyers have improperly used requests for overseas evidence to buy more time to bring some fraud cases, a memo filed with the agency’s internal watchdog alleges.”
• In San Francisco CA, Chesa Boudin, the city’s new District Attorney, sat for an interview with local news to discuss his approach to criminal prosecution.
• In Dallas County TX, the county “public defender’s office plans to hire social workers to help keep its mentally ill clients out of jail.”
• In Cohoes City NY, “[a]n upstate judge set up a legal battle over the state’s new bail reform law [] with a ruling that intentionally challenged the controversial statute.”
  • Meanwhile, “NYPD brass and police unions blamed a new state bail reform law for an increase in overall crime in New York City, though murder, rape and hate crimes decreased significantly last month compared to January 2019.”
• In Savannah GA, “[a] Georgia district attorney has taken steps to help people remove criminal charges from their records if they are qualified to do so.”
• In Billings MT, “[t]he domestic violence prosecutor for Montana’s largest city says changes to the state’s probation and parole system are coming at a cost to victims.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public!

In another down-to-the-wire week, stories on Immigration and Civil Access to Justice dominated. As always, these stories and more are in the links below.

See you around,

Sam

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Trump administration is pushing ahead with a project that could lead to the government collecting DNA from hundreds of thousands of detained immigrants, some as young as 14 years old, alarming civil rights advocates. Once fully underway, the DNA program could become the largest U.S. law enforcement effort to systemically collect genetic material from people not accused of a crime.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he U.S. Supreme Court ruled [] hat the Trump Administration can go ahead with its new public charge rule aimed at preventing low-income, legal immigrants from obtaining green cards.”
  • Meanwhile, in New York, “[i]mmigrants’ rights advocates [] urged noncitizen families to seek legal advice Tuesday, following a setback in the fight to block the federal government’s so-called ‘public charge rule.’”
• The Wall Street Journal reported that “[p]eople seeking asylum in the U.S. are less likely to have legal representation under a Trump administration policy that sends them to await court hearings in Mexican border cities, recently released research shows.”
• In Houston TX, Houston Public Media reported that “[s]ince President [] Trump[‘s] administration has repeatedly tightened the rules[] and narrowed who qualifies for asylum[, i]mmigration attorneys are turning away from the ‘gold standard’–asylum–and putting more effort into the two major legal alternatives: withholding of removal and the U.N.’s Convention Against Torture.”
• In Derby CT, “[a] judicial marshal accused of assisting a Connecticut resident in avoiding apprehensive [sic] by immigration officials was fired.”
• In Boston MA, “Judge Richard Stearns dismissed the case of an Iranian student who…US Customs and Border Protection deported [] despite an emergency stay issued by US District Court Judge Allison Burroughs[.] …Stearns said in court that he didn’t think the government would “listen” to him, and that he did not jurisdiction over the issue because Abadi had been deported, calling the case ‘moot.’”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Madison WI, “Governor Tony Evers [] signed an executive order to create a task force on student debt.”
• In Washington DC, “Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, urged the federal government to collect $22.3 million that it’s owed by one of the biggest student loan servicers in the country.”
• Also in Washington DC, the Department of Education “revealed [] that it will simplify the process for borrowers to apply for an expansion of the troubled Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program.”

Legal Technology

• In Mountain View CA, “Google has announced it will charge law enforcement and other government agencies for access to user data to “offset the costs” of compiling responses to information requests.”
• In Iowa, “[t]he state court system is offering a new lawyer-free service for couples seeking a divorce. Judicial Branch Public Information Associate Marissa Gaal said the interactive service is only for people looking for a divorce who don’t have children.”
• The ABA Journal published a piece on legal hackathons.
• In Utah, “Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Matthew Durrant called on lawmakers to spend more than a million dollars to upgrade the judiciary’s tech.”

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Trump administration is attempting to decertify the National Association of Immigrant Judges (NAIJ), the union that since 1971 has represented federal immigration judges. The attack on the union appears to be in response to its vocal opposition to administration efforts to limit judges’ authority, force them to speed up hearings, silence critics of immigration policy, and cut resources for support staff.”
• In DC, “[t]he D.C. bar is joining the ranks of jurisdictions considering rule changes that would allow nonlawyers to own firms[.]”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Canada, Former Canadian Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin began “a periodic [column] series showcasing access to justice in action across Canada” for The Lawyer’s Daily.
• In Manitoba, “[c]lients of Manitoba’s Public Interest Law Centre are questioning a proposal to stop the advocacy centre from operating within Legal Aid Manitoba [after] a government-commissioned review of legal aid was released recommending the Public Interest Law Centre no longer be part of legal aid services offered by the province.”
• In Ontario, Legal Aid Ontario “clarified its policy for imprisoned clients seeking help with family law issues[:] Incarcerated persons may apply for all the family law services offered by Legal Aid Ontario, subject to fulfilling the requirements for legal and financial eligibility.”
• In New York NY, the city council considered “two bills–Intros 1529 and 1104– [that] look to expand Right to Counsel [in eviction] not only geographically but also economically.”
• In New Mexico, “[m]ore [] residents would have access to civil legal aid services under proposals approved by the state Supreme Court [which] include efforts to attract more out-of-state law school graduates to practice in New Mexico and possible financial incentives for attorneys who practice in rural or underserved communities.”
• In Utah, “Chief Justice Matthew Durrant told state legislators during the annual State of the Judiciary Address Monday that Utah faces a “crisis” in legal services[.]”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• The Indiana Lawyer reported that “[r]ural communities’ access to justice, bail reform and ensuring voting rights for individuals with criminal convictions will be chief among several criminal justice topics set for discussion during next month’s 2020 American Bar Association Midyear Meeting.”
• In Missouri, “[a] federal judge [] has refused to approve a consent decree that would have limited state public defenders to no more than 173.3 hours worth of cases each month, a standard that is based on a 40-hour workweek.”
• In Allen County OH, “County Commissioners will continue deliberating how best to improve the state of indigent defense in 2020, with the possibility of establishing a full-time public defender’s office still under consideration.”
• In Butler County OH, “attorneys who are appointed by judges to represent indigent defendants have received their first hourly rate hike in about 16 years.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Albany NY, “[a] law that would have convened a special panel to evaluate complaints of misconduct levied against the state’s prosecutors was struck down [] by a state judge[], who said the measure was unconstitutional as written by the Legislature.”
• In New York NY, “[t]he NYPD’s largest police union has sued the Civilian Complaint Review Board over a ballot measure that expanded the watchdog agency — claiming the voter-approved legislation was ‘an illegal power-grab.’”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public!

Digest is squeaking out just under the wire this week, so I’ll be brief. Major stories include a proposal to fund the Right to Counsel for Eviction at the federal level, the new San Francisco DA’s decision to end pretrial cash bail, and the Trump Administration’s decision to relocate hundreds of immigration detainees’ hearings from northern to southern California. Thematically, work conditions for public defenders dominated the news, with Philadelphia public defenders preparing for a unionization ballot while state-wide policy proposals moved forward in Wisconsin, where public defenders are set to receive pay parity with state prosecutors, and in Georgia, where the governor is proposing to cut public defender funding by $3 million–and to increase prosecutors’ funds by about the same.

As always, these stories and more are in the links below.

See you around,

Sam

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• In San Francisco CA, “Northern California immigration attorneys are reeling after learning of a controversial Trump administration decision to move hundreds of immigrant detainees’ court hearings out of San Francisco and to a new courthouse in Van Nuys, a neighborhood in north Los Angeles.”
• In Texas, “Gov. Greg Abbott [explained] in a TV interview [] why Texas will be the only state in the nation to reject refugees seeking resettlement, saying that aid groups working with refugees should instead prioritize other Texans in need, including the state’s homeless population.”
• Also in Texas, “[w]ith a substantial increase in filing fees for immigration benefits looming, advocates are urging migrants to get their applications in as soon as possible. Once the fees go up, attorneys and nonprofits who assist migrants fear the benefits of U.S. citizenship, legal residency for relatives, work permit renewals and a host of other services will be out of reach for many of their clients.”
• In a motion before the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles CA, “[l]awyers representing undocumented immigrants detained by ICE allege that courts and government authorities under the Trump administration are not complying with a federal court order that protects mentally disabled immigrants in California, Arizona and Washington.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In New York NY, “Educational Credit Management Corporation (ECMC) — a nonprofit that guarantees and services student loans on behalf of the Department of Education (ED) — is challenging the January 7 decision made by Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Cecelia G. Morris, who discharged $221,385.49 in student loan debt for Navy veteran and lawyer Kevin Rosenberg under chapter 7 bankruptcy.”
• In California, “[i]n an opposition motion [to a federal court’s $100,000 sanction against Education Secretary DeVos for violating a court order and billing thousands of students with loans tied to now-defunct Corinthian Colleges], the Education Department said it’s been doing its best to comply with a preliminary injunction that prevents it from demanding repayment for Corinthian-related student debt.”
• In Washington DC, “Sen. Elizabeth Warren [] praised the IRS and Treasury Department’s decision to provide tax relief to more people with discharged student loans.”
• The Chronicle of Higher Education, surveying the legislative agendas of the Democratic presidential candidates featured in the last debate, determined that “Free College, Student-Debt Forgiveness, and Pell Grant Expansion Dominate Higher-Ed Policy for Top Democratic Candidates.”
• Moody’s Investors Service released a report indicating that “student loan debt still stands at $1.7 trillion [with] borrowers taking longer to pay it back, which means they’re paying more interest in the end.”

Disaster Law & The Environment

• In San Francisco CA, “the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals threw out…Juliana vs. the United States[,]” in which “21 young people sued the US government, alleging that by contributing to climate [change] despite knowledge of its dangerous consequences, it was violating their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property.” The opinion found that “the plaintiffs’ case must be made to the political branches or to the electorate at large.”
  • Time Magazine has more on this story and “what it might mean for the future of climate litigation.”

Legal Technology

• In New York State, “Elizabeth A. Garry, Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division, Third Department, provide[d] an update on access to justice in rural communities, writing that court simplification will ameliorate some of the challenges rural attorneys currently encounter.”
• In Washington DC, Above the Law, citing reporting from the Wall St. Journal, reported that “[w]hile Barr is trying to turn the public against Apple by suggesting it protects terrorists and murderers, FBI employees are worried his words and actions will harm them more than help them.”
  • In related news, Reuters reported that “Apple [] dropped plans to let iPhone users fully encrypt backups of their devices in the company’s iCloud service after the FBI complained that the move would harm investigations, [according to] six sources familiar with the matter[.]”
• Also in Washington DC, “[a] year after passage of a law requiring federal agencies to improve the quality and accessibility of digital services, the General Services Administration on Wednesday released a set of website design standards agencies across government can use to meet that mandate.”
• In Canada, “[t]he RCMP [] would neither confirm nor deny that it’s using Clearview AI’s technology, which allows police forces to check photos against a database of three billion images scraped from the web.”

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) says she wants to expand the use of direct hire authorities to fill critical vacancies throughout the federal workforce. She wants to find ways to reinstate qualified former federal employees back to the workforce. Warren is also recommending a government mentorship program specifically for employees of color. As well as expanding the cooling off period to six years for lobbyists before they can take a government job.”
• In Hawaii, “Hawaii Attorney General Clare Connors subpoenaed [] KAHEA, or the Hawaiian Environmental Alliances [because t]he AG believes the group involved in protests against the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on Mauna Kea is illegally using donations to fund civil disobedience.”
• In Alberta, “Legal Aid Alberta (LAA) is asking its roster lawyers to update their online profiles in order to reflect changes it is implementing on choice of counsel for clients and travel compensation for those who take on legal aid certificates.”
• On the internet, “[a] private equity fund backed by three prominent Republican billionaire families is expected to buy the dot-org domain, throwing into question whether the online safe haven for rights organizations and nonprofits could now face censorship or spiralling costs[; ] a small and vociferous group of nonprofits, charities, and human rights organizations have banded together to make a last-ditch attempt to block the sale.” (See previous editions of the digest for additional coverage of this story.)

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Washington DC, “Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut)…re-introduc[ed] what’s known as the Eviction Prevention Act[:] ‘It would allow the U.S. Attorney General to authorize $125 million in grants to states, counties and cities to provide people with representation by an attorney [in] any eviction cases[.]”
• In California, “State Bar leaders took another step…toward opening up the regulation of legal services in the state, launching the assembly of a task force to explore a licensing scheme under which paraprofessionals would provide certain legal services and advice to consumers.”
• In New York NY, the New York Daily News argued that “with the housing and homelessness crises unabated, it is more imperative than ever to expand the right [to counsel for eviction] to include the many low-income New Yorkers who are currently ineligible.”
• In Manitoba, “Legal Aid Manitoba has a short-term “contingency” plan ready should the province’s private criminal lawyers stop taking new cases to protest the current rates of compensation, says an official with the service provider.”
• LegalShield, “the world’s leading provider of affordable legal and identity theft protection plans, released the results of The 2019 LegalShield Workplace Study[.]” Among the study’s findings were that “77% of employers believe access to affordable legal services can help improve employees’ financial well-being [and] 61% of employers would consider offering identity theft and / or legal protection plans.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Philadelphia PA, “public defenders will vote to decide whether to unionize their workplace after informal negotiations with management stalled.”
• In Mercer County OH, “Justice Judith French [] talk[ed] to local judges about the issues they are facing and what resources the Ohio Supreme Court can provide to them. [On the shortage of public defenders,] French says even though the state has tried to address the problem with more funding, the solution is simple, Ohio needs more lawyers on both the criminal and civil side.”
  • In related news, the Ohio state legislature deliberated on “House Bill 5[, which] would give lawyers who become public defenders tuition loan assistance up to $85,000 for five years of service.”
• In Macomb County MI, local news reported the county “will create an office to represent indigent criminal defendants as part of statewide and national efforts to improve their legal representation.”
• In Atlanta GA, “Governor Brian Kemp has unveiled his proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which will begin on July 1, 2020. In it, he asks lawmakers to slash the funds available to state public defenders by more than $3 million—and to increase the funds available to prosecutors by about the same amount.”
• In Madison WI, “[t]he state Senate [] passed an amended version of Senate Bill 468 to provide a pay-progression plan for assistant state public defenders.”
• In Jefferson City MO, “[d]uring the annual State of the Judiciary address, given to a joint session of the Missouri Legislature, Chief Justice George Draper III [stated that] ‘Speaking from the perspective of both a former prosecutor and a former trial judge, I can tell you the system simply does not work without a sufficiently funded and staffed public defender system’[.]”
• In Prince William County VA, “[a] proposal to create a public defender office for Prince William County has won two favorable votes already at the General Assembly.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In San Francisco CA, “San Francisco’s new top prosecutor says his office will no longer ask for cash bail as a condition for defendants’ pretrial release, fulfilling one of his key campaign promises.”
• In Los Angeles CA, LA Magazine profiled “Rachel Rossi, the Progressive Ex-Public Defender Running for DA”
• In Honolulu, Hawaii News Now reported that “[p]rosecutors [have] recently started looking for warrants of witnesses and victims who are set to testify in upcoming trials.”
• In Washington DC, “Attorney General [] Barr [] swore in 16 members of a new national commission to study crucial issues in law enforcement, which aims to follow in the footsteps of a similar commission formed in 1965 that launched such concepts as improved training for police, increased data collection in policing and the 911 emergency dispatch system.”
• In Milwaukee WI, “Milwaukee’s District Attorney and the head of the Wisconsin Public Defender’s office have crossed turf lines to develop a system of ‘community-oriented’ justice whose end goal is to put fewer people in prison.”
• In Harris County TX, the Houston Chronicle reported that while “[t]he Harris County District Attorney’s office contends it needs more staff to ensure due process and increased diversion options [ c]ritics and primary challengers to District Attorney Kim Ogg contend that doing so would reverse justice reform efforts, believing more prosecutors equate to more convictions.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public!

Hope 2020 is treating everyone well so far. I’m reeling a bit from the onslaught of news, so this is our first Digest of the year. We’re off to a roaring start. The right to counsel in immigration and asylum cases saw major developments, with a federal judge in California affirming asylum seekers’ right to counsel while New York State legislators debated creating a statutory right to publicly-funded counsel in deportation cases. Student loans also continue to make headlines, with the House of Representatives repudiating Secretary DeVos’ new regulations concerning student loan forgiveness in situations of fraud and a bankruptcy judge in New York discharging a lawyer’s student loan debt. Criminal justice reform has also been a major topic, from Minnesota, where Attorney General Ellison called for an investigation into the summary firing of Hennepin County’s Chief Public Defender, to Missouri, where the St. Louis District Attorney filed a federal suit against the city and its police union under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. Oh! And former PSJD Fellow and Georgetown OPICS alum Katie Dilks was named the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Access to Justice Foundation. Congratulations Katie!

As always, these stories and more are in the links below.

See you around,

Sam

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• In Ciudad Juarez MX, “Mexican authorities [] removed almost 100 Mexican migrants seeking asylum in the United States from a camp in downtown Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, according to a Reuters witness, after state police threatened to separate parents from their children.”
• In San Francisco CA, “the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office filed a Motion for Temporary Restraining Order against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office with the U.S. Federal District Court, Northern District of California, requesting an immediate hearing on behalf of a female transgender immigrant who was illegally transferred on Christmas night to a remote detention facility in Texas.”
• In Los Angeles CA, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Los Angeles (CAIR-LA) is “working to educate the Iranian community about their legal rights in light of reports of increased profiling and discrimination against Iranians across the nation.”
• In San Diego CA, “[f]inding asylum seekers have a right to counsel when undergoing interviews to determine whether they can be returned to Mexico under the “Remain in Mexico” program, a federal judge [] confirmed immigration law guarantees attorney access for migrants.”
• In Albany NY, “[l]egislation is being introduced [] that would create a statutory right to a lawyer for any New Yorker facing deportation who cannot afford an attorney on their own.​”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Los Angeles CA, “the UCLA School of Law is enhancing its Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP), starting in January. …Under new LRAP guidelines, alumni with incomes up to $75,000 will have their eligible loan payments fully covered, an increase from the previous threshold of $60,000.”
• In Washington DC, “[Senator Elizabeth] Warren said that as president, she would not wait for Congress to approve her plans to cancel or modify federal student debt. Instead, she would directly authorize the Department of Education to provide as much as $50,000 in relief to about 95% of student loan borrowers.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[t]he House voted 231-180 to overturn new regulations introduced by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos that critics argue limit student loan forgiveness when a college closes due to fraud.”
• In California, “[t]he CFPB filed a complaint last week in a California federal district court against several companies and individuals involved in offering student loan debt relief services for allegedly obtaining consumer reports unlawfully, charging unlawful advance fees, and engaging in deceptive conduct.”
• In New York NY, “[a] bankruptcy judge excused a U.S. Navy veteran with a law degree from repaying more than $220,000 in student loan debt, the latest court ruling to lower the barriers to discharging educational debt.”

Disaster Law & The Environment

• In Washington DC, “US President Donald Trump's administration announced Thursday sweeping changes to an environmental law that would speed up the construction of highways, airports and pipelines [by] rais[ing] the threshold for what types of projects require an environmental impact assessment.”
• In Portland OR, Willamette Week described how “[i]n just a few months, the city of Portland will begin investing the proceeds from a groundbreaking new tax on large companies [in a] local version of the Green New Deal proposed in 2019 by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).”
• In Cambridge MA, “[d]ozens of Harvard Law School students disrupted a first-year student recruitment event held by corporate law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP[], calling on the firm to stop representing the oil and gas company ExxonMobil in ongoing climate change litigation.”

Legal Technology

• In Las Vegas NV, Amazon’s top hardware executive “said he’s proud of the [Ring law enforcement] program, believes the partnerships with police departments are good for neighborhoods, and hinted at a future in which Ring cameras could use Amazon’s facial recognition technology—a scenario that some of Ring’s critics have already expressed concerns about.”
• In Montreal QC, the Cyberjustice Laboratory launched “Autonomy through Cyberjustice Technologies (ACT)[:] the largest international mutlidisciplinary research initiative that seeks to leverage AI to increase access to justice while providing justice stakeholders with a roadmap to help them develop technology that is better adapted to justice.”
• In Canada, the Canadian Bar Association published a statement on “Modernizing the Federal Court”.
• The ABA Journal interviewed Richard Susskind about his thoughts on “[o]nline courts, the future of justice and being bold in 2020.”

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• In Chicago IL, “Executive search firm Isaacson, Miller has been enlisted to find the next president and chief executive officer for the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law[.]”
• In New Jersey, “[t]he New Jersey Supreme Court [] questioned why public defenders should not receive the state Tort Claims Act protections afforded to other state employees as the justices challenged a wrongfully convicted man’s bid to revive his legal malpractice suit[.]”
• Also in New Jersey, “state lawmakers approved a bill that will compel employers to give more notice and pay severance to laid-off workers, after a public backlash against the treatment of workers who lost their jobs in the retail apocalypse…Maxine Neuhauser, an attorney with Epstein Becker Green in Newark, said nonprofit employers could be in a bind if they suddenly lose out on government grants or funding.”
• In Above the Law, an op-ed argued that “Public Interest Organizations Must Use Their Surge In Donations To Pay Their Lawyers A Living Wage.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Connecticut, the State Bar Association created a “State of the Legal Profession Task Force[; a move] driven by the access-to-justice gap, as well as the challenges lawyers face in the current system.”
• In New York NY, “[e]victions [] have plummeted nearly 20% in the six months since Albany lawmakers enacted sweeping new tenant protection laws.The drop. revealed in city data compiled over the past two years, shows evictions in the last half of 2019 stood at 8,951, down from 10,958 over the same period in 2018.”
• Law360 published a list of “4 Access To Justice Cases to Watch in 2020”.
• In Indiana, “Chief Justice Loretta Rush issued a call to arms for everyone involved in the state’s justice system in her annual State of the Judiciary Address[:] one glaring area of need is legal aid. Too many people, she says, go unrepresented in court.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Minneapolis MN, “Attorney General Keith Ellison [] called for the Minnesota Board of Public Defense to examine the process that led to the suspension of Hennepin County's chief public defender, saying he believes Mary Moriarty was targeted for speaking out against racial bias in the criminal justice system.”
• In Alaska, the state’s Public Defender Agency responded to a recent gubernatorial report which claimed “defender caseloads are reasonable when compared to established professional measures.” The Public Defender Agency asserted that “Alaska shouldn’t join other states in failing to represent low-income defendants.” (As characterized in third-party reporting.)
• In Jefferson County OH, “County commissioners [] agreed to create a commission to study whether the county should create to a public defender’s office.”
• In Berrien County MI, “[f]or the second time since the Berrien County Public Defender’s Office opened three years ago, Berrien County is losing its chief public defender to a larger county.”
• In Fresco County CA, “[t]he [] County Public Defenders Office will be adding much-needed lawyers to its ranks as part of a legal settlement between the county and the American Civil Liberties Union.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In New York, “[a] group of 64 activist groups called on Cuomo to “immediately prioritize the full statewide repeal” of a law known by its statute number, 50-a, which guards the confidentiality of personnel records of police, firefighters, correction officers and other uniformed officers.”
• In Virginia, “Gov. Ralph Northam [] announced his criminal justice reform agenda for 2020.”
• In San Francisco CA, “[n]ewly elected San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin fired multiple prosecutors on Friday afternoon as he reshapes the office and begins implementing his progressive vision two days after being sworn in.”
• In St. Louis MO, “[a] top prosecutor has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of St Louis and its police union citing a nearly 150-year-old law used to combat the Ku Klux Klan white supremacist group.”
• In related news, “[o]ne day after St. Louis’ top prosecutor filed a federal lawsuit alleging a concerted and racist conspiracy to push her out of office, other black female prosecutors from across the U.S. defended Kim Gardner, saying they’ve faced the same resistance in their own communities.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Hope the final days of this decade are treating you all well. Among the many retrospectives this week, you may find the one by Slate interesting, which describes the 2010’s as “The Decade Class Actions Were Gutted.” In the here-and-now, immigration and student loans stories continue to dominate, with a new federal lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of “weaponizing” the immigration court system and the Trump administration announcing its intention to take up student loan debt reform. 

In sunnier news, the right to counsel in eviction just received bipartisan federal attention in the Senate! As usual, these stories and more are in the links below.

See you around,
  Sam

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• In Portland OR, “[l]egal service providers filed a federal lawsuit…challenging the ‘weaponization’ of the U.S. immigration court system. The filing is asking a federal judge in Portland to declare that the court system is illegal.”
  • Relatedly the Wall Street Journal ran an article under the headline “Immigration Tent Courts at Border Raise Due-Process Concerns”.
• In Washington DC, Human Rights First released a report on “escalating human rights abuses against asylum seekers returned to Mexico by the Trump administration” alleging that “Trump administration officials continue to knowingly send people who have asked for refugee protection to be kidnapped, exploited, beaten, raped and even killed in Mexico[.]”
• In Milford CT, “[m]embers of Unidad Latina en Accion renewed its call for the ban Thursday after ICE agents attempted to arrest a woman at Superior Court in Milford and demanded identification from a second woman who is in the United States legally.”
  • Relatedly, “[t]he Trump administration is defending U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement’s authority to arrest suspected unauthorized immigrants at Massachusetts state courthouses, telling a Boston federal court…that the agency can make its arrests anywhere.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “[a] new report prepared by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) for Vermont senator and 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders [finds that] millennials are financial worse off than their parents and may not have the opportunity to do better.” Specifically, “student loan debt is what really differentiates millennial finances from other generations, with millenials more likely to have student debt that exceeds their annual income.” (Full report available here.)
• Also in Washington DC, “[t]he Trump administration is considering ways to help Americans with their student-loan debt, according to senior administration officials, including by refinancing loans at lower interest rates and eliminating debt in bankruptcy.”
• Also also in Washington DC, “Education Secretary Betsy DeVos [] vigorously defended her decision to grant partial or no loan relief to tens of thousands of students who were misled by for-profit colleges, blaming the Obama administration for overpromising debt relief.”
• Again also in Washington DC, “[l]awmakers continue to berate Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Kathy Kraninger over failures related to the oversight of student loan servicers, blaming her for allowing the massive problems in the student loan system to ‘fester.’”
• The Motley Fool reported that “only 44% of millennials with student loans say they completely understood their repayment terms before officially taking them on. And more than 33% of younger borrowers admitted that they didn’t even understand some of the basics associated with student loans — concepts like monthly payments, interest rates, and refinancing.”
• The Urban Institute updated its Debt in America Interactive Map, which allows users to filter specifically for student debt.
• In San Francisco, MeasureOne released its “Private Student Loan Report, an industry leading research report leveraging MeasureOne’s custom analytics services. This 13th edition of the report again affirms that students and families continue to responsibly use private student loans to cover college costs.”
• In New York, Pillar, a personal finance app, “launched a new feature for the holidays called Boost. Boost is the first gifting platform for consumers exclusively dedicated to paying off student loan debt. With Boost by Pillar, a person’s friends and family can make payments towards their loved one’s student loans. Pillar automatically applies these crowdfunded payments directly towards the user’s student loan debt[.]”
• Forbes published a discussion about “the unexpected dangers of paying off student loans with your 401(k) savings”.
• The New York Times published a discussion of “‘income-share agreements,’ [] new financial instrument[s] being promoted by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.”

Legal Technology

• In Florida, an unauthorized practice of law case filed by “traffic-ticket goliath The Ticket Clinic” against the technology service TIKD, which “invite[s motorists] to ‘spend two minutes or less’ taking a photo of [their] ticket, uploading it and paying a fee based on the fine amount[,]” is heading to the Florida Supreme Court: “Justices set arguments for March 4 to help them decide whether the app should be allowed or shut down.”
• In California, “Verogen, a California-based forensic genomics company, acquired GEDmatch, a user-sourced DNA genealogy site. The acquisition suggests that GEDmatch’s transformation from a popular genealogy site to a crime-fighting tool is almost complete. The privacy implications will be enormous, even for those who have never considered taking a consumer genetic test.”
• In St. Louis MO, after studying “the state bars of Arizona and Florida[, which] employ programs that match attorneys with pro bono work via software[,]” the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis has begun developing its “Pro Bono Software Project”.
• OpenGlobalRights argued that “the wild west of online political campaigning threatens to damage our democracies irreparably[; and w]e should be turning to international human rights law to set [] boundaries.”
• In South Dakota, “[a] new online tool that links lower-income South Dakotans and lawyers seems to be much faster than the old way, where legal-aid staff directly took people’s initial information.”

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “under a bill that could become law this week [t]he United States government would be prohibited from asking job applicants about their criminal history at the start of the hiring process.”
• In Seattle WA, “the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington ordered the Department of Defense to turn over documents that it has withheld regarding the Trump-Pence administration’s ban on open military service by transgender people, including its purported justifications for the policy.”
• In Montgomery AL, “employees at Southern Poverty Law Center took the next step in their drive for unionization, successfully voting to join the Washington-Baltimore News Guild in a vote of 142-45. The vote comes after SPLC management declined to voluntarily recognize the union and hired legal counsel that raised fears about pushback against union efforts[.]”
• Phys.org published a study in which “sociology researchers [] analyze[d] 41 predominantly white organizations and their leaders [where t]hese organizations seek to address local, state, and national issues by organizing community members to help influence public policy.” Researchers found that “all else being equal, organizations with a leader of color were more likely to address racial issues internally and when shaping public policy.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• Slate.com published a retrospective on the 2010’s as “The Decade Class Actions Were Gutted.”
• In Washington DC, “[a] bipartisan group of legislators introduced a bill yesterday that would provide aid for renters facing eviction[.] ..In addition to providing funds to avoid eviction, the bill would also improve legal representation for tenants by supporting the expansion of landlord-tenant community courts, increasing the presence of social service representatives for at-risk tenants, and funding the Legal Services Corporation, a public-private partnership that provides legal services to low-income Americans”
• In Toronto ON, Toronto Life published an interview with three local attorneys in which they weighed in on the effect of Premier Ford’s cuts to legal aid.
• In New York NY, “the Mayor’s Office announced an expansion of the Right to Counsel program that provides free legal assistance to New Yorkers fighting eviction. The Right to Counsel program, implemented by a ZIP code by ZIP code approach, will be expanded to five more ZIP codes across the City.”
• In Puerto Rico, “[a] Puerto Rican bar association is challenging the commonwealth’s new pro bono requirements, arguing they violate attorneys’ constitutional rights including due process and equal protection.”
• The Center for American Progress published “5 Principles for Civil Justice Reform”.

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Wyoming, “[t]he Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee advanced legislation…that would create a new state agency committed to representing children in juvenile court.”
• In Oregon, the Blue Mountain Eagle profiled “the Forensic Justice Project[, a] small Portland-based nonprofit…dedicated to helping defense lawyers understand, find and challenge scientific evidence introduced during trials.”
• In Buffalo NY, “[a]s part of a five-year program, the Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo will receive enough state aid to increase its staff of defense attorneys from 24 to 50.”
• In Columbiana County OH, “[t]he non-profit organization of attorneys created to provide public defender representation in Columbiana County is getting more funding in 2020, which in the end will reduce the amount of money county commissioners have to spend on the program.”
• In Richland County OH, “[r]epresentatives of the Richland County Bar Association have indicated that the association could act this week to accept a compromise fee schedule for attorneys who represent indigent defendants and end their boycott of those cases, following a promise that the new fees will be reviewed again in mid-2020.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Los Angeles CA, “[t]wo candidates on the left are challenging [] the current D.A. One of the challengers [is] a former public defender for both LA County and the federal government.”
  • In a related news story, “[t]wo candidates running to become the district attorney of Los Angeles County are voicing support for decriminalizing possession of all drugs.”
• In Prince Edward Island, “Charlottetown and Summerside [are] asking the province to give police new power to seize property[.]”
• In New York, “[u]nder new bail restrictions [taking effect Jan. 1], judges will no longer be able to weigh the risk to public safety and order defendants jailed with bail unless they are charged with certain violent or sex felony charges. Instead, defendants will be issued appearance tickets in nearly all cases. The legislation also compresses the prosecution’s timeline for sharing information with defendants and their legal counsel.”
• In Philadelphia PA, “the state Superior Court has ruled [that the] Pennsylvania Supreme Court is the only appellate court with the authority to review a Philadelphia trial judge’s controversial decision to replace the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office with a special prosecutor in a probation violation matter.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Big news this week included revised plans for legal aid funding out of Ontario and a Department of Education decision not to issue full refunds to student debt-holders who were victims of fraud by for-profit colleges. You may also want to give the first article in the immigration section a look. I’d say more, but unfortunately I have to run.

See you around,

  Sam

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• BuzzFeed reported that “US Border Officials Are Issuing Fake Court Notices to Keep Out Immigrants Who Have Won Asylum[.]”
• Minnesota Lawyer reported that “[w]hile the government previously targeted immigrants with a criminal history, undocumented immigrants today are being put into removal proceedings even though they have no criminal record in the United States, lawyers say. As a result, a backlog of immigration cases is clogging the docket…across the country. Immigration attorneys say the sheer number of cases has outstripped their ability to help asylum-seekers. The [DOJ] has instructed immigration judges to pick up the pace of their cases.”
• In California, “[a]n immigration nonprofit accused [ICE] in [] federal court [] of preventing detainees from calling its hotline for reporting detention center abuses.” (Nonprofit Quarterly also covered this story.)
• In Utah, “a federal judge…decided.. [that p]eople born in the territory of American Samoa should be recognized as U.S. citizens[.]”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “Education Secretary Betsy DeVos came under intense scrutiny from congressional Democrats on Thursday for refusing to fully forgive student loans for people who say they have been defrauded by for-profit colleges. DeVos has instead proposed a loan forgiveness plan based on earnings data.”
  • Meanwhile, “Secretary…DeVos…defender her decision to move ahead with partial loan forgiveness for students defrauded by for-profit colleges.”
• In Pennsylvania, the Penn Capital-Star published a profile of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, titled “How an obscure Pa. state agency became one of the nation’s biggest student loan servicers.”
• The Chronicle of Higher Education profiled the various legal challenges to the Trump administrations’ efforts to “roll back student-loan oversight”.
• The Roosevelt Institute published an analysis concluding that “[t]he [US] Education Department could cancel all U.S. student debt itself–and without any action by Congress[.]”

Legal Tchnology

• In Washington DC, “Attorney General William P. Barr [] signaled that the Justice Department plans to [] explor[e] new legal tools to probe [tech] companies for their privacy abuses and the way they police content online.”
• In Fresno CA, “[t]he Fresno Public Defender’s Office and Uptrust the social justice text messaging communication platform, has [sic] announced a partnership to reduce the number of Failure to Appear (FTA) incidents, arrest warrants and technical violations in the county.”
• In Pennsylvania, “the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled [last month] that it is a violation of the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination to compel a defendant to disclose a password to allow policy access to a “lawfully seized, but encrypted, computer.”
• In New York NY, the city’s “Automated Decision System Task Force” “failed at even completing a first necessary step in its work: getting access to basic information about automated systems already in use, according to task force members and observers.”
  • Meanwhile, AI Now Institute published a shadow report last week that, according to CityLab, “has issued a stark warning cry about ‘the limitations of existing bureaucratic procedures’ to tackle automated decisions.”\
• Fast Company reported on “[a] new chatbot called Mona, designed for Facebook Messenger and Telegram, [that is designed to] get reliable information and services on[to] the same platforms that refugees are already using, and reach them on their own terms with information and services that they [can] use when they actually need it most[.]”

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• LegalNewsLine published a warning from a partner at ReedSmith that “[c]ity, county and tribal governments’ strategy of hiring private lawyers in opioid and other litigation is causing a ‘misalignment of the values’ between those entities and the traditional primacy of state attorneys general[.]”
• In Dallas-Fort Worth TX, “[u]nion representatives for Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas employees [picketed] the group’s board meeting.”
• In Houston TX, “[a] coalition of advocates, legal groups and a workers’ union [opposed] the district attorney’s upcoming budget request for 58 more prosecutors and questioning her commitment to justice reform.”
• Government Executive analyzed “All the Federal Workforce Provisions Tucked into the Defense Policy Bill[.]”
• In Alberta, the president of the Alberta Crown Attorneys’ Association described the province’s working conditions for prosecutors as “a state of continual crisis[.]”
• In Philadelphia PA, “Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, the 41-year-old pro bono legal services organization serving emerging artists and arts organizations, will return to being an independent nonprofit after more than a decade of being funded by the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia’s Arts and Business Council.”
• The Environmental Integrity Project reported that a survey of “annual expenditures and staffing levels from fiscal year 2008 to 2018 for state agencies that protect public health and the environment [revealed that] state eliminated 4,400 positions at agencies responsible for protecting the environment.”
• The Arizona Republic reported that “[e]ven in a lengthy economic expansion, many nonprofits still have trouble providing social services and all the other support needed by the community…[as n]ationally, the pattern has been one of lower donations from middle-class sources.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Toronto ON, the province’s “attorney general [] cancell[ed] planned cuts to legal aid funding, but this year’s 30-per-cent budget cut is being made permanent.”
  • However, an opinion columnist at CBC argued that “despite walking back $30 million in planned cuts to Legal Aid Ontario (LAO), [Attorney General] Downey’s legislation is a Trojan horse for his ultimate goal — a cruel gutting of access to justice for the impoverished.”
• In Canada more broadly, the Globe and Mail reported that “[l]egal experts say the justice system is failing Canada’s working poor, many of whom are unable to afford lawyers and end up pleading guilty or representing themselves in court.”
• NextCity Magazine surveyed changes in local government to ask, “Is Tenants’ Right to Counsel on Its Way to Becoming Standard Practice?”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Wyoming, the State Public Defender, who “has warned the Legislature that her office is essentially in crisis due to heavy caseloads and struggles to retain attorneys,” “spoke in favor of Gov. Mark Gordon’s budget proposal for the 2021-22 biennium[.]”
• In Maine, “[t]he Main Legislature’s government watchdog agency [announced] a more thorough investigation into how the state provides legal services for the poor, with a specific focus on the oversight of the program and its procedures.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In North Carolina, “[t]he State Judicial Council convened…to discuss judicial branch reforms and to push for increased funding…for improved case management, bail reform, and improved drug treatment courts…It was the first time the council had convened in five years[.]”
• In New Hampshire, “[Governor] Sununu appoint[ed a] former public defender to head [the] parole board.” The new Chairman, Jennifer Brooke Sargent, also has experience as a judge and a prosecutor.