Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public!

Life continues to be interesting. In Washington, the Biden Administration is strategizing with civil society lawyers on how to protect people seeking abortions post-Dobbs, while also delaying a promised decision on student loan forgiveness until the end of August. Meanwhile, new reporting suggests that Trump allies are planning changes to the federal civil service (if Trump is re-elected) that commenters are characterizing as a “purge”. Public defenders in New York State are on track for a pay increase that will see their spending power rise relative to inflation, while federal employees’ pay increase may not be sufficient to keep up with the times. And the nationwide struggle over the future of progressive prosecution continues. All these stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choices

• In Washington DC, “more than two dozen advocacy groups said in a letter sent to President Joe Biden” that “[p]an-coronavirus vaccine technology currently in development by the U.S. military must remain public and should be shared with the world[:] ‘Current production and distribution agreements have empowered corporations while limiting the promise of life-saving coronavirus vaccines,” said Timi Iwayemi, senior researcher for the Revolving Door Project. “Continuing down a path that restricts widespread manufacturing and distribution of COVID vaccines would lead to unnecessary deaths and easier opportunities for the virus to mutate.’”
• Also in Washington DC, “[f]ormer aides close to President Trump are working to revive and expand his signature proposal to upend the federal civil service, according to a new report, and are working in conjunction with the former commander in chief to quickly purge thousands of federal employees if he were to return to office.”

Reproductive Justice

• In Washington DC, “[t]he White House and Justice Department [] will host their first meeting with outside lawyers to discuss how to protect those who seek abortions from legal repercussions [thirteen weeks after receiving advance warning and five weeks after] after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.”
  • Relatedly, The Marshall Project explored how “[i]n rescinding the 49-year-old constitutional right to abortion care, the [Supreme C]ourt ‘suddenly dumped the abortion question back into the realm of criminal law.’”
• Also in Washington DC, “Democratic Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri plans to introduce legislation that would establish a new reproductive health office in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and provide grant money to reproductive care services.”
• Again also in Washington DC, “Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has backed out of teaching a seminar at George Washington University’s law school in the nation’s capital, following student protests and the university’s statement of support for the conservative justice’s role on campus.”
• In Cheyenne WY, “[a] lawsuit filed [] by a Casper women's health clinic and others seeks to block Wyoming's new abortion ban just before it's scheduled to take effect. The lawsuit claims the new law violates the state constitution with restrictions that will discourage potentially lifesaving pregnancy healthcare in Wyoming, forcing pregnant women to go to other states for necessary procedures.”

Climate Crisis

• In St. Paul MN, “Republican-endorsed attorney general candidate Jim Schultz is calling on Democratic incumbent Keith Ellison to reject activist requests to review criminal cases tied to oil pipeline protests as a special prosecutor.”
• In Austin TX, “Environmentalist groups and their allies held a press conference…to pressure Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton into litigating polluters.”
• In Massachusetts, “Biden announced millions of dollars in funding for climate change measures, including upgrading infrastructure, weatherizing buildings and installing cooling in homes[, but] did not declare a national climate emergency – a step that some Democratic officials and activists have urged after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin seemingly blocked legislative action and the Supreme Court limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.”

Rule of Law

• Also in Washington DC, “U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan warned Thursday that it would be dangerous if the Supreme Court loses touch with public sentiment or appears to be implementing political preferences.”
  • Meanwhile, in Rome Italy, Justice Alito, “[d]uring a surprise appearance as a keynote speaker at a religious freedom conference in Rome last week, sponsored by the University of Notre Dame,…made clear that he considered religious faith to be a natural yearning of all human beings. ‘Our hearts are restless until we rest in God,’ he said. “Justice Samuel Alito gave a talk [] sponsored by the University of Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Initiative. The conference that hosted Alito was organized by the Religious Liberty Institute at Notre Dame, which was founded in 2020. While the conference was announced and promoted to journalists in advance, Alito’s role was kept under wraps. The institute or its faculty members have filed amicus briefs in at least five Supreme Court cases on religious freedom issues.”
• In Uvalde TX, “[d]espite having in-house counsel, the city of Uvalde and its police department are working with a private firm to seal records of the horrific shooting at Robb Elementary School, records obtained by VICE show.”

Free & Fair Elections

• In Washington DC, “[l]egal experts [] warned lawmakers on the U.S. House Administration Committee that if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a North Carolina case that embraces a fringe election theory, it would undermine future elections across the country.”
• In Topeka KS, the state Court of Appeals ruled that “Kansas' top elections official violated the state's open records law when he had office computer software altered so that it could no longer produce data sought by a voting-rights advocate[.]”
• In Atlanta GA, Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled that “[t]he prosecutor who’s investigating whether former President Trump and his allies illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 election in Georgia cannot question a lawmaker who signed a certificate falsely stating that Trump won the state[.]”
• In Pennsylvania, “[m]ore than a dozen Pennsylvania Republicans are trying, for a second time, to throw out a mail voting law that many of them helped pass in the first place.”

Human Rights

• In Tampa, “a private school [] is taking on the Biden administration and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried in federal court, arguing it's being punished because its religious beliefs clash with new federal guidelines extending sex discrimination protections to LGBTQ individuals…An attorney for Grant Park Christian Academy said the school's failure to comply with the feds will force it to forfeit tens of thousands of dollars under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National School Lunch Program, which provides reduced-price or free meals to children from low-income families.”
• In New Haven CT, “a listserv used to organize several recent protests at Yale Law has been shut down. ‘If students want to “debate important questions,” the dean of Yale Law School Heather Gerken announced in an email on Wednesday, they can post on a physical bulletin board in the law school’s hallway.’”
• In Houston TX, “[t]he Justice Department opened an investigation against the city of Houston [] to determine whether complaints of illegal dumping — including dead bodies and animals — in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods amount to civil rights violations.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “Sens. Chuck Schumer, Bob Menendez, Cory Booker, and Elizabeth Warren, along with Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Lauren Underwood, and Tony Crdenas, led 100 of their Democratic colleagues in sending a letter to Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona pushing for an extension of the federal pause on student-loan payments. The pause, currently set to expire after August 31, is just over a month away, and millions of borrowers are still waiting for news on whether it might be extended again, along with Biden's decision on broad student-loan forgiveness.” (open letter available via Sen. Menendez’ office)
• Also in Washington DC, “[f]ederal student loan servicers have been told to hold off on sending out payment reminders to borrowers, according to two sources familiar with the matter.”
• Again also in Washington DC, “[t]the Supreme Court’s June ruling in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, which curbed the agency’s authority to set certain climate change regulations, could now add another factor to the Biden administration’s decision-making process.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In the United States, “public pension funds are on pace for their deepest financial setback since the Great Recession as turmoil in global markets this year threaten to leave taxpayers and government workers on the hook.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he odds that Congress would increase the average 4.6% pay raise planned for federal employees in 2023 got a little longer Thursday, after Senate appropriators revealed that they would effectively endorse President Biden’s pay increase proposal.”
  • Editor’s Note: According to the Department of Labor’s Inflation Calculator, the inflation rate between June 2021 and June 2022 was 9%. By my math, this means that the spending power of federal wages will decline by 4.4% if this pay raise is approved.
• Also in Washington DC, “[t]he official in charge of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility efforts at the State Department told lawmakers on Tuesday that ‘this time is different,’ while recapping their process and acknowledging the work ahead of them.”
• In Macomb County MI, “[t]he Michigan Supreme Court has sided with Macomb County Prosecutor in a spat [between the prosecutor’s office and the county executive] over four jobs that [Prosecutor] Pete Lucido wants posted.”
• In Canada, “the federal government released its proposed Regulations Amending Certain Regulations Made Under the Canada Labour Code (Medical Leave with Pay) (the "Proposed Regulations"), with respect to paid sick leave for federally regulated employees.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In New York NY, “[t]he number of evictions in New York City has increased every month from January to June, according to new city data. The state’s eviction moratorium expired on January 15 after officials extended it several times after it first took effect in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic. The data comes as more bad news for renters, who are facing record-high rents after prices fell early on in the pandemic.”
• Also in New York, “[a] judge overturned a law that allowed the state government to place even healthy citizens in quarantine camps for an indefinite time without review.”
• Again also in New York, “Attorney General Letitia James[] filed a lawsuit against the pharmacy conglomerate [CVS],” alleging they “diverted millions of dollars from underserved communities as part of an anticompetitive scheme involving Medicare 340B drug programs[.]”
• In Palo Alto CA, “Stanford Law School’s Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession and Legal Design Lab announced today a collaboration with court systems in six states – Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, Texas, and Virginia – to simplify filings in civil cases affecting millions of Americans.”
• In the United States, Truthout surveyed the nationwide “right-to-counsel in evictions” movement.
  • Relatedly, “[t]he North New Jersey Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) launched their right-to-counsel campaign to aid Jersey City tenants at [a] City Hall presser[.]”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In New York, “attorneys assigned to represent defendants who cannot afford to hire their own counsel are getting a raise for the first time in two decades. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lisa Headley’s decision and order directed New York state and New York City to pay assigned counsel a rate of $158 per hour, up from $90 per hour. The 75% pay increase is retroactive from February. Assigned counsel last received a pay increase in 2004.”
  • Editor’s Note: According to the Department of Labor’s Inflation Calculator, the inflation rate between June 2004 and June 2022 was 56%. By my math, this means that the spending power of New York defenders’ wages will rise by 19%.
• Also in New York, “[t]he controversial circumstances surrounding the case of New York bodega worker Jose Alba exposes a fundamental flaw in how the New York state criminal legal system operates. In the state system, unless you happen to work for the New York Police Department, prosecutors often charge first and investigate later.”
• In Eaton County MI, “officials say, because of some policy changes at the state level, they are able to help more people who can't afford to hire a lawyer of their own…[after] the American Bar Association took a look at how these cases were being handled and coordinated some changes at the state level to bring the quality of legal care up to the same standard as the prosecutor's offices.”
• In Portland OR, Governor Kate Brown has asked the court to dismiss “[a] lawsuit filed in May [] asking the court to dismiss charges against five individuals who continuously had their case rescheduled because the state of Oregon does not have enough public defenders.”
  • Meanwhile, “[a]ccording to a report filed[] by Oregon's Fiscal Legislative Staff, the state's Office of Public Defense only ‘minimally met’ reporting requirements that lawmakers had laid out for it to receive $100million in taxpayer dollars to address a public defender shortage.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Baltimore MD, “Marilyn Mosby, a high-profile prosecutor who aligned herself with criminal justice reformers but ended up with legal problems of her own, has lost the Democratic primary for Baltimore state’s attorney to Ivan Bates, a defense attorney…Mosby, who was a two-term incumbent, rose to national prominence in 2015 when she pursued criminal charges against six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, a Black man who suffered a spinal injury after police handcuffed, shackled and placed him headfirst into a van. His death triggered riots and protests. None of the officers was convicted.”
• In Chapel Hill NC, “[t]he Institute for Innovation in Protection launched a new project named “Protecting Workers: Wage Theft Enforcement for the Local Prosecutor,” designed to help prosecutors take on wage theft prosecutions.”
• In New York NY, “defense attorneys are asking judges to drop gun possession cases following this June’s Supreme Court decision striking down the state’s restrictive gun licensing regulations for violating a newly found Second Amendment right ‘to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense.’”
• Also in New York NY, “[t]he Bronx Defenders and The Bronx Community Foundation, along with U.S. senate majority leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer, State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33), and Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson, joined Bronx community leaders…to announce the launch of The Bronx Cannabis Hub…The Bronx Cannabis Hub is a new resource designed to give Bronx residents, who advocates say have been harmed by decades of cannabis prohibition, the means to participate in the new, legal cannabis industry.”
• In New York, gubernatorial candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin (Republican) stated that “the governor of the state of New York has the authority and I would argue the obligation to remove a district attorney who refuses to enforce the law. And Alvin Bragg, across the board since the first day he's been there, has refused to do his job. The first act will be notifying Alvin Bragg that he is being removed as a district attorney in Manhattan. We need to start securing our streets from day one, repealing cashless bail.”
  • Relatedly, “Rep. Lee Zeldin has been trying to make his scuffle with an attacker last week part of his case for undoing state bail reform laws…But the Republican nominee for governor is left clarifying some details in the incident’s aftermath. Why didn’t the prosecutor who once served as his gubernatorial campaign co-chair level a bail-eligible charge?” [emphasis added]
• In Cook County IL, “high turnover has left State’s Attorney Kim Foxx with a significant backlog. A former state prosecutor says it's her own fault.”
• In Maricopa County AZ, “[t]he office has dozens of unfilled prosecutor jobs, which has slowed the pursuit of justice and frustrated police.”
• In Hennepin County MN, district attorney candidate Martha Holton Dimick argued that “our more lenient approach to prosecution is good as long as we fulfill our core responsibilities as prosecutors and law enforcement. Over the last two years, we have not. Car thieves know they will be released on the same day without bail; juvenile carjackers have nowhere to be placed for short-term detention or treatment, and dozens of homicides in Minneapolis from 2021 remain unsolved. And our leaders stood on a stage and told the world that we would end policing in Minneapolis. Since the murder of George Floyd, many criminals have heard the message that we don't care about their actions, and they have acted accordingly. My first priority right now is to restore the effectiveness of the office by emphasizing our core responsibility: swift, effective and fair prosecution.”
• In Tennessee, “[n]ewly proposed rules covering juvenile detention centers in Tennessee are supposed to ban solitary confinement. But critics say they were written with the exclusive help of juvenile detention operators and would allow facilities to continue locking children in solitary confinement.”
• In Pennsylvania, “[a] former public defender turned Philadelphia County judge has been nominated by President Joe Biden to serve on the federal bench in Pennsylvania.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public!

Interesting times. Major stories centered around criminal justice this week. The ongoing effort to recall, impeach, or force the resignation of reformist prosecutors continues across the US (stories in California, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania this week), while Democrats, led by the President, join Republicans in bipartisan concern for “law & order” issues. Meanwhile, multiple states report caseload crises for public defenders–and the ACLU won class certification in Maine for a lawsuit alleging officials failed to create an effective public defender system.” The Biden administration promises a decision on student loan forgiveness will be forthcoming, and polls indicate public confidence in the Supreme Court has fallen precipitously since its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. All this and more are in the stories below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Reproductive Justice

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Veterans Affairs Department is ‘closely watching’ how access to abortions shakes out after the fall of Roe v. Wade, suggesting on Wednesday it could unilaterally decide to offer the service if its availability drops precipitously for veterans across the country.”
• In the United States, “pro-choice groups and abortion providers have seen a surge in membership, volunteers, and donations in recent weeks as advocates seek to protect and shore up abortion access.”

Rule of Law

• In Johnson County KS, “[t]he Johnson County Sheriff is now accusing the county attorney of breaking the law and providing a public document to reporters. The letter provided under the Kansas Open Records Act, or KORA, revealed the county attorney had concerns about the sheriff’s request to play a greater role in the upcoming election.”
• In Washington DC, public revelation of a memo in which “the [current] attorney general extended his predecessor’s requirement that investigations into presidential or vice-presidential candidates, as well as their senior staff and advisors, can’t begin without written notification to the department and his written approval [has sparked] debate since then as to whether [this deference] was justified.”
• In Milwaukee WI, “a new poll released [by Marquette Law School shows] just 38% of the country saying it approves of the nation’s highest court after it overturned Roe v. Wade–a dramatic shift in public opinion from one year ago.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “President Biden confirmed he will decide wide-scale student loan cancellation by August.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[a] pair of New Jersey lawmakers have introduced a new bill that would make it easier for some previously ineligible public workers to qualify for loan relief under a federal program. This is the latest attempt to make changes to the 15-year-old program as Americans await a decision on widespread student loan forgiveness by the Biden administration.”
• Again also in Washington DC, “[c]ongressional Republicans slammed President Biden‘s consideration of student loan forgiveness as a “giveaway” to highly educated Americans that ignores the underlying costs of college and inflation pressures for struggling Americans.”
• Latino USA noted that “[t]he call for abolition of all student debt has never been louder,” and “div[ed] into the history of the student loan system in the U.S., as well as the stories of Black and Latino organizers that have been at the forefront of the movement for student debt cancellation.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “Equal Justice Works, which helps law students and graduates pursue careers in public interest law, has chosen University of Cincinnati law Dean Verna Williams to replace outgoing executive director David Stern in September and to assume the new title of chief executive officer[.]”
• Also in Washington DC, “[o]fficials from the Biden administration on Thursday defended federal agencies’ approach to workplace flexibilities like telework and remote work from skeptical Republicans, who have grown more stridently against the concept of hybrid work environments in recent months.”
• In the United States, “Americans head into the 2022 midterm election season with record-setting doubts about the federal government’s faithful execution of the laws. Public demand for comprehensive government reform is at a 20-year high, while confidence in government has dropped to a historic low.”
• In California, “state employee unions representing scientists and attorneys are making the biggest demands for raises in contract negotiations this year. The attorneys want 30%.”
• In Nashville TN, “Vanderbilt Law School’s Social Justice Reporter, a new student-edited legal journal, will publish this fall and focus on social justice, civil rights and public interest lawyering by leading researchers, practitioners, policymakers and law students.”
• In New York NY, “[c]laiming that a vote in support for the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel by faculty at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law “makes clear that Israeli students and faculty members are not welcome to work with, attend or work for” the school, a complaint has been filed with the city and state.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In California, “[a] group of tenant advocates and attorneys today launched a tool they hope will change [outcomes in eviction proceedings.] More than 50 tenant advocates and attorneys from The Debt Collective, The LA Tenants Union, The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality & Democracy and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment worked on the “Tenant Power Toolkit” over the last two years — a mostly volunteer effort, explains Hannah Appel, an anthropology professor at UCLA who came up with the idea based on her work as a co-founder of the Debt Collective.”
• In Dallas County TX, “when lawyers from the [] Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center show up, [tenants] win 97% of the time. The pro bono team possesses no superpowers, but it’s [sic] susses out what juices the eviction process. The landlords’ longtime gamble — knowing that fewer than 3% of tenants show up with legal representation — is that the odds are in their favor to cut corners, fudge facts and pull off unlawful maneuvers.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Maine, “Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy granted the ACLU of Maine’s request for class certification [in] a lawsuit filed against Maine officials that alleges they failed to create an effective public defense system.”
• In New Hampshire, “[t]he state Supreme Court, New Hampshire Judicial Council, and New Hampshire Public Defender program say it’s critical the state increase the hourly rates and caps on payments and make permanent the temporary pay raises public defenders received.”
• In Wisconsin, “thousands of men and women across Wisconsin [wait months for representation] due to overworked and understaffed public defenders [in a] growing caseload crisis.”
• In Boundary County ID, “[p]ublic officials from both Bonner and Boundary counties met to discuss the first draft of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a potential joint public defenders office for the two counties.”
• In Helena MT, “[t]he Montana Supreme Court has vacated a District Court contempt order against the Office of State Public Defender and ruled that OPD met the standards of Montana law when assigning public defenders. In September, Billings Judge Donald Harris held OPD Director Rhonda Lindquist and her office in contempt after learning more than 600 defendants were without assigned legal representation in Yellowstone County.”
• In Santa Cruz CA, “New Santa Cruz County Public Defender Heather Rogers is aiming to offer a legal experience to the county’s least wealthy that allows them to experience the same “boutique” legal experience as those with ample financial means.”
• In New Orleans LA, “[a]fter almost 14 years of defending the poor in the state’s busiest courthouse…the city’s chief public defender, Derwyn Bunton, is stepping down.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In San Francisco CA, “[j]ust two weeks after replacing San Francisco’s progressive district attorney Chesa Boudin, DA Brooke Jenkins is taking heat for a mass firing which many attorneys say is throwing the office into chaos.”
  • Meanwhile, “[a]mid a hiring and firing spree, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced the appointment of several key leaders on Tuesday, including a new head of the bureau that investigates police shootings…replac[ing] Lateef Gray, who was fired by Jenkins. Gray was a longtime public defender and civil rights attorney known for suing police before [recalled DA] Boudin appointed him to the position.”
  • The San Francisco Chronicle evaluated DA Jenkins’ approach to her new role: “[a] week into her new job, Jenkins’ public engagements, political stance, and early personnel decisions offer a glimpse of that vision and the kind of district attorney she envisions being: Someone a loan to bring back cash bail, charge minors as adults, revoke plea deals that could prevent immigrants from being deported, and support the expansion of police surveillance, all to ensure that the San Franciscans feel sure. Jenkins likes to say she’s progressive, but is she?”
• In Los Angeles CA, Politico examined the effort to recall District Attorney Gascón: “Gascón moved quickly after he was sworn in. He ended cash bail for misdemeanors and non-violent felonies. He told his deputy district attorneys not to seek the death penalty anymore, to never try juveniles as adults, to stop prosecuting people for first-time non-violent misdemeanors, and to stop using so-called sentencing enhancements, which allow prosecutors to pile on jail time. And he did all of that on his first day in office. Then came the backlash.”
  • In Los Angeles CA, the “District Attorney is terminating a unit that notifies crime victims and their families when their assailant is up for parole hearings. This decision comes after the Los Angeles County clerk stated that it will need to fully verify signatures for the district attorney’s recall.”
• In Harrisburg PA, “Republicans and Democrats in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives announced a new committee this week devoted to examining rising crime rates in Philadelphia, hinting toward the recommended impeachment of District Attorney Larry Krasner (D-PA).”
• In Passaic County NJ, “[County P]rosecutor Camelia M. Valdes has run afoul of rank-and-file police officers, who are calling for her resignation after a new policy that requires cops to notify their departments anytime they’re involved in a motor vehicle accident in the county that causes injuries.”
• In Columbus OH, “[o]ne of the special prosecutors who had pursued criminal charges against three members of the Columbus Division of Police for their conduct in the 2020 racial justice protests has resigned, according to the Columbus City Attorney’s Office.”
• In New York, “the day that the Supreme Court struck down New York state’s strict gun control laws, a coalition of public defender organizations released a joint statement calling on the Legislature to craft new gun laws that would avoid the mistakes of the old…The Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul did respond with sweeping new gun control legislation that was signed into law. However, it wasn’t what some public defenders and others were hoping for, prompting private complaints that the new laws did not respond to old concerns and would fuel mass incarceration.”
• In Spokane County WA, “County Prosecutor Larry Haskell…is facing three challengers, including current and former employees who object to his leadership.”
• In Washington DC, “[p]resident Joe Biden plans to propose a steep funding increase for police, hoping to show that Democrats are serious about combating violent crime, despite the move potentially causing backlash from top members of his party’s left flank. But a scheduled trip to Pennsylvania to ask Congress to spend roughly $37 billion for fighting and preventing crime was canceled Thursday when Biden tested positive for COVID-19.”
  

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public!

Best wishes as we all arrive at the end of another week. The last seven days have seen more bombshell news related to reproductive justice, as well as multiple high-profile stories regarding government employee dissatisfaction at the federal, local, and state levels (in DC, NYC, and CA, respectively). Meanwhile, Congressional staffers took a public (but anonymous) stance against their own bosses. All this and (much) more in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice

• In Washington DC, “[i]n a rare move, more than 200 congressional staffers have sent a letter to Democratic leadership in the House and Senate, demanding they close the deal on a climate and clean energy package and warning that failure could doom younger generations. ‘We’ve crafted the legislation necessary to avert climate catastrophe. It’s time for you to pass it,’ the staffers wrote in a letter, sent to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday evening. …’Our country is nearing the end of a two-year window that represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to pass transformative climate policy[. …]The silence on expansive climate justice policy on Capitol Hill this year has been deafening. We write to distance ourselves from your dangerous inaction.’”
  

• Unrelatedly, but also in Washington DC, Reuters profiled the Weil Legal Innovators Program, “an unusual fellowship that targets students before they enter law school. Since the program launched in 2019, the firm has paid for an average of 10 ‘Zero L’ students to delay law school [for a year] in order to work at select public service organizations–not as lawyers of course, but to take on substantive projects nonetheless.”

Reproductive Justice

• In New Orleans LA, “leaders are attempting to position the city as a potential haven for abortion access through City Council resolutions and pledges of not enforcing the law[.]”
• In Indiana, the state’s “Attorney General said…that his office planned to investigate the Indiana doctor who helped a 10-year-old rape victim who crossed state lines to have an abortion.”
• In Washington DC, “President Joe Biden’s spokesperson…condemned Texas Republican lawmakers’ threat to penalize Sidley Austin and other Texas law firms that have pledged to pay for out-of-state abortions.”
• Also Washington DC, “[t]he Biden administration released updated guidance on Monday, reminding doctors around the country that they’re protected by federal law if they terminate a patient’s pregnancy as part of treatment in an emergency circumstance — and threatening to fine or strip the Medicare status from hospitals that fail to do so.”
• Again also in Washington DC, “guidance[] issued by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights…to clarify and enforce anti-discrimination provisions in the Affordable Care Act [dictated that p]harmacists cannot deny people prescribed medication–including hormonal birth control or emergency contraception–because those people are pregnant or might become pregnant.”
• In Michigan, “[a] proposed constitutional amendment there would override a 90-year-old state law that makes abortion a felony, even in the case of rape or incest….[O]rganizers [have] submitted more than 750,000 signatures…to state election officials in hopes of having the amendment appear on the November ballot. If just over half of those signatures are validated, Michigan voters will decide whether to amend the state’s constitution to guarantee broad, individual rights to ‘reproductive freedom,’ including abortion, contraception and fertilty [sic] treatments.”

Rule of Law

• In California, “Gov. Gavin Newsom [] signed legislation into law that would allow lawsuits against gun makers and distributors after gun violence. The genesis for the bill, AB 1594, was a decision by the Supreme Court not to block a Texas law allowing private citizens to sue people who provide or assist in abortions.”
• Also in California, “[t]he UCLA School of Law is launching the “Safeguarding Democracy Project”, led by elections expert Rick Hasen. It is aimed at promoting free and fair elections in the U.S.”

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In Texas, “[s]everal Border Patrol agents acted inappropriately and could face discipline following their harsh tactics as a group of mostly Haitian migrants crossed into the United States last year, though an internal investigation released Friday cleared the employees of physically striking any of the individuals.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Biden administration…unveiled a proposed regulation to no longer capitalize interest in certain situations, including when borrowers enter repayment or default on their loans.”
• Also in Washington DC, “California Gov. Gavin Newsom–who some observers suspect will make a run for the presidency in the near future–has distanced himself from progressive activists on…student debt relief. During a speech,…Newsom said he’s not for ‘waiving all debt.’…prefacing that comment by noting that it might ‘offend’ some people in his party.”
• In Connecticut, “[e]ducation officials announced [] that a new state-funded $7 million loan subsidy program is aimed at helping teachers refinance their loans.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “[a] bipartisan group of senators is looking to set new limitations on the entities with which federal agencies can contract, introducing legislation to ban the government from doing business with companies that work with certain other nations.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[a] good government group on Wednesday released its annual analysis of the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, finding that across government, employee engagement and satisfaction fell 4.5 points from 2020 to 2021.”
  • Meanwhile, in New York NY, “the largest municipal employer in the country[] is facing an exodus of city workers that has led to a surge in job vacancies and difficulties delivering basic municipal services[.]”
  • Meanwhile, in California, “state employee unions representing scientists and attorneys are making the biggest demands for raises in contract negotiations this year. The attorneys want 30%[; t]he proposed increases would be among the largest in the history of organized labor in California state government.”
• In Boston MA, “[a]n appeals court ruling [] that said Whole Foods and its parent Amazon.com Inc can’t be sued for disciplining workers who wore “Black Lives Matter” face masks…further restrict[ed] employees’ ability to change their working conditions at a time when U.S. workplaces have become a locus of divisive cultural battles and disagreements over some Americans’ basic rights.”
• In the United States, “[w]hile the number of private-sector jobs surpassed its pre-pandemic level, there are 664,000 fewer people employed in the public secor, according to the government jobs report released [last week].”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Washington DC, “[e]motion fueled a debate on the Senate floor [] as Republicans objected to taking up a Democratic bill that would guarantee a woman’s constitutional right to travel across state lines to receive abortion care.”
• In Miami-Dade County FL, “Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said that she will request that county commissioners budget funding for legal representation for [] tenants [facing eviction] in the next fiscal year.”
• In Chicago, the Legal Services Corporation held a Forum on Increasing Access to Justice (recording publicly available on their Facebook page).
• In the United States, “[m]ore than 100 legal technology companies have formed in the last 10 years to provide legal assistance to millions of Americans who can’t afford an attorney, helping to bridge a gap in access to justice, while less than a handful of states have taken action to expand the practice of law[, a]ccording to the Legal Services Corporation’s 2022 Justice Gap Study[.]”
• In Arizona, “Governor Doug Ducey signed [a] law this week making it illegal in Arizona for a person to videotape police officers, without the officer’s permission, if within 2.5 meters of the officer.”
• In Washington DC, “American University has cleared a law student of harassment charges for expressing pro-choice views in a private chat group…‘I’m glad that the school has cleared me, but this investigation should never have happened in the first place,’ [the student] said.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Massachusetts, Senator Ed Markey’s office released a letter from Amazon indicating that the company “has provided video footage from its Ring doorbell cameras to police without users’ consent 11 times this year[.]”
• In Oregon, “[a]s cases continue to drop and hundreds remain without counsel, the head of the Oregon Supreme Court is now calling for solutions to address the state’s ongoing public defender crisis.”
• In Santa Cruz CA, “[the c]ounty’s new Public Defender office began operations on July 1, and the department’s roughly 60 employees celebrated the occasion with a barbecue in the backyard of its May Street headquarters.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Massachusetts, President Joe Biden nominated “Ayer District Court Justice Margaret R. Guzman to the federal bench…Guzman is a long-time former public defender who served a stint in private practice before becoming a judge.”
• In Oregon, President Biden named Oregon Supreme Court Justice Adrienne Nelson as one of four new federal judicial nominees; the first Black judge on the state’s high court could soon become the first Black female federal judge in Oregon. (Not a direct quotation from the article, but a reworked paraphrase of its lede.)
• In Alabama, “[t]he Southern Poverty Law Center, in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama and the Glasscox Law Firm, warned Alabama Governor Kay Ivey…that a recent transfer of a judgeship from Jefferson County to Madison County violated the state constitution…The move comes directly after Democratic candidate Tiara Young Hudson, a public defender who previously served as a circuit court judge, won the nomination during the May primaries.”
• In Las Vegas, “[a ]police union is calling on a judge to resign for warning a defendant not to be around police officers because he might not survive–a piece of advice she said she follows herself.”
• In New York, “[p]ublic defenders, The Legal Aid Society, released a statement…in response to an announcement by New York State Court of Appeals chief judge, Janet DiFiore, that she will resign next month after seven years in the role. The public defenders are calling for a progressive-leaning judge to be appointed to the bench.”
  

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public!

It’s been awhile. I’ll level with you about why. This digest has always taken a substantial amount of time and effort to produce–and over the last year other responsibilities of mine have taken significantly more time and effort than they used to, as we’ve all had to adapt to drastic social changes. Additionally, public interest news continues to be densely-packed difficult to absorb and synthesize. Today, for example, I delayed this newsletter in order to get the text of President Biden’s Executive Order regarding abortion rights.

But I realize that the digest also gives us a jumping-off point for shared conversations as a community. So as we begin another academic year I am going to work to bring it back as a regular feature. Even if I get it out a bit late, and you end up reading it on Monday morning rather than Friday afternoon.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice

• In Washington DC, “[a]mid mounting pressure to take action in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday aimed at protecting access to abortions.” Among other mitigation efforts, “[t]he White House counsel and attorney general will…bring together a group of private attorneys to work on a pro bono basis for people providing or seeking an abortion who face legal battles.”

  The relevant portion of the executive order reads:

  “To promote access to reproductive healthcare services, the Attorney General and the Counsel to the President shall convene a meeting of private pro bono attorneys, bar associations, and public interest organizations in order to encourage lawyers to represent and assist patients, providers, and third parties lawfully seeking these services throughout the country.”

• Meanwhile, in Kentucky, rather than working to help people navigate new restrictions, “[a]ttorneys from around the state and outside of the commonwealth are working together to provide pro bono services to providers in case they do face criminal charges for operating a procedure which had been federally protected for nearly 50 years before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last week.”

Rule of Law

• In Washington DC, “a prominent Capitol Hill religious leader was caught on a hot mic making a bombshell claim: that she prays with sitting justices inside the high court. ‘We’re the only people who do that,’ Peggy Nienaber said. This disclosure was a serious matter on its own terms, but it also suggested a major conflict of interest. Nienaber’s ministry’s umbrella organization, Liberty Counsel, frequently brings lawsuits before the Supreme Court.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[t]he US Supreme Court since August has issued more emergency orders than opinions in cases that got fully briefed and argued despite several justices expressing misgivings about the practice. The most conservative justices signaled they wanted to use what’s known as the shadow docket even more aggressively.”
• In Pennsylvania, “[a] legal advocacy group formed in hopes of disbarring and disciplining lawyers who aided Donald Trump’s push to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election filed complaints…with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court against seven lawyers in the state for their involvement in the former president’s legal efforts.”

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In Texas, “[t]he Department of Justice is investigating alleged civil rights violations under Operation Lone Star, a multibillion-dollar border initiative announced last year by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, according to state records obtained by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.”
• Also in Texas, “Governor Greg Abbott…issued an executive order authorizing and empowering the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety to apprehend illegal immigrants who illegally cross the border between ports of entry and return them to the border.” The New York Times noted that the order “calls for state authorities to take on an immigration role that is typically the purview of the federal government.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, the Department of Education “unveiled a package of proposed regulations aimed at improving the process of applying for a range of programs to forgive debt from educational loans, including the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program[.]” (More coverage available from Inside HigherEd.)
  • Meanwhile, a recent survey by intelligent.com suggested that “Biden’s student loan pledge encouraged 86% of recent borrowers to take on debt[.]”
• In the United States, “[a] narrow majority of Americans, 55%, said they support forgiving up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt, according to a recent poll from NPR/Ipsos.”
• The Center for Responsible Lending released a report: “Stories of the Impact of COVID-19 on Women’s Finances and Their Capacity to Repay Student Loans”.
• A new Bankrate survey found that “[r]oughly 60 percent of U.S. adults who have held student loan debt have put off making important financial decisions due to that debt, according to a new Bankrate survey. For Gen Z and millennial borrowers alone, that number rises to 70 percent. Student loans have prevented these borrowers from saving for retirement or emergencies, buying a home, or paying off other debt, like credit cards.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In the United States, “[t]ens of thousands of federal employees could soon receive payments for damages suffered during the 2018 shutdown after a court heard arguments on Wednesday that the government violated federal law when it failed to deliver paychecks on time to its workers.”
• In Washington DC, “Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) introduced a bill yesterday 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.”
• Also in Washington DC, “George Washington University rejected calls to remove Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from its law school faculty by students and others frustrated over the judge’s vote to overturn Roe v. Wade and his urging to reconsider other landmark civil rights cases.”
• In Montgomery AL, “[a]fter more than a year and a half of negotiations, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement with the SPLC staff.”
• The Brookings Institute released a report finding that “[n]onprofit organizations are indispensable partners for the public sector to maximize federal dollars and leverage funds for inclusive, systemic change. Yet, to make the most of today’s historic investment opportunities, cities and nonprofits must overcome two preexisting conditions that could hinder such an approach: functionality and equity.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Mississippi, “[a] judge has denied a motion from Mississippi’s only abortion clinic to allow it to remain open by blocking a law that would ban most abortions in the state. The Jackson Women’s Health Organization had sought a temporary restraining order that would allow it to remain open, at least while the lawsuit remains in court.”
• In the United States, the US Postal Service announced it “will not proactively help states enforce laws prohibiting the use of abortion pills in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, despite many legislatures vowing to crack down on the practice.”
• In Canada, “[t]he federal government says it is examining whether there is a legal risk to health-care workers who provide abortions in this country for visiting Americans.”
• In New York, “[a]n amendment to the New York State Human Rights Law is set to go into effect on July 14, 2022. The new law directs the New York State Division of Human Rights (Division) to operate a toll-free confidential hotline, during regular business hours, which will provide counsel and assistance to individuals with complaints of workplace sexual harassment.”
• In Oklahoma City OK, “[e]victions in Oklahoma City are rising as rent help is running out[.]”
• In Wisconsin, “voters will no longer be allowed to cast their absentee ballots via remote drop boxes, as the state’s highest judicial body ruled Friday they are not permitted under state law.”
• In New Mexico, “[a] lawyer overseeing a slew of damage claims from the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire said the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s aid process needs an overhaul.”
• In Illinois, “Governor J.B. Pritzker has signed into law the “Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair” Act, or CROWN Act, which prohibits hair discrimination.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In the United States, “[m]ost judges and lawyers seem to agree that they expect courts to continue to leverage remote technology in some capacity after the pandemic subsides. When it comes to criminal proceedings, however, that consensus starts to shatter.”
• In Oregon, “[t]he patience of Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Martha Walters seems to be growing thin as the state continues to violate the constitutional rights of criminal defendants charged with crimes who cannot afford an attorney. ‘Hundreds who are constitutionally entitled to counsel are being denied that right, and no end is in sight,’ Walters wrote in a letter sent July 1 to the eight commissioners who oversee the state’s public defense agency.”
• Also in Oregon, “Oregon’s federal public defender says dozens of people inside the state’s only federal prison have been on a hunger strike protesting conditions inside the facility.”
• In Santa Cruz County CA, “residents criminally charged and in need of a lawyer can now seek public defense services, as the county opened its first Public Defender’s Office[.]”
• In Branch County MI, “[t]wo new full-time positions in the Public Defenders Office which are being funded by the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission were brought forward by the Branch County Board of Commissioners[.]”
• In Baton Rouge LA, “the NAACP Baton Rouge chapter published a four-page letter speaking against East Baton Rouge Parish Chief Public Defender Lisa Parker…NAACP alleges that 30 employees have left the office since Parker was appointed in July 2021.” In response, “Parker’s spokesperson confirms that 17 attorneys have resigned since Parker took over. A statement from Parker’s office said those attorney positions have since been filled and since Parker took over no cases have been dropped, overlooked or neglected.”
• In Georgia, “Sen. Jon Ossoff is launching a new effort to strengthen public defender programs in state and local courts.”
• In the United States, “[s]hortly after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Shinn v. Ramirez, the ABA Death Penalty Representation Project put out a call for more pro bono attorneys to help represent people on death row.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In San Francisco CA, “San Francisco’s Mayor London Breed has made a controversial pick to replace former progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin, after a recall which garnered major national attention — prosecutor and critic Brooke Jenkins…those who opposed the recall of Boudin say this pick reflects a turn from progressive criminal justice policies for San Francisco. Jenkins, a Black Latina, described herself as a “progressive prosecutor” but criticized Boudin for his policies in the interest of criminal justice reform….Recall opponents like former police commissioner John Hamasaki called this ‘an unfortunate pick for San Francisco.’[:] ‘Ms. Jenkins is somebody who has consistently demonstrated poor judgment, a lack of ethics and a desire to return to unfortunately racist and tough on crime policies,’ he said in a phone interview. He said Jenkins was not Breed’s first pick but is supported by the police union and some backers of the recall.”
• In Los Angeles County CA, the “district attorney may face a vote in November — two years before his term ends — as the campaign to recall him said it submitted enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.”
• In Maricopa County AZ, “a prosecutor involved in charging 2020 protesters with gang charges, will appeal a June 28 decision by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to officially fire her[.]”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public! Big stories this week coming out of student debt land, with tension between leadership in the US Senate and the US House of Representatives over the desirability of student loan debt forgiveness and new efforts by the Department of Education to reach out to borrowers relying on the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Additionally, the Biden Administration announced plans to begin speeding up deportations for some migrant families crossing the US-Mexico border.

These stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Rule of Law

• In Salt Lake County UT, “[t]he district attorney…declined to file criminal charges against a Utah police officer who said, ‘You’re about to die, my friend,’ seconds before fatally shooting a man[, ] saying West Valley City Sgt. Tyler Longman acted within the confines of the law when he shot and killed Michael Chad Breinholt in August 2019. Gill said under the current state law, Longman’s use of force was justified, but he called video of the shooting ‘disturbing.’”

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Biden administration is planning to speed up deportations for some migrant families who cross the US-Mexico border, the Department of Homeland Security said[.]”
• In Essex County NY, “[i]n what many see as a retaliatory act [in response to protests by detainees and advocates against ICE’s use of Essex County Jail], ICE is transferring the people detained at Essex rather than releasing them.”
• In the United States, “[a] ProPublica survey of more than a dozen lawyers across the country…along with documents circulated by several local ICE offices, shows that implementation of [the Biden Administration’s immigration prosecution] guidance has been spotty, with many prosecutors proceeding with exactly the sorts of deportation cases the new rules are intended to prevent.”
• In Texas, “[although] resident Joe Biden promised, if elected, his government would withdraw the lawsuits aimed at taking land for border wall construction. Six months into his administration that hasn’t happened. In fact, dozens of lawsuits are still being litigated, according to the Department of Justice and the pro-bono attorneys representing some of the landowners.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi [] rejected efforts by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other progressives to persuade President Joe Biden to unilaterally cancel large amounts of student loan debt, exacerbating a growing rift in the Democratic Party over the issue.”
• Also in Washington DC, “the Education Department launched a public inquiry to fix the [Public Service Loan Forgiveness] program…Starting next week, anyone can submit comments to the department regarding PSLF, and the department specifically wants to know[.]”
• In the United States, “[s]everal collegiate institutions throughout the country are leading efforts to help eliminate student debt[.]”
• Forbes discussed “new research from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget [that asserts] both total student loan cancellation and partial student loan cancellation will have a minimal effect on the economy.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Office of Personnel Management issued new guidance [] about telework and other considerations as federal agencies work to implement their office reentry and post reentry plans that were due earlier this week.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Minnesota, “a first-of-its-kind fleet of mobile legal clinics have found their way across [the state] with a launch from the State Capitol.”
• In Arkansas, “[t]hanks to a lawsuit by Legal Aid of Arkansas, Pulaski Circuit Judge Herb Wright has issued an injunction to force the governor and the Division of Workforce Services to resume participation in two pandemic unemployment programs, one paying an extra $300 a week. Hutchinson ordered the payments to stop at the end of June, 10 weeks early, claiming it would force people to go back to work.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Knox County IN, “[m]embers of the Public Defender Board later this year will submit to county officials its leanest annual budget yet.”
• In Washington County AR, “justices of the peace [] heard a request to increase the pay for public defenders to the same level as those in the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Chicago IL, “[c]ommunity groups [] urged the city of Chicago to end its use of the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system when the contract expires next month.”
• In Yolo County CA, “Yolo County was recently selected to be one of nine counties to receive funding for the California County Resentencing Pilot Project.”
• In Oakland CA, “Los Angeles progressive District Attorney George Gascón, and Christine Soto Deberry, the founder and Executive Director of the Prosecutor’s Alliance—an organization for reform-oriented prosecutors and other law enforcement—met on a panel sponsored by Impact Justice to discuss how progressive prosecutors navigate the pushback they face from police unions who try to stifle reform.”
  

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public! Big stories this week include further coverage of the fallout from FedLoan’s decision to withdraw from the business of collecting on student debt–and the news that another loan servicer has also decided to pull up stakes. Meanwhile, in Washington DC the House of Representatives is working to increase funding for the Legal Services Corporation and to reinstate the Dept. of Justice’s Office for Access to Justice while in California, groups are pressuring the state Supreme Court to consider expanding the right to counsel to include adults entangled in probate conservatorships. And the July 31st end of the federal eviction moratorium is slouching over the horizon.

These stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Rule of Law

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Justice Department has declined to prosecute former Trump administration officials, including former Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross, after an inspector general confirmed they provided false testimony regarding the origins of the proposed citizenship question on the 2020 census.”

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In Houston TX, “[a] federal judge [] ruled that an Obama administration program protecting undocumented immigrants who were brought into the United States as children is illegal and halted accepting any new applications for the program.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• The College Investor speculated that “a few factors [] point towards [] a strong possibility…there might be a fourth [student loan] payment pause and interest waiver extension.”
• In South Carolina, “[l]eaders at South Carolina State University [] announced it would be forgiving $9.8 million in student debts using $4 million in CARES Act funding and $5.8 million it received from the American Rescue Plan. Most of those students, the university said, were continuing students who had not re-enrolled or had dropped out entirely due to debt.”
• In New York, “a federal appeals court has ruled [that p]rivately issued student loans may be discharged in bankruptcy[.]”
• In Pennsylvania, “FedLoan[‘s …decision] that it won’t seek an extension of a 12-year government contract to collect payments for millions of borrowers on a portfolio of federal education loans…has led to…concerns over what happens this fall when the huge federal loan-servicing apparatus starts collecting loan payments again.”
  • Meanwhile, “[l]ess than two weeks after a major student loan servicing shakeup, yet another U.S. Department of Education student loan servicer [Granite State Management and Resources] is calling it quits.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “[a] House panel on Tuesday voted 24-16 along party lines to advance legislation that would provide federal employees with up to 12 weeks of paid family leave each year, over objections from Republicans about a last-minute report from the Congressional Budget Office.”
• Also in Washington DC, “the Supreme Court said [that] ‘[i]n light of the potential for actual or apparent conflicts of interest, Jessica Garland will not serve as a law clerk for Justice Kagan while Attorney General Garland remains in office.’”
  • For more on the controversy, see The Volokh Conspiracy.

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Legal Services Corporation could get an additional $135 million in its pockets, the largest single increase in the legal aid organization’s history, following an approval of funding legislation by the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations. The committee on Thursday approved funding legislation that includes $600 million for LSC in 2022 – a 29% increase from its current appropriation.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[a] powerful, bipartisan group in Congress is reviving a proposal to permanently restore the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Access To Justice, in a bid to codify the unit dedicated to legal representation for the poor that was shuttered by the Trump administration.”
• In California, “[t]he California Supreme Court was asked today to convene a blue-ribbon panel to review deficiencies in legal defense services provided to adults who become entangled in probate conservatorship proceedings. The request was submitted by Spectrum Institute and a variety of organizations involved in disability rights, elder care, and mental health services, along with a national coalition advancing the right to counsel.”
• In Milwaukee WI, “Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley signed the ‘Right to Counsel’ ordinance into law [] outside the County Courthouse, in an effort to assist local residents facing eviction or foreclosure.”
• In Texas, “[a] state eviction diversion program launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been extended, according to a new emergency order from the Texas Supreme Court[.] The diversion program was set to expire on July 27. The new order extends it until Oct. 1.”
• Across the United States, “[l]egal aid, housing advocacy groups and tenants — especially tenants — are bracing for the inevitable wave of eviction filings that will crash on the shores of courthouses throughout the U.S. at the end of the month, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s national eviction moratorium expires at midnight on July 31.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Illinois, “[a] two-year study commissioned by the Illinois Supreme Court has found that people in many Illinois counties are being routinely processed through the criminal courts without the advice of an attorney.”
• In Utah, “[a] Salt Lake City Justice Court judge kayaks down the river with a flotilla of prosecutors, defense attorneys and judicial assistants. Social workers on bicycles are up ahead meeting people who are camped out along the banks…The social workers and public defense attorneys make contact with people experiencing homelessness, asking if they want help. Then they tell them the judge is right up the river, willing to take care of their legal troubles. They’ve got tablet computers and can pull up a name, check for warrants and other charges and resolve it right on the river.”
• In Harrison County WV, “[t]he staffing situation with the Harrison County Public Defender Corporation continues to percolate at problematic levels.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Pennsylvania, “Gov. Tom Wolf joined lawmakers and law enforcement officials Friday to mark the launch of a police hiring database of misconduct records. The database was approved by the General Assembly in the wake of the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd.”
• In Maine, the state recently “bec[a]me the fourth state to abolish civil forfeiture.”
• In New York NY, “[t]wo watchdog groups sued the New York Police Department over the agency’s refusal to disclose public records about its acquisition of facial recognition technology and other surveillance tools.”
  

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public! Big stories this week include a piece on how the federal hiring process may hamstring the Biden Administration’s effort to rebuild the ranks of the EPA, a new development in an ongoing class action lawsuit by hundreds of current and former Black federal employees, and an analysis of the state of the law concerning the dischargeability of student loans in bankruptcy,

These stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice

• In Harlingen TX, an attorney with the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) spoke frankly with local news about the mental health challenges of her position.

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• The Brennan Center published an essay detailing “the dehumanizing work of immigration law[.]”
• Writing in Government Executive, Professors Daniel Braaten and Claire Nolasco Braaten described their research into the decisions of immigration judges, which “shows that…[p]olitical factors such as ideology, political party of the president who appointed them and who was president at the time they decided the case significantly influenced whether these children were allowed to stay in the country.”
• In the United States, “[i]mmigrant advocates, including Catholic organizations, launched a campaign [] to provide legal aid those who may need it, in case Congress, under the Biden administration, approves some type of reform. ‘Ready to Stay,’ the name of campaign by the national coalition of over 18 organizations, unveiled www.readytostay.org.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “[s]everal prominent Democratic lawmakers are asking the Education Department (ED) about student debt collection practices in the face of a potential wave of student loan defaults when the pandemic payment pause expires[.]”
• Forbes published a piece examining how “FedLoan Servicing’s abrupt departure from the Department of Education’s sprawling federal student loan system will likely be disruptive to millions of student loan borrowers…[especially as] FedLoan Servicing has been the primary servicer tasked with administering the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.”
• In Massachusetts, “[a] a new team within Attorney General Maura Healey’s office is preparing for any confusion and questions borrowers might face after the [student debt] relief program ends.”
• In New York, “[a]n appeals court ruled that private student loans can be discharged through bankruptcy like other consumer debts, opening the door for more borrowers to obtain relief from educational debt.”
• In California, “a [new] law that went into effect this year [] gained teeth this month, with a new ombudsman’s office empowered to review complaints about student loan providers.”
• In Boston MA, WBUR “took a look at how [tension over the policy called ‘summer contribution’] has unfolded for some area law school students.”
• Law360 published an analysis of where legal authority stands after the US Supreme Court’s recent decision to deny certiorari in a case concerning whether student loans are dischargeable during bankruptcy.
• Business Insider published a profile of Astra Taylor, co-founder of the Debt Collective.

Pandemic in the Legal System

• In New York NY, “[t]he Association of Legal Aid Attorneys condemned the Office of Court Administration and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services for unsanitary and unhealthy conditions that they say are rife throughout city courthouses.”
• In Albuquerque NM, “[t]he district attorney’s office said fewer cases are making it to trial, partly because grand juries were suspended.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that “new estimates from the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies…found that since June 2020, nearly 60 percent of nonprofit jobs that were eliminated due to the health and economic crisis have been restored.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he legal team representing hundreds of current and former Black federal employees now part of a proposed multi-million-dollar class-action lawsuit against the federal government has filed a motion in federal court for the government to implement a $100-million mental health fund to address mental injuries and ongoing challenges faced by Black public service workers.”
• Also in Washington DC, “President Biden and congressional Democrats are…seek[ing] to reduce the number of law enforcement jobs at Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where Trump had sought to add thousands of officers and agents. Instead, the fiscal 2022 DHS spending bill—approved by the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday—would augment the rolls at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Secret Service and other components.”
• Also also in Washington DC, “[t]he EPA has hired 500 new employees since President Joe Biden took office, helping to replenish its battered ranks, which stand at a 34-year low, the agency tells Bloomberg Law. Recruiting hundreds more, however, may not be as easy.”
• In New York NY, “[a] Legal Aid Society public defender who spoke out against city schools’ “anti-bias” training has sued her employer, saying her colleagues have unfairly labeled her a racist.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Kansas, “[t]he Kansas Bar Foundation is awarding grants to organizations that assist low-income individuals that are at risk of losing their homes, as well as non-profits that support legal education and access to justice for those struggling financially. Applications for 2022 are now open for two of their annual programs.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he Legal Services Corporation (LSC) launched the LSC Eviction Laws Database today in partnership with the Center for Public Health Law Research. The database is a new online tool that will aid users in better understanding the significant variation in eviction laws across the country and the effect these differences have on eviction outcomes.”
• In Alaska, the Executive Director of the Alaska Legal Services Corporation revealed that “[t]he governor’s veto of $400,000, 62% of our state appropriation, slashed it to its lowest point since 2010. This means that we will now turn away an additional 818 Alaskans who need our help.”
• In Minnesota, “, tenants, landlords, attorneys and judges are getting briefed on details of the new law [] that spells out rules for lease terminations and eviction court cases over the next 10 ½ months.”
• In Cleveland OH, “Right to Counsel shows promising early results for tenants, and some landlords[.]”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Maine, “[t]he number of lawyers taking cases under Maine’s system for providing legal defense to low-income people accused of crimes has plunged in recent months, leading some to worry that cases may not be covered if the trend continues.”
  • Meanwhile, “[a] prominent defense lawyer in Maine has asked to withdraw from nearly 200 court-appointed cases after the state’s public defense agency opened an investigation into her firm.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Tuscon AZ, “Arizona residents can now file to have marijuana convictions removed from their records.”
• In Washington State, Crosscut explored “[t]he strange, failed fight to rein in civil forfeiture in Washington[.]”
• Also in Washington State, “[m]ore state and county prosecutors are reaching the [conclusion] that they need the power to request resentencing from judges to correct past injustices, end mass incarceration, give people second chances and divert money spent on incarceration to more effective crime prevention methods.”
• In Washington DC, “[f]ederal regulators are giving state prisons across the country more technological options to combat contraband cellphones, which prison officials have long said represent the greatest security threat behind bars.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[a] ​​Senate panel [] advanced President Joe Biden’s nominees to the Second and Tenth circuits and Washington state’s federal bench as Republicans questioned the philosophy and experience that public defenders would bring to appellate courts.”
• In Fairfax County VA, the county’s “top prosecutor will begin publishing data on prosecutions in an effort to identify and root out any racial and socioeconomic disparities in the local criminal justice system[.]”
  

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public! At the end of another week, a few key stories for you: Big student loan news this week in the United States, as the Biden Administration hired an outspoken proponent of student debt cancellation while a major student loan servicer announced its plans to shutter its business at the end of 2021. Meanwhile, Department of Treasury data shows almost none of the emergency rental aid funds allocated by Congress have been spent. In Canada, members of parliament called for a special prosecutor to address crimes against Indigenous people.

These stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice

• In Canada, “Nunavut’s member of Parliament [called] on the federal government to appoint a special prosecutor to delve into crimes committed against Indigenous people. Mumilaaq Qaqqaq sa[id] perpetrators of abuse at institutions such as residential schools and tuberculosis sanatoria need to be brought to justice:

  Indigenous people need truth and justice, not only about individual abusers…but about the hellhole of all genocidal residential school systems. We need a full and independent investigation that has the power to shine a light on every facet of this national crime and has the power to bring perpetrators to justice.”

  • Relatedly, “[a]t least three First Nations in Canada recently uncovered hundreds of unmarked graves of Indigenous children on the grounds of former ‘residential schools’ – government-founded, assimilation institutions that were run by various churches for more than 100 years.”

Free & Fair Elections; Rule of Law

• In Atlanta GA, “[a] federal judge declined to temporarily halt a new Georgia voting law that is being challenged in the courts, ruling that doing so would risk disrupting an upcoming runoff election.”
• In Boise ID, “[t]he Idaho Supreme Court heard arguments [] over a lawsuit by the nonprofit Reclaim Idaho against a new law that creates stricter rules for passing ballot initiatives.”
• In Washington DC, “[a] panel of former judges and legal scholars convened last year by the group Project on Government Oversight (POGO) released a report on Thursday detailing recommendations for how to restore public trust in the [U.S. Supreme] court, which has been shaped by partisan battles over confirmations in recent decades as conservatives solidified a 6-3 majority.” [Report available from the Project on Government Oversight.]

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In Washington DC, “the Biden administration announced Friday that it barred Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from detaining pregnant or nursing women, absent ‘exceptional circumstances.’”
• Also in Washington DC, “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced the Interagency Strategy for Promoting Naturalization on Friday, following an executive order President Biden signed in February to strengthen the legal immigration system. The strategy was developed by eight federal departments and will launch new memoranda of understanding between USCIS and other agencies to promote outreach, education and awareness of pathways to citizenship.”
• In Syracuse NY, a report “from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University [ranked] North Carolina [] last in in the country for the likelihood of having legal representation in immigration cases[.]”
• In Fort Collins CO, “[t]he Fort Collins City Council passed ordinance No. 64 on second reading with a vote of 5-2 during a meeting on July 6, appropriating $150,000 from reserved funds to finance a pilot program for immigration legal defense.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Patty Murray and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer led 20 of their Democratic colleagues in a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, urging him to prioritize reforms to the student-debt system in his regulatory agenda.” [Letter available on the Senate website.]
  • Forbes reported specifically on the “5 main proposals” present in the Congressional letter.
• Also in Washington, “[t]he Biden administration has hired a vocal proponent of canceling student debt for a key post in the Education Department. The Education Department hired Toby Merrill to serve as deputy general counsel in the Office of the General Counsel, the agency said in a statement. Merrill founded and directed the Project on Predatory Student Lending at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School.”
• Also also in Washington, “[w]orking through a backlog of student debt relief claims, the Education Department said Friday it will cancel the loans of more than 1,800 people defrauded by defunct for-profit chains Westwood College, Marinello Schools of Beauty and the Court Reporting Institute.”
• In the United States, “[a] major student loan servicing shakeup is in the works as one of the Department of Education’s primary student loan services seeks to exit the business. The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Authority (PHEAA), which operates FedLoan Servicing, has informed its employees that it plans to end its federal student loan servicing activities when its contract with the Department ends this December.”
• The Center for Law and Social Policy argued that “[w]hile Black borrowers overall are burdened with high rates of student loan debt, Black women, in particular, see high rates of outstanding debt. A recent report identified that Black women carry about 20 percent more debt than white women [; and p]ursuing graduate studies deepens these disparities…Research indicates that cancelling even $50,000 in student debt would alleviate the debt burden for nearly 93 percent of the lowest-income Black households and also increase wealth by a third.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Ohio, “[i]n a collaborative survey with the Ohio Supreme Court, the Ohio Access to Justice Foundation reports that 3,735 Ohio lawyers replied with information about their pro bono practices during 2020. Of the respondents, 2,102, or 56%, indicated they represented clients without receiving compensation…The 2020 survey shows 98,783 pro bono hours reported. Since the 2019 report, the average number of hours reported per attorney has increased by 24%.”
• Federal Computer Week reported that after “[t]he pandemic pushed over half of the federal workforce into telework. Disability rights advocates say maintaining more access to telework could make the federal workspace more accessible.”
• In Madison WI, “[t]he University of Wisconsin Law School may pare back some of its yearlong clinics in a change the school argues could increase student participation but some students fear would threaten the quality of their education and the work they do for clients.”
• Also in Madison, “[t]he Climate Defense Project, a nonprofit legal group, recently lodged a complaint with the state Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) on behalf of nearly 200 [University of Wisconsin] students, faculty, alumni and community members.” The complaint “argue[s] that the university foundation’s investments in fossil fuel companies are [in violation of] a 2009 state law that stipulated nonprofit entities have a duty to invest in line with their charitable missions.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he Office of Management and Budget has told the chief government watchdog it will not comply with several of its recommendations aimed at improving the performance and oversight of government, arguing the changes are unnecessary or that it had already addressed the concerns.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[t]he Environmental Protection Agency is reminding employees not to engage with members of the media, sending a memorandum this week instructing them to deflect any press inquiries. The guidance came after EPA Administrator Michael Regan earlier this year sent employees a memo of his own pledging to bring transparency to the agency and reinstate a ‘fishbowl’ environment.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In the United States, “[o]f the $25 billion [in emergency rental aid that the US Congress] appropriated in December, only $1.5 billion had been spent nationwide on rent, utilities and arrears between January and the end of May, according to figures released last week by the Treasury Department.” [Figures available from the US Dept. of the Treasury.]
• In Ohio, “[a]fter a lengthy interruption of the operations of its “Do It Yourself” (DIY) legal clinics, Southeastern Ohio Legal Services (SEOLS) will resume the monthly DIY presentation with the help of its long-time partner, Ironton-Lawrence Community Action Agency.”
• In Missouri, “[t]he Missouri Department of Labor is implementing a process for people who were overpaid federal unemployment benefits last year to apply to keep the money. During the height of the pandemic, the department mistakenly overpaid about 47,000 Missourians more than $150 million in mostly federal unemployment benefits. The move to offer waivers for about $108 million of federal money comes after months of pressure from lawmakers.”
• In Portland ME, “[a] Superior Court justice has upheld Portland’s new rent control ordinance despite a lawsuit brought by local landlords. The ordinance limits most rent increases to the rate of inflation, increases the amount of notice a landlord must provide when not renewing an at-will tenancy, and creates a Rent Board to enforce the ordinance and award additional rent increases when appropriate.”
• In Ontario, “[t]he Aboriginal Justice Strategy at Legal Aid Ontario has released the first part of its consultation report on its effectiveness in delivering legal aid services and initiatives to Indigenous clients in the province, including by offering 20 recommendations.”
• Also in Ontario, “Tribunals Ontario has launched an online tool to help empower users with “tailored information about their rights and responsibilities and the rules and processes at the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB).””
• In British Columia, “Legal Aid BC…expanded its partnership with Tyler [Technologies, Inc.]…expanding [its Family Resolution Centre] to cover child support issues, providing full support to separated parents through [Tyler’s] Modria [online dispute resolution] solution.”
• In New York NY, “[a] lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court [] alleges…Mayor de Blasio broke the law by rushing homeless, disabled New Yorkers out of hotel rooms for shelters without notice[.]”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Madison County IL, “[Madison County State’s Attorney] Haine asked [the County Board Judiciary Committee] for nine new attorneys while [Public Defender] Copeland requested three.”
• In Cole County MO, “the Public Defender’s Office…[has] new defenders [] coming thanks to state lawmakers earmarking $1 million to hire 15 new public defenders to eliminate some waiting lists for public defender services across the state.”
• In Alpena County MI, “A new law office[,…t]the Northeast Michigan Regional Defenders Office[,] has been busy preparing to help people in the region. The practice is led by former Presque Isle Prosecutor Rick Stieger as Chief Public Defender and Alpena native Julie Miller as Chief Deputy Defender.”
• In Camden NJ, “[t]he newly launched New Jersey Innocence Project, based at Rutgers University-Camden, will help exonerate wrongly convicted people.”
• The Ottawa Citizen published a column criticizing the Canadian Judicial Council’s decision last May to publish the Criminal Law Handbook for Self-represented Accused. The columnist, a Toronto defence lawyer, argued that “[a] growing number of accused want a lawyer but cannot afford one and do not qualify for legal aid. That is a serious problem that has to be rectified. I do not think the way to do so is by publishing a user manual that suggests an unrepresented accused can do an OK job playing lawyer.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Ontario, a new report from the Law Commission of Ontario found that “[s]tatutory changes, prosecutorial guidelines and training programs are among the “urgently needed reforms” necessary to regulate the use of artificial-intelligence-driven DNA-analysis technology in the criminal justice system[.]”
• In Gwinnett County GA, “[a] recent partnership between the Gwinnett County district attorney and a restorative justice program aims to save taxpayer money and help reduce the impact of the criminal justice system on some first-time offenders…The DA’s office said the program will grant ‘second chances’ by enhancing the social, financial and civic knowledge of offenders.”
• In Maricopa County AZ, “[t]he American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint against the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, alleging that prosecutors are misusing a pre-trial court process to get thousands to plead guilty without hearings or further evidence being disclosed.”
• In Charlottesville VA, “[t]he University of Virginia School of Law is launching an ambitious new project focused on criminal justice reform that will expand the scope of the school’s Center for Criminal Justice and build upon lessons learned from the Innocence Project at UVA Law.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public. Welcome to a new academic year. As readers affiliated with schools that subscribe to PSJD.org may be aware, we are beginning a new cycle for our public service platform. The past eighteen months have been hard for us all, and that hardship has worn on each of us differently. For me, this digest has been harder to produce. But as we begin our new cycle here I plan to begin releasing regular updates again, as I had been prior to the pandemic.

We’re diving back in with a jam-packed week of news. The US Supreme Court allowed a federal moratorium on evictions to remain in place, but at least one local court has ruled that this decision does not create a nationwide precedent. The debate over student loan debt forgiveness continues, with forgiveness advocates marshalling evidence that loan forgiveness will have a significant impact on the racial wealth gap. Meanwhile, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reported on debt servicers’ deceptive efforts to prevent borrowers from taking advantage of public service loan forgiveness and researchers revealed that the Department of Education seems more interested in collecting on debts owed by individual student borrowers than by educational institutions. The Biden Administration also made big news concerning government management and hiring with a new Executive Order concerning Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the federal workforce.

As was our custom, these stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Free & Fair Elections

• In Washington DC, “[a] divided U.S. Supreme Court, narrowing the scope of the Voting Rights Act, on Thursday upheld two Arizona voting laws challenged as racially discriminatory.”

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In New Jersey, the state government “is poised to become the second state in the nation after California to fund a statewide legal support program for unaccompanied minors. State lawmakers earmarked $3 million for legal representation and case management for immigrant youth in their $46 billion plan passed last week.”
• Also in New Jersey, “[t]he American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration[], seeking to block the transfer of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees at a New Jersey jail. The suit is the first legal challenge against a Biden administration immigration policy.”
• In the United States, “[a]ttorneys are still trying to reach the parents of 368 migrant children who had been separated at the US-Mexico border under the Trump administration, down from 391 last month, according to a federal court filing[.]”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “Elizabeth Warren and John Kennedy said a student-loan servicer CEO may have given false testimony in April.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[m]ore than 60 Democratic lawmakers — led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — called on President Joe Biden to extend a pause on student loan payments and interest so as not to ‘drag down the pace’ of the country’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in a letter Wednesday.”
• Also again also in Washington DC, a resolution “unanimously approved by the [city] council [] call[ed] on President Biden to cancel student loan debt. Cities like Boston and Philadelphia have done the same.”
• Also also again also in Washington DC, “[t]he U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case seeking to overturn a ruling establishing a presumption that private student loans cannot be eliminated in bankruptcy. The June 28 decision comes on the heels of the justices’ denial of another request to weigh in on student loans in bankruptcy.”
• Again also also again also in Washington DC, “[t]he Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today issued a report highlighting legal violations identified by the Bureau’s examinations in 2020.” Among other issues, “CFPB examiners uncovered significant problems in how student loan servicers informed consumers about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program…CFPB examiners found a number of ways that student loan servicers gave incorrect information to borrowers, resulting in missteps that could cost consumers thousands of dollars. For example, examiners found servicers misled consumers to believe they could not access PSLF if they had older loans under the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), even though they could access PSLF by consolidating FFELP loans into Direct Loans.”
• NewsNation reported that “[j]ust around 5% of student loan borrowers who’ve applied for [public service loan forgiveness] as of April 30 have qualified, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education.”
• The National Student Legal Defense Network released a report detailing its “extensive investigation into whether the Department [of Education] has employed collections—comparable to those employed against individual borrowers or otherwise—against institutions with debt owed to the government.” The group asserts that “[w]While the Department aggressively attempts to collect from [individual] borrowers, institutions and their owners and executives walked away from more than a billion dollars owed to taxpayers.”
• At a panel discussion held by the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, “[p]anelists discussed the disproportionate burden of student debt on low-income, minority, and Black student families,” asserting that “there is a direct relationship between student debt cancellation and minimizing the racial wealth gap.”
• In an opinion piece, the Times Higher Education argued that “while student loan forgiveness might be sexy, it’s not a sustainable solution [because a] one-time fix via executive order – which, theoretically, could be overturned by the next administration – fails both future students and taxpayers.”
• Forbes reported that “[a] new survey of 23,845 federal student loan borrowers shows that 90% aren’t prepared to pay student loans when Covid-19 pandemic student loan relief ends on September 30, 2021. Student Debt Crisis, the nation’s largest student loan debt advocacy organization, conducted the survey and is advocating for President Joe Biden to extend student loan relief in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Pandemic in the Legal System

• In California, “[t]wo dueling visions of remote proceedings in California’s courts are playing out in the state Capitol this summer. And so far, the biggest critics of keeping video technology in courtrooms post-pandemic are winning.”
• In Maryland, “Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) urged lawyers in the state to offer free or low-cost legal services during the pandemic recovery, as many residents head to the courts to deal with battles over housing, consumer debt, public benefits and family-law issues such as domestic violence.”
• In Kentucky, “the number of [legal aid] clients shot up by 2,750% [when the pandemic hit] and [] their caseload remains high.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, the Biden Administration released an “Executive Order on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce.”
  • For context, GovExec reported that “[t]he order builds on a series of edicts undertaken during the Obama administration, as well as Biden’s own efforts to restore diversity training at federal agencies and crack down on discrimination since he took office in January. But it also charts new territory in how it tries to improve recruitment, retention and professional development of underserved communities, including providing more comprehensive health coverage to LGBTQ+ federal workers, boosting protections for feds with disabilities and pushing agencies to transition from unpaid to paid internships.”
• Also in Washington DC, “White House internships could finally become paid, making them accessible to lower-income applicants[.]”
• Again also in Washington DC, “[t]he Supreme Court has struck down a lower court’s ruling and held that two California charities need not disclose the names of their top donors to the state.”
• In Oklahoma, “[a] lawsuit claiming the Oklahoma Bar Association’s mandatory bar dues violate attorneys’ First Amendment rights to freedom of association was revived after the Tenth Circuit found Tuesday the group might engage in ideological activities unrelated to its core purpose.”
• In a Letter to the Editor, the Chronicle of Philanthrophy published a rebuttal to a recent op-ed in part of an ongoing debate over whether nonprofit salaries should be disclosed in job ads.
• In Portland ME, “[a] federal appeals court has ruled that the Council on International Educational Exchange does not have to refund the costs of study abroad programs cut short by the global pandemic. Court documents show the Portland-based nonprofit sent about 4,000 students home last spring when COVID-19 began to spread around the world…Only those students who could not finish their classes virtually were considered for refunds[.]”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Supreme Court [] allowed a federal moratorium on evictions imposed in response to the coronavirus pandemic to remain in place.”
  • Meanwhile, in Washington State, “[i]n the[ir] 2021 session, state lawmakers passed a measure guaranteeing tenants have a right to legal counsel in eviction cases. It was the first state in the nation to pass such a bill.”
  • Meanwhile in Toledo OH, “on the day the Supreme Court left a federal eviction moratorium intact in Washington…Toledo followed an earlier ruling by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that lifted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium…[The judge in that case wrote] in his decision that the Supreme Court was acting in its capacity to assist the District of Columima Circuit appeals court, not establishing a nationwide ruling.”
  • Meanwhile, in Iowa “[n]early 41,000 Iowans fear they face eviction or foreclosure once a federal moratorium is lifted, according to federal census survey data.”
  • Meanwhile, in Illinois “[e]victions have resumed[], and while some tenants are still protected others are now getting notices.”
  • Meanwhile, Cleveland OH, the city’s right-to-counsel in evictions program “is showing early signs of success. According to an interim report on the program[], about 93 percent of the RTC clients who faced an eviction or involuntary move were able to avoid being displaced because of the legal representation they received.”
  • Meanwhile, in Milwaukee WI “a new pilot program…promis[ing] free legal representation for those facing eviction [began this week].”
  • Meanwhile, in Los Angeles CA “[a]s the 2021-22 fiscal year begins in Los Angeles today, so does the city’s new COVID-19 eviction defense program to offer free legal representation, counseling and education workshops for city renters who make 80% or less of the area median income and have been impacted by the pandemic.”
  • Meanwhile, in Wayne County MI “[t]he Neighborhood Defender Service of Detroit announced the launch of its Eviction Defense Practice slated to begin this fall, as housing assistance in the COVID-19 pandemic remains a top need.”
  • Meanwhile, in Maine “a new bill signed by Gov. Mills [requires] landlords who serve an eviction notice [] to provide a list of resources about rental assistance, legal aid, and court procedures.”
• In Boise ID, “the Idaho Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion…agreed…that the Magistrate Court’s issuing arrest warrants for failure to pay court debt—without first conducting an ability-to-pay hearing—violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution pursuant to the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Bearden v. Georgia , 461 U.S. 660 (1983), as well as the Idaho Constitution.”
• In Indiana, “[a] state judge has ruled that Indiana must continue to pay pandemic unemployment benefits to roughly 230,000 Hoosiers until a lawsuit challenging the early termination of the compensation is decided.”
• In Texas, “Texas RioGrande Legal Aid recently submitted an official request — a potential precursor to litigation — to the Texas Workforce Commission asking that it correct ‘systemic issues’ that the legal aid group says have resulted in ‘repeated failure to deliver unemployment benefits (since the pandemic began) in the manner required by state and federal law.’”
• In Florida, “[a] ruling from the Florida Supreme Court puts limits on how legal aid clinics can use their funds, potentially restricting the aid available to low-income Floridians who need representation in civil court.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Arizona, a defendant’s “previously denied petition challenging his death sentence due to inadequate counsel, was reversed and approved by the Ninth Circuit Court[.]…The court stated that the counsel’s request for a mental health expert was not requested ‘in a more timely manner.’ [and] gathered that ‘there is at least a reasonable probability that development and presentation of mental health expert testimony would have changed the result of the sentencing proceeding.’ “
• In Fort Lee County FL, “felony case defendants who were part of a class action suit claiming a violation of civil rights caused by a malware attack at the public defender’s office in April have been trimmed to one.”
• In Brooklyn NY, “[s]ome 400 attorneys, civil advocates, social workers, investigators, support staff and other workers at the Brooklyn, New York, public defender’s office are seeking to unionize with the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Minnesota, “Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office is increasingly being asked to lead police prosecutions, is again meeting legislative resistance in his bid to build up his office’s criminal division.”
• In Bexar County, TX, “Bexar County Public Defender Michael Young argued in a court filing that ‘Governor Abbott’s executive order GA-13 violates the separation of powers doctrine[.]’” GA-13 prevents sherrifs from releasing anyone arrested for or convicted of a crime of physical violence, and has prevented Texas counties from reducing jail populations during the pandemic. Texas Public Radio reported that “Harris County judges sued Abbott over the order in April 2020, but the Texas Supreme Court found they lacked standing.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public. There is much news this week, but my thoughts begin and end with Atlanta as I attempt to write.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice

• In the United States, NPR reported that “Asian Americans and their allies are calling for solidarity and a push against discrimination and racist violence after a gunman killed eight people at three Atlanta-area spas Tuesday. Most of the victims were women of Asian descent. Authorities said it’s too early to declare the attacks a hate crime – prompting a debate over when that label should be used and how to present the gunman’s explanation.”
  • Meanwhile, in South Korea, Chosun Ilbo reported that “the Hankook Ilbo, Atlanta, quoted an employee A, a member of the ‘Gold Massage Spa’, a massage parlor where the shooting took place, and said that the suspect at the time of the crime said that he would ‘kill all Asians’.” [Translated from Korean by Google Translate]

Free & Fair Elections

• In Georgia, “advocates scored a win when the Georgia Chamber of Commerce issued a statement expressing ‘concern and opposition’ to the measures under consideration in the legislature, which would end no-excuse absentee voting, limit early voting hours, restrict drop-boxes for mail ballots, and curtail early voting on Sundays.”

Racial Justice

• In Carlisle PA, “Penn State Dickinson Law, one of the oldest U.S. law schools, and other campuses are revamping their curriculums with the goal of teaching aspiring lawyers how to fight racism. Spurred on by events, including the killing of George Floyd, the Carlisle, Pa.-based school created a year-long required course called “Race and Equal Protection of the Laws.” It teaches students the relationship between race and law in areas such as housing, health care, criminal justice, democracy, and capitalism.”

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In Arizona, “[t]hree nonprofit organizations have sued Arizona’s attorney general in federal court seeking the cancellation of an agreement requiring the state’s input in federal immigration policies, saying the Trump administration official who made the arrangement lacked the authority to do so.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he Democratic-led House voted on Thursday to create a path to citizenship for an estimated four million undocumented immigrants…[i]n a near party-line vote of 228 to 197[.]”
• The BBC reported that “[a]s of 14 March, US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents were holding more than 13,000 unaccompanied children in custody, according to US media…At least 3,000 children have been kept for over 72 hours, the legal limit after which they are meant to be transferred to the custody of health officials in the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In an Issue Brief, the National Consumer Law Center reported that “of the millions of borrowers eligible for IDR, new data obtained by the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) shows that the total number of borrowers who have ever received cancellation is 32.”
• In Washington DC, “[p]art of the new stimulus bill could have big implications if President Joe Biden pushes ahead with plans to forgive some student loan debt. The American Rescue Plan does not include student loan forgiveness, but makes any income from forgiveness of student loans tax-free through 2025. Forgiven debt is normally considered taxable income.”
• In Cambridge MA, “[t]he city council…called on President Biden to formulate a plan within his first 100 days in office to cancel all student loan debt using executive authority, a call that comes as demands for action have increased among congressional Democrats.”

Pandemic in the Legal System

• In Connecticut, as the state “gears up for jury trials to kick off no earlier than May 3 in federal and state court, there’s a question on whether jury pools will be representative of the populations of each community. Some attorneys are raising the question because research has shown communities of color aren’t getting vaccinated at nearly the rate of their white counterparts. And some attorneys wonder how this might play out come time to pick a jury.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Manitoba, “[a] human rights organization is calling out what it feels is a discriminatory practice acting as a barrier to keep Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) from entering legal professions in Manitoba. The practice in question is called ‘the good character process.’”
• In New York, “State Assembly Democrats have retained attorneys from a high-profile Manhattan-based law firm to lead the chamber’s impeachment investigation into sexual harassment claims against Gov. Cuomo.”
• In Washington DC, “[n]onprofits and their advocates are lining up behind a bill that would provide $50 billion to help nonprofits boost hiring and weather increased demand for services as the nation continues to grapple with the Covid health and economic crises.”
• In Maryland, the president of Maryland Defenders Union Local 423 wrote in favor of “MDU’s key legislation — SB757/HB1277 — which will recategorize attorneys within the Office of the Public Defender as professional service employees with merit status rather than at-will appointees with no job protections.”
• In Queens NY, “[a]ttorneys and social workers at a Queens public defender agency have voted to unionize, according to election results certified by the National Labor Relations Board[.]”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Ontario, the “Ministry of the Attorney General announced a new multi-year plan aimed at enhancing access to the justice system, which includes a $28.5-million investment in a new digital case-management and dispute resolution system for Ontario’s tribunals. [The strategy] is a “formalization” of the government’s efforts in “breaking down barriers and speeding up services,” [and] also includes enhancing the capacity for remote court hearings to northern, rural and Indigenous communities, expanding provincewide the digital document sharing platform Caselines and widening online filing services for civil and family claims.”
• In Maryland, “[a] proposal to guarantee low-income tenants the right to counsel against retaliatory evictions passed out of the Maryland House of Delegates [] after fierce objections from Republicans.”
• In Massachusetts, “[t]he state’s largest funder of civil legal aid services is asking lawmakers to increase state funding by 20 percent in the fiscal 2022 budget to help fund services for low-income residents facing legal issues in areas like housing, employment, education, and government benefits.”
• In Connecticut, “[a] local push to guarantee legal representation for low-income tenants facing eviction notched a victory, as state legislators advanced a ‘Right to Counsel’ bill out of committee and toward the General Assembly floor for further debate and a potential future vote.”
• In New Jersey, “[eviction cases] are occurring throughout New Jersey, despite the protections Murphy put in place. Housing experts have urged state leaders to condemn landlords who flout the executive order and the law that requires a warrant for removal.”
• In the United States, “[t]he U.S. Labor Department’s inspector general identified $5.4 billion in potentially fraudulent claims paid out by state agencies last year and suggested better state-federal coordination to prevent future fraud…Now, with President Joe Biden enacting a $1.9 trillion relief package,…those agencies remain under pressure to manage the workload while avoiding those pitfalls. The U.S. Labor Department is allowing about six weeks for them to get set.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Massachusetts, the Committee for Public Counsel Services, which “represent[s] approximately 90 percent of adults charged with crimes in Massachusetts” took the anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright as an opportunity to reflect on “what we have seen and experienced during a pandemic that has laid bare the gross inequities that continue to exist in our system.”
• In Florida, “[p]roposed amendments to Florida’s speedy trial rules would be ‘unjust’ for the criminally accused and, in particular, poorer defendants,” according to the Florida Public Defender Association.
• In New Mexico, “[t]he New Mexico Supreme Court Thursday invalidated a Hobbs man’s misdemeanor conviction because a magistrate court accepted a no contest plea without providing the defendant with a lawyer as required by the Constitution.”
• In Washington DC, “[a]ll federal prisons employees have been offered the coronavirus vaccine, but just 49% have accepted it so far, the Federal Bureau of Prisons director said…[w]hen asked during a hearing before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies[.]”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Manhattan NY, the “District Attorney’s Office grant[ed] the public access to more than seven years worth of racial data that the top prosecutor here says has informed his approach to criminal justice reform.”
• In St. Louis MO, CBS News profiled Kim Gardner, who “has endured death threats, racial slurs and the relentless opposition of the police union as she tries to keep her election promise and remake the justice system.”