Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Interested public. Much news again this week, a pattern that seems unlikely to slacken anytime soon. Dozens of nonprofits weighed in on the debate about diploma privilege, while the Bexar County DA sought guidance on whether he could hold the USPS liable for violating election law. The House Education and Labor Committee heard testimony about the potential effects of the most recent executive order concerning student debt, and some excellent reporting from the Davis Vanguard, a California paper, described efforts in Missouri and Virginia to remove prosecutorial discretion from reform-minded prosecutors–in the former case by replacing their judgment with that of the state Attorney General, and in the latter with the judgment of the court.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

• In the United States, “a coalition of more than 120 public interest organizations…issued a powerful public letter to the National Board of Bar Examiners and 34 state boards overseeing their bar examinations in response to the ongoing problems and systematic unfairness resulting from efforts to administer the bar exam during a global pandemic. Due to the demonstrated inability of state bars to respond to this crisis effectively or equitably, the broad coalition representing civil rights, legal services, and national advocacy organizations called for these licensing bodies to provide diploma privilege to recent law school graduates in lieu of the exam.”
  • Meanwhile, “[o]n the day Florida had been scheduled to hold its bar exam online due to the coronavirus pandemic, before software bugs upended those plans, Florida’s chief justice issued a video message Wednesday apologizing to bar applicants and acknowledging the failure of officials responsible for the test.”
• In the United States, “[t]he American Bar Endowment has supported [access to justice] initiatives through its Opportunity Grant Program in recent years and is now looking for the next round of programs and projects aiming to address the public’s critical legal needs. The deadline to apply for the 2021 grant cycle is Oct. 2, with optional letters of intent due by Aug. 21.”

COVID-19 and Remote Legal Practice

• In Maryland, “[u]nion for Maryland Legal Aid employees claims top lawyers were fired to squash dissent over coronavirus reopening.”
  • Moreover, “[t]he sudden departures, which took place one day before state and federal eviction bans expired, have stoked concern that the organization will be less prepared to respond to an expected wave of evictions and other hardships triggered by the health emergency.”
• In Ontario, “[t]he federal government needs to step in to avert a funding crisis facing Legal Aid Ontario that could prevent access to justice for thousands of people hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic, say some lawyers and leaders on the front lines of legal aid.”
• In Sacramento CA, the Davis Vanguard published an illuminating account of the interpersonal dynamics at play as courts conduct arraignments via Zoom.

Racial Justice

• In the United States, “[b]ackers of a nationwide initiative by law firms, launched in the wake of George Floyd’s death, to tackle systemic racism in the law are drafting paperwork to formalize it into an industry-funded nonprofit.”
• Also in the United States, the US Conference of Mayors published its “Report on Police Reform and Racial Justice” (discussed in an earlier edition of the digest).
• In Concorn NH, “a long-time law professor and former public defender advised the [state] panel on police accountability [that e]very prosecutor in the state should have training on racial profiling.”
• In Gainesville FL, “University of Florida law students are demanding college officials grant a professor’s appeal to teach her racial justice courses online this semester, a request that was denied by the school, effectively canceling the classes.”

Rule of Law & Voting Rights

• In Bexar County TX, “DA Joe Gonzalez sent a letter to Attorney General Ken Paxton, asking if he can prosecute federal officials who violate Texas election laws.”
  • Meanwhile, in Washington DC “[a] former high-ranking official who previously oversaw the leadership of the U.S. Postal Service said Tuesday that while she applauds Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s latest commitment to delay proposed changes to mail services, she is still worried about the impact on mail-in voting this November.”
• In the United States, “[t]he U.S. Postal Service is rerouting mail away from at least some of its smaller processing plants, creating more uncertainty surrounding recent changes that could lead to slower mail delivery.”
  • Meanwhile, “[a]ttorneys general in several states are looking into ways to sue the federal government and block it from reducing mail service.”
• In New York NY, “U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero emphatically upheld a subpoena ordering Trump’s accountants to hand over [his tax returns], siding with Vance in the prosecutor’s probe of Trump’s alleged financial misdeeds.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he top attorney at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) [] rejected a nonpartisan congressional watchdog’s report which concluded that two of the agency’s top officials—Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli—were ineligible to serve in those roles.”
• Also in Washington DC, “President Trump can give his convention speech from the White House and White House officials can assist and attend in specific circumstances without violating the Hatch Act, the independent agency that oversees civil service law said last week.”

Pro Bono Publico

• The Indiana Lawyer published an excellent overview of states’ mandatory and voluntary pro bono reporting programs, focused on Indiana.
• In Ohio, “[p]ro bono financial contributions from attorneys to low-income Ohioans have increased significantly in the past year, according to a new interactive dashboard.” (Dashboard available here.)

Legal Technology

• In New York NY, “Blue J, the leading provider of AI-backed legal predictions, announced today the launch of its COVID-19 relief programs and credits guided analysis tools for the United States and Canada.”
• Lawfare published a policy analysis of Client-Side Scanning, “a system…to scan photographs and messages before they are sent from a user (or after received by another user) in order to determine whether the images or messages in question contravene legal prohibitions.”
• The Wall Street Journal reported that “[i]n the last few years, companies have started using such race-detection software to understand how certain customers use their products, who looks at their ads, or what people of different racial groups like. Others use the tool to seek different racial features in stock photography collections, typically for ads, or in security, to help narrow down the search for someone in a database…The field is still developing, and it is an open question how companies, governments and individuals will take advantage of such technology in the future. Use of the software is fraught, as researchers and companies have begun to recognize its potential to drive discrimination, posing challenges to widespread adoption.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Delaware County PA, “[s]taff attorneys of the [] Public Defender’s Office have voted 33-3 to unionize, according to a release.”
• In Broward County FL, Public Defender Howard Finkelstein fired Ruby Green, “the assistant public defender who lost to Howard Finkelstein’s chosen successor Tuesday night…on Wednesday morning in a terse e-mail.”
• In Washington DC, “[a] union representing employees at the Social Security Administration accused the agency of withholding basic information and refusing to bargain over reopening procedures, even as some employees have been called back into physical offices.”
• In Ontario, “[a] recent survey of organizations run by the Ontario Non-profit Network (ONN) revealed some troubling figures: one in five of the survey’s 1,100 respondents say they may have to shut down by the end of December. Another quarter said that 2021 will likely be a greater financial struggle than this year.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “Ben Miller — vice president for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress — told the House Education and Labor Committee that [the executive order extending an interest-free pause on federal student loan payments for the remainder of 2020] could lead to some big problems. ‘There’s little chance the economy will be in strong shape by then,’ Miller stated. ‘Having roughly 26 million borrowers all enter repayment during the holidays — it’s an implementation disaster in the making.’ He offered him a different plan, however, suggesting ‘an approach that pauses payments for a full year and ties interest restarting to positive economic indicators would be much better.’”
• Also in Washington DC, “[w]hile Congress is currently in recess, Republicans have been trying to piece together a pared-down stimulus package amidst failing negotiations regarding a larger, more expensive plan. Their draft proposal, which has been put together in advance of lawmakers’ return to Washington D.C. in September, calls for a variety of economic relief. However, as Forbes noted, their proposal would not provide any student loan relief.”
• In Wisconsin, “Governor Tony Ever’s task force on student debt released reports outlining eight recommendations for how Wisconsin can provide relief and protection for student debt holders.”
• In California, “a recently resurrected bill that would add consumer protections for student loan borrowers and establish a Student Borrower Bill of Rights in California is expected to be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee, one of the last hurdles towards passage.”
• On the internet, “[s]peaking at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) told viewers that Joe Biden will ‘cancel billions in student loan debt’ if he is elected President.”

Immigration, Refugee, & Citizenship Issues

• In Denver CO, “[h]undreds of other Denver residents face an immigration judge without a lawyer because there is no public defender system in immigration court. Even more people could soon be added to that tally due to a shortfall in money for the Immigrant Legal Services Fund. The fund funnels a combination of city dollars and private donations to four nonprofits that help indigent Denver residents fight deportation and apply for legal residence by providing legal assistance. A $50,000 decline in money from the city paired with a drop in private donations has caused the fund’s 2020 budget to fall to $250,000 from the approximately $385,000 it received in fiscal years 2018 and 2019.”
• In Maryland, “[a] nonprofit coalition is asking a Maryland federal court to sanction the Trump administration, saying the government is intentionally misleading the public and disobeying multiple court orders after the U.S. Supreme Court instructed it to reinstate the Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals program.”
• In El Paso TX, “an immigration nonprofit changed in a complaint sent to the city’s district attorney [that] Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers routinely sexually harass and assault detainees at the El Paso Processing Center[.]”
• In Bend OR, “[a] federal judge [] said she wasn’t convinced that the detention of two men in Bend by ICE agents was unlawful and denied a nonprofit law office’s motion for a temporary restraining order against the federal immigration agency.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Utah, the state “will try out new law practice business models that allow for more participation by nonlawyers after the state Supreme Court unanimously OK’d a standing order that goes into effect Friday authorizing a pilot program aimed at improving access to justice in the state.”
• In Chattanooga TN, “the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga…is shifting [its work] as lawyers prepare for an eviction boom. On July 24, the CARES Act eviction ban on subsidized housing ended. 30-day notices expire soon, and lawyers like Emily O’Donnell are preparing for an onslaught. ‘The reality is we just don’t know until we see it,’ she said. ‘But we do know is that this eviction problem is going to last longer than we anticipated.’“
• In Cleveland OH, “Legal Aid is taking on an increased number of cases, especially in the areas of housing law and employment law. Already, compared to the same time last year, the organization has seen a 25% increase in landlord-tenant cases and a 46% increase in work-related issues such as unemployment.”
• In Ontario, a class-actions lawyer said “the Ontario government’s recent amendments to the Class Proceedings Act are an attempt to raise the bar on class-action certification[.]”

Access to Justice – Criminal & Decarceration

• In Honolulu HI, “[the] Public Defender’s Office wrote a letter to Chief Ballard asking for increased discretion when making arrests due to COVID-19 spiking at the O’ahu Community Correctional Center.” The Honolulu Police Department Chief responded at length, “wr[iting] that the Public Defender’s Office’s request is ‘not viable.’ ‘It sacrifices the safety of the law-abiding citizens in our community and allows those who choose not to follow the law to run free…I also encourage you to direct your efforts to the Department of Public Safety and urge them to address the issues plaguing their facilities.’ “
  • Meanwhile, “[t]he Hawai‘i Supreme Court is requesting a list of all inmates who qualify for an expedited release from the Public Safety Department’s correctional facilities statewide.”
• In New Orleans LA, “[t]he New Orleans City Council’s Criminal Justice Committee on Monday voted in favor of an ordinance that would require the city to give the Orleans Public Defenders at least 85 percent of the money it gives to the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office — a proportion roughly equal to the number of criminal defendants in Orleans Parish that the public defenders estimate they represent.”
• In Nevada, “indigent defendants…won preliminary approval for a consent judgment that would force the state to reform its public defender system, which advocates say has been broken for years.”
• John Jay College’s Center on Media Crime and Justice argued that “President Trump is loading the bench with former prosecutors … [and b]y doubling down on the status quo of prosecutors as judges, the Trump Administration is embracing a formula that has ushered in an unprecedented era of mass incarceration in the United States… Despite their neutral mandate, judges, like the rest of us, are influenced in their decision-making by their personal characteristics. Indeed, some studies show former prosecutors are more likely to rule against criminal defendants than their peers.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• The Davis Vanguard reported on a practice emerging in Missouri and Virginia: “[e]arlier this week the Vanguard reported on efforts by the Missouri Governor, Attorney General and Legislature to strip St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner of her powers, by giving the AG the power to directly prosecute certain cases. In Virginia something similar is happening, except that the impetus is coming from the Arlington County Circuit itself. On March 4, 2020, the Circuit Court entered an order that would require that the Commonwealth Attorney in Arlington justify all charging decisions and writing—decisions on whether to dismiss, charge or even settle cases in her jurisdiction. As one source put it, “decisions that are at the core of the exercise of independent prosecutorial discretion.”
• In New York, “[t]he New York Civil Liberties Union on Thursday published a full database of police misconduct reports after a federal appeals court in Manhattan denied a request by police unions to block their release.”
• In the United States, “[t]he U.S. movement Campaign Zero recently partnered with the Kira Systems, a Canadian company which builds contract analysis and review software, and together have analysed hundreds of police union contracts, determining how these contracts enable police to evade accountability for misconduct.”
• In Ontario, the province “has ended police access to a COVID-19 database after a legal challenge was filed by a group of human rights organizations. Aboriginal Legal Services, the Black Legal Action Centre, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario were all parties to the lawsuit.”
• In Massachusetts, “[r]ecords requests sent by WBUR to all 11 district attorney offices in Massachusetts reveal[ed] a patchwork of Brady policies. The Middlesex DA’s list appeared to be the longest and most up-to-date. Five DA offices said they do not keep any such officer list at all…The inconsistency of prosecutors’ Brady practices raises questions about how those that don’t organize information about police misconduct comply with their constitutional requirements in court.”
• In Virginia, “[l]ocal prosecutors [were] cautiously optimistic about Tuesday’s special legislative session on criminal justice reform, although the area public defender said big changes are long overdue.”
• In Portland OR, “Oregon State Police [] said they were withdrawing protection from Portland’s federal courthouse over frustration at a prosecutor’s decision not to indict many people arrested in protests there.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Interested public. Another behemoth digest this week. Major stories include new research from the Center for American Progress & the American Bar Association and a new executive order extending the moratorium on student debt collections.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

• In the United States, the Center for American Progress released “Pipelines to Power: Encouraging Professional Diversity on the Federal Appellate Bench”, a report concluding that:

“professional diversity on the federal appellate courts is severely lacking, with significant implications for the type of legal expertise underlying the opinions these judges issue. Only about 1 percent of sitting circuit court judges have spent the majority of their careers as public defenders or within a legal aid setting. In contrast, the federal appellate bench is swamped with those who spent the majority of their careers in private practice or as federal prosecutors—making up more than 70 percent of all sitting appellate judges. No sitting judge spent the majority of their career with a nonprofit civil rights organization…This lack of diversity not only reflects the closed and elitist nature of the federal appellate bench but also represents a barrier to the courts’ ability to develop intellectually rich jurisprudence grounded in an awareness of a broad set of individuals’ experiences across the country. To improve this state of affairs, significant disruptions are needed—from law school through every stage of an attorney’s prejudicial career—to broaden pathways to the federal bench and challenge long-held assumptions on the “right” type of attorney to take up a gavel.” (emphasis added)

• Also in the United States, the American Bar Association released its “2020 Profile of the Legal Profession”, a report in which “[t]wo new section were created specifically for the 2020 Profile: A statistical look at legal desserts–areas with few lawyers–including the number of lawyers in every U.S. county and maps that show where lawyers are and aren’t, [and a] survey…that measures how law school debt is affecting everyday life for young lawyers.”
  • As one source summarized the report’s student debt section: “student loan debt affects nearly every facet of [new lawyers’] lives: 48% said they had postponed having children or decided not to have children. 29% said they had postponed marriage or decided not to get married. 56% postponed buying a home or decided not to buy a house. Some reported moving in with parents. 37% chose a job because of a higher salary over a job they wanted more.” (emphasis added)

COVID-19 and Remote Legal Practice

• In Philadelphia PA, “[a] family court judge has refused to wear a face mask during in-person court hearings amid the COVID-19 pandemic and has sometimes ordered lawyers to remove their face masks, according to a letter by a public defender group.”
• In Mississippi, “[t]he Mississippi Supreme Court will reevaluate the possibility of allowing plea hearings in felony cases to be done by videoconference.”
• In Alaska, “[w]ith coronavirus on the upswing, a group of recent law school graduates say it’s too risky to sit indoors for the Bar exam. They’re asking the Alaska Supreme Court to allow applicants to practice law without taking the two-day proctored test.”
• In Maryland, “[m]embers of the Maryland General Assembly penned a letter Thursday, appealing to the Maryland judiciary to consider allowing recent law school graduates to practice without passing the bar exam, citing a series of safety concerns surrounding test administration during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
  • Also in Maryland, “[f]our top attorneys with Maryland Legal Aid were fired last month after sending a letter to their boss that pushed back against plans to reopen the offices during the pandemic.”
• In New Jersey, the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey issued formal objections to the state’s Administrative Office of the Courts plan for partially remote jury trials.
• In Oklahoma, “[t]he COVID-19 pandemic has complicated how…lawyers who serve older Native Americans in rural parts of [the state]…safely continue their work.”

Rule of Law & Voting Rights

• In Washington DC, “President Trump [] suggested he was holding up a deal on coronavirus relief in part to ensure the U.S. Postal Service would not have sufficient funds to handle mass mail-in ballots this fall, falsely conflating various pressures the agency is facing.”f
• In Florida, “felons [and] lawyers face ‘tremendous confusion’ on voting rights.”
• In Boston MA, “[w]ith just under eight weeks to respond to the U.S. census,…[s]everal populations in the city are at risk of being undercounted, including people of color, immigrants, renters and crowded households[; ]Several nonprofit organizations have asked the secretary’s office to release funding previously promised, so that Boston can get the funding and representation it needs for the next 10 years.”
• In New York, “President Donald Trump [] insisted that a grand jury subpoena for his tax returns was overly broad and issued in bad faith and that as President he deserves extra protection from what he called harassment by Manhattan’s district attorney.”

Legal Technology

• In Canada, a policy analyst on technology, cybersecurity and democracy at Ryerson University argued that “[c]ountless studies, inquires and commissions on Canadian policing have identified Black and Indigenous peoples as disproportionately vulnerable to police surveillance and violence…The adoption of data-driven technologies that expand the scope and depth of surveillance by police therefore moves beyond privacy and involves questions related to our democracy, including human dignity and the right to be free from discrimination. This makes the issue a concern for all Canadians.”
• In Dallas TX, “[t]he Dallas County Public Defender’s Office and Uptrust, the social justice communication platform, have announced a new partnership to employ Uptrust’s two-way communication technology to help defendants make it to court.”
• In New Jersey, “[i]n a case involving the intersection of technology, privacy rights and law enforcement, the state Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that neither federal nor state laws protected a former Essex County sheriff’s officer…from disclosing the pass codes to his iPhones.”
• In Florida, residents “facing eviction have access to a new online tool to create a legal response based on the state’s limited extension of a moratorium on evictions for nonpayment directly related to COVID-19.” The tool is http://floridaevictionhelp.org/

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In New York, “Attorney General Letitia James announced [a] lawsuit [against the National Rifle Association (NRA),] filed after an 18 month investigation conducted by its office. The lawsuit claims that the NRA has violated the state’s non-profit laws by illegally redirecting tens of millions of dollars from the group through excessive expenses, contracts that directly benefited relatives or close associates of high ranking members and board memebers and grossly excessive salaries and bonuses.”
• In The United States, “[t]he Association of Administrative Law Judges accused the Social Security Administration of breaking federal labor law when it implemented a partial union contract on Monday.”
• In Government Executive, a correspondent took “a look at Kamala Harris’ Record on Federal Workforce Issues.”
• In Maryland, “[s]taff from the state’s office of the public defender are planning to unionize after going public earlier this month.”
• In Hawaii, “nonprofits are adapting their services and business models to patch up sudden funding gaps generated by the financial chaos unleashed by COVID-19. Experts say the current economic climate will undoubtedly force some philanthropic organizations to merge or close.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In the United States, “new polling shows that measures to help those with student debt remain overwhelmingly popular.”
• In Washington DC, “President Trump signed an executive memorandum that purports to temporarily extend student loan relief for millions of Americans. Trump issued the memorandum after Congress was unable to reach a compromise on extending student loan relief and other economic assistance programs that are expiring…Advocates for student loan borrowers slammed the president’s memorandum as woefully insufficient.”
  • Meanwhile, Student Loan Hero advised that “the suspension will end eventually, so it’s worth preparing now for that new beginning.”
• Also in Washington DC, a new “investigative report, issued by The American Federation of Teachers and the Student Borrower Protection Center, examined records accessed through state and federal open records requests. The authors argue that there continues to be widespread problems with the PSLF program.”
  • The full report, “Broken Promises: Employer Certification Form Failure,” is available here.
• In Forbes, a contributor discussed “What Kamala Harris Could Mean for Your Student Loans.”

Immigration, Refugee, & Citizenship Issues

• In the United States, “[t]he Trump administration has argued that, because of the pandemic, it must circumvent protections built into immigration law for migrant children, which dictate they should be turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services (and ultimately to sponsors in the U.S.) and given a chance to seek asylum. Administration officials have said that they can’t risk that infected children would spread COVID-19 through the system. Yet even after children test negative for the virus, they aren’t being allowed to access the usual protections.”
• In Farmville VA, “[a] federal judge has ordered immigration authorities to stop transferring people in and out of a detention center [] that has become a hotspot for the coronavirus. The National Immigration Project and Legal Aid Justice Center filed a lawsuit late last month [in which t]hey alleged that large numbers of detainees were transferred into crowded conditions before they were quarantined, leading to what the New York Times called the worst outbreak of coronavirus at any such facility in the U.S.”
• In Bend OR, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Director David Drasin refused an immigration attorney’s demand to meet with men seized from the streets of Bend, Oregon, and held on a bus for hours as protesters tried to block the bus from moving, according to a new lawsuit.”
• In Tijuana Mexico, “[s]ince the US government enacted a policy known as “Remain in Mexico” in January 2019, asylum seekers have been forced to wait for months in violent towns across the border until their US asylum hearing date, forcing many into makeshift camps as shelters filled up – a situation made even more precarious recently as Mexico has some of the highest COVID-19 infection and death rates in the world.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In the United States, “legal aid providers are estimating the national price tag for helping tenants facing the prospect of losing their places to live will top $2.5 billion.”
• Also in the United States, “housing experts say that [the executive action President Donald Trump took, which is] being billed as an eviction moratorium is really just a few recommendations that will not actually do much, if anything, to keep renters in their homes.”
• In New York, “[t]he freeze on residential evictions in New York that began in March because of the pandemic will be extended until October 1, state court officials announced on Wednesday…A new memo from Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks says renters cannot be removed from their homes before October, but eviction proceedings filed before March 17 can resume, only if conferenced in front of a judge. Eviction cases filed after March 17 remain suspended.”
• In New York NY, “Mayor Bill de Blasio announced [] the city’s newest initiative to help renters and tenants struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic[:] the Tenant Protection Portal that will be free and accessible to all tenants.”
• In Indiana, “[a] statewide moratorium on evictions and utility shut-offs is set to expire Friday, which could leave thousands of Hoosiers scrambling for help…[T]he director of the Fort Wayne Housing Authority…says he’s seeing more and more clients seeking state rental assistance now that the moratorium on evictions is slated to end.”
• In Northeast Ohio, “housing advocates [] are working to connect those facing eviction with resources and legal representation as courts resume hearings.”

Access to Justice – Criminal & Decarceration

• In San Quentin CA, “[i]n order to minimize the number of COVID-19 patients, health experts recommended cutting San Quentin’s population by 50%. But this recommendation has been met with hesitation. Alameda County Chief Public Defender Brendon Woods told YR Media that before the outbreak happened, he submitted a proposal to Governor Gavin Newsom in which he outlined a plan to cut California’s prison population by about 30% to minimize the chances of major outbreaks. But Governor Newsom didn’t adopt his proposal, and Woods said another major prison outbreak is ‘just a matter of time.’”
• In New York NY, “[t]he Bronx Defenders, one of the city’s largest nonprofit legal advocacies, and the New York Giants pro football team are pairing up ‘to combat inequities in the criminal, immigration, family, and civil legal systems,’ according to a joint news release from the organizations.”
• In Chicago IL, “[a] Cook County judge [] denied a request by the public defender’s office and a coalition of activist groups to immediately make Chicago police give suspects speedy access to phone calls after arrest, saying the circumstances do not constitute an emergency that requires him to step in.”
• In Oahu HI, “[as t]he outbreak of COVID-19 cases in the state corrections system continued to expand…Hawaii Public Defender James Tabe said Sunday night that his office is working on a new request to the Hawaii Supreme Court to take steps to reduce the inmate population to allow for social distancing and help slow the spread of the disease.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In the United States, “[t]he U.S. Conference of Mayors has tapped Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr to help put together a list of reforms and recommendations aimed at building trust between police departments and their communities while rooting out racist policing practices.”
• Also in the United States, “[m]ass arrests following nights of tumultuous unrest in Chicago and Portland, Ore., have pitted liberal prosecutors against police and even Democratic allies over concerns that lenient charges will lead to further property damage and violence.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he DC Police Union is seeking an injunction that would block Mayor Muriel Bowser from publicly releasing the body-camera footage and names of police officers who have “committed an officer-involved death” in the nearly six years since the camera program’s inception. A new D.C. law mandates that Bowser release the information by Saturday.”
• In Portland OR, “Multnomah County’s newly elected District Attorney, Mike Schmidt, unveiled a new policy on how his office will prosecute cases for those arrested during the protests in Portland. The policy [] says the district attorney’s office will decline to prosecute cases where charges only involve violations of city ordinances, or cases that don’t involve ‘deliberate property damage, theft, or threat of force against another person.’”
• In Pima County AZ, “[a]fter 40 years of the prosecutor’s office in Pima County being under the same leadership, Laura Conover overwhelmingly defeated the hand-picked replacement of 24-year sitting DA Barba LaWall—out-distancing her nearest opponent, the head of the homicides investigation unit, by a 57-36 margin…Just since May, she is the latest in a string of wins for progressive prosecutors—Mike Schmidt in Portland, Jose Garza in Austin, Mimi Rocah in Westchester, NY, Eli Savit in Michigan, and Kim Gardner in St. Louis.”
• In Hennepin County MN, “[a] study of one year’s traffic data in Minneapolis shows Black Drivers accounted for nearly 80 percent of police searches and routine traffic stops in the predominantly-white city.”
• In Salt Lake City UT, “[s]ome Black Lives Matter protesters…could face up to life in prison if they’re convicted of splashing red paint and smashing windows during a protest, a potential punishment that stands out among demonstrators arrested around the country and one that critics say doesn’t fit the alleged crime.”
• On the Internet, Democracy Now “host[ed] a debate on [Kamala Harris’] record as California attorney general and San Francisco district attorney, when she proudly billed herself as “top cop” and called for more cops on the street. San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Niki Solis says Harris was the state’s most progressive DA and advocated for “so many policies and so many alternatives to incarceration.” Law professor Lara Bazelon says Harris was on the wrong side of history for often opposing criminal justice reform, though her record did change as a senator.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Interested public. Another behemoth digest this week. Major stories include the growing chorus of concern about a coming wave of evictions, weighty deliberations at the ABA (see Editor’s Choices).

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

• In the United States, over 100 deans of law schools wrote to the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, arguing that “[p]reparing law students to be lawyers requires that they should be educated with respect to bias, cultural awareness, and anti-racism,” and “collectively urg[ing] the Council to charge the Standards Review Subcommittee to study and consider enacting a requirement that every law school must provide training and education of its students with regard to bias, cultural awareness, and anti-racist practices.”
• In Chicago IL, “[a] resolution urging state courts of last resort to cancel in-person bar exams during the COVID-19 pandemic, and develop alternate plans to license candidates, will be considered by the ABA House of Delegates assembly.”

COVID-19 and Remote Legal Practice

• In Canada, an opinion piece in Canadian Lawyer argued that “[w]ith less money to spend, individuals may choose to forgo hiring lawyers and do their own legal work; To this end, lawyers should be open to alternatives to charging by the hour. Creating a fee arrangement that works for the client can provide more certainty that you will be paid for your work.”
• In Texas, “[r]emote appearances and filing through email are two of the technology improvements that COVID-19 has forced on the immigration courts, according to immigration lawyers and a judge.”
• In Louisiana, “[m]ore unexpected delays have brought on continuances to trials that were scheduled to take place over the past three weeks.”
• In Missoula County MT, “[a]ttorneys in Missoula’s state public defender’s office issued a letter to the local judiciary [] urging judges to cease in-person hearings until Missoula County is no longer designated a hot spot and confirmed COVID-19 cases have made a steady decline.”

Rule of Law

• In Hawaii, “[a]ttorneys argued before the Hawaii Supreme Court [] over how much lawmakers should allow the public to weigh in on legislation as laws are being drafted and voted on[, ] considering a lawsuit challenging the Legislature’s practice of stripping bills of their original content and substituting something entirely different.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he leadership of the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Tuesday introduced a pair of bills aimed at expanding whistleblower protections for federal employees and preventing agencies from retaliating against feds who file information requests through transparency laws.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[P]resident Donald Trump [] placed Anthony Tata into a key Pentagon position after the Senate Armed Services Committee effectively doomed his nomination for a related role, side-stepping Congress and exploiting a legal loophole that may allow Tata to take the top job without Senate confirmation at all.”
• Also also in Washington DC, “President Donald Trump on Monday erroneously claimed that he had the authority to issue an executive order to restrict the growing number of states that are moving towards universal mail-in voting for the 2020 election due to the ongoing pandemic. Legal experts were quick to point-out that any such order would undoubtedly be unconstitutional, as presidential elections are run by individual states.”
• In Manhattan NY, “[the] district attorney’s office suggested that President Donald Trump and his business were under investigation over bank and insurance fraud, according to court documents filed Monday. The documents — filed as part of an ongoing legal battle between District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. and Trump over Trump’s tax returns — mention ‘public reports of possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization.’“

Legal Technology

• In New York NY, “[t]he Legal Aid Society, the City’s largest provider of criminal defense and civil legal services, announced today that it is partnering with Uptrust, the social justice communication platform, to reduce the number of Failure to Appear (FTA) incidents, arrest warrants, and pre-trial technical violations in New York City. The partnership will apply Uptrust’s innovative and unique two-way communication technology to reduce jail populations and save millions of taxpayer dollars.”
• In Forbes, a contributor argued that “rather than pass a generally applicable privacy statute [Congress] should explore the possibility that strong privacy rules might be one policy response to the lack of competitive alternatives in markets controlled by the dominant technology companies.”
• In Washington DC, “[a] federal appeals court [] upheld a district court’s finding that the federal judiciary had improperly covered certain expenses with PACER fees in a class action lawsuit challenging the user fees charged for access to court records.”
• In California, “[a] proposal to bolster the [California Consumer Privacy Act] has received enough signatures to qualify for November’s general election ballot.”
• In Chicago IL, “[t]he SAND Lab at University of Chicago has developed Fawkes1, an algorithm and software tool (running locally on your computer) that gives individuals the ability to limit how their own images can be used to track them. At a high level, Fawkes takes your personal images and makes tiny, pixel-level changes that are invisible to the human eye, in a process we call image cloaking. You can then use these “cloaked” photos as you normally would, sharing them on social media, sending them to friends, printing them or displaying them on digital devices, [etc.].”
• In the United States, “[p]rotests over racial inequality are exposing tensions between law enforcement access to digital data and citizen rights against unwarranted searches, which may force courts to grapple with how to protect people’s privacy.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Maryland, “a district court dismissed a federal employee union’s lawsuit that claimed the Office of Special Counsel’s guidance on using the terms ‘impeachment’ and ‘resist’ at work violated free speech protections and was a misinterpretation of the Hatch Act.”
• Also in Maryland, “[i]n an effort to rein in caseloads, improve working condition and have a greater voice in the criminal justice system, the public defenders of Maryland are unionizing.”
• In Minnesota, “[t]he Minnesota Supreme Court concluded, in a July 29, 2020, decision*, that an unpaid student intern working at a local nonprofit was entitled to the same protection against discrimination found in the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA) as paid employees.”
• In New York, “[the] state’s attorney general sued to dissolve the National Rifle Association on Thursday, alleging senior leaders of the non-profit group diverted millions of dollars for personal use and to buy the silence and loyalty of former employees.”
• In Chicago IL, the Chicago Sun Times’ Editorial Board published a piece arguing against “the new [Metropolitan Water Reclamation District] rules[, which] require individuals at nonprofits to register as lobbyists and record all discussions they have with officials at government agencies, even if that interaction is nothing more than answering the phone when an official calls for technical advice.”
• In Washington DC, “[a] Federal Labor Relations Authority regional director last week reaffirmed that federal immigration judges are not management officials and therefore can unionize, rejecting an effort by the Justice Department to decertify the National Association of Immigration Judges.”

Immigration, Refugee, & Citizenship Issues

• In New York, “the state’s nonprofits serving immigrants in detention revealed that not only were their contracts cut in late June, but that came on top of the state not reimbursing contracts from last fiscal year.”
• Also in New York, “[an appeals court ruled that a] judge [had] correctly struck down a new Department of Homeland Security rule that went into effect earlier this year denying green cards to legal immigrants who use Medicaid, food stamps and other forms of public assistance[.]”
• In Virginia, “[t]wo college students sued the Trump administration over a recent change in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that they say places a heavy financial burden on young people.”
• In Washington DC, after President “Trump issue[d an] election-year order on H-1B visas and federal contracts[, e]xperts say it is unclear what a new executive order issued by Donald Trump on federal contracting will accomplish, though it may be followed with additional measures to restrict companies that employ H-1B visa holders.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Pennsylvania, “[a]ttorney General Josh Shapiro permanently shut down Equitable Acceptance’s efforts to operate in Pennsylvania, and is requiring the company to cancel nearly $200,000 in debt for its former Commonwealth customers.”
• In Washington DC, @realDonaldTrump tweeted that President Trump had “notified [his] staff to continue working on an Executive Order with respect to Payroll Tax Cut, Eviction Protections, Unemployment Extensions, and Student Loan Repayment Options.” Forbes analyzed what this statement might signify.
• In New York, “[t]he New York State Department of Financial Services sent a letter to U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on behalf of a multi-state coalition of student loan advocates urging the Secretary to take proactive steps to protect student loan borrowers.”
• In the United States, Benefits Pro published an article discussing how “[e]mployers recognize need for solutions that address employee student debt post COVID-19[.]”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In the United States, “[t]he clock is ticking for Americans who are struggling to pay rent amid the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. The $600-a-week enhanced unemployment benefits created in Congress’s CARES Act runs out on July 31. The federal eviction moratorium—which protected about one quarter of American renters—expired July 24. Many of the patchwork state and local eviction moratoriums have already ended, with more expiration dates on the horizon for others. The U.S. Census Bureau’s weekly survey of American households recently found that 26.4 percent of Americans have either already missed a rent or mortgage payment or have little to no confidence that they will be able to pay their next month’s rent on time.”
• In New York NY, “New York’s court system is expected to begin processing new eviction cases [] for the first time since March, and the Legal Aid Society is predicting 14,000 households will face eviction immediately.”
• In Rochester NY, “Rochester’s City Roots Community Land Trust, in partnership with the Yale Environmental Protection Clinic, released a guide — Confronting Racial Covenants: How They Segregated Monroe County and What to Do About Them.”
  • Also in Rochester, “residents threatened with eviction would be guaranteed free legal representation under a bill expected to pass City Council this month, as the city braces for an anticipated deluge of eviction cases from landlords looking to recoup income lost during the pandemic.”
• In St. Louis MO, the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis “explore[d] the influence that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on student debt, demonstrating the inequities that have let low-income households fall further behind and what this means for these households’ financial outlook.”
• In USA Today, Rep. Joe Kennedy III argued that “[w]e absolutely must extend the nationwide moratorium on evictions. But an emergency stopgap won’t be enough. We must fortify the legal rights and protections for all low-income Americans who encounter our civil justice system. And we must make sure those in need have access to those protections through legal representation.”
• In Massachusetts, “[a] group of tenant advocacy groups will not be able to intervene in a legal challenge to Massachusetts’ eviction moratorium, a federal judge ruled from the bench on Tuesday.”
• In Salt Lake City UT, “[e]victions could be coming over the next few months, after moratoriums ended and certain federal benefits have run out.”
• In Louisiana, “[t]he head of the New Orleans legal aid office says calls for help from people who have lost their jobs have increased more than 600 percent.”
• In Texas, “[s]ources say a potential surge in evictions looms as the next big threat to Central Texans related to COVID-19.”
• In Ontario, a “new omnibus bill, passed in July, introduce[d] more stringent tests which lawyers say will make it difficult to sue institutions through class-actions.”
• In Cook County IL, “[a] legal services group is asking a Cook County judge to address delays in domestic violence cases. Legal Aid Chicago filed a suit [] seeking mandamus relief against the clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court, arguing it has not received copies of orders of protection for its clients and that the clerk’s office has not made good on a promise to implement a timely delivery system.”

Access to Justice – Criminal & Decarceration

• In Nevada, “[t]he ACLU of Nevada, which sued the state in 2017 for failing to provide public defense for people who couldn’t afford a lawyer in rural counties, announced Thursday it had reached a settlement that ensures people who have been charged with crimes that could be punished with imprisonment receive counsel.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Miami FL, WLRN reported that “an internal committee inside the prosecutor’s office makes decisions about how money raised from criminal defendants is spent[–a practice which] has raised questions of conflict of interest[.] Some groups that received tens of thousands of dollars in funding are closely connected to State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.”
• In Minneapolis MN, police data revealed that “police stop and search a disproportionate rate of Black and East African drivers and their vehicles during routine traffic stops compared with other races.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Interested public. No time for a summary this week; apologies. Major stories are summarized below. Hope this message finds you well.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

• At the annual INTER/VIEW social impact jobs fair, Farrah Parkes (Exec. Dir. of New Century Trust) and Omar Woodard (Exec. Dir. of GreenLight Fund Philadelphia) held a panel titled, “If White Nonprofit Culture is Dead, What is its Replacement?”
• Relatedly, NonProfit Quarterly published an article discussing how, “[a]s companies and foundations declare their support of #BlackLivesMatter, there is growing concern that the injection of institutional funding could undermine, rather than further, movement objectives[;]”
  “Megan Ming Francis, a political scientist at the University of Washington, has tracked what she calls “movement capture.” She points to how funding of the NAACP starting in the 1920s shifted the organization from a focus on opposing lynching and racist mob violence to a more politically palatable focus on integrating education. During the 1960s civil rights movement, the Ford Foundation sought to neutralize and/or co-opt more radical Black Power organizations, according to Karen Ferguson, a professor of African American studies at Simon Fraser University and the author of Top Down: The Ford Foundation, Black Power, and the Reinvention of Racial Liberals. Now, movement leaders worry that many philanthropies today might have similar intentions.”

COVID-19, Remote Legal Practice, & Decarceration

• In Alberta, “Legal Aid Alberta is making it easier for those facing criminal charges to avoid appearing in person…The new project, which was launched at the beginning of July, gives people free access to duty counsel in the legal-aid office.”
  • Relatedly, “Legal Aid Alberta is offering to help Albertans prepare for court remotely, cutting the number of visits people have to make to the courthouse amid COVID-19.”
• In Ontario, “[t]he new Legal Aid Services Act, 2020, recently passed by the Ontario Legislature, introduce[d] a modernized framework for Legal Aid Ontario.”
• In New York NY, “a federal judge in the Southern District denied [local public defender services’] request to halt the resumed [non-emergency, non-essential, in-person] proceedings in New York City.”
• In Maryland, “[o]n behalf of the Attorney General’s COVID-19 Access to Justice Task Force, Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh [] sent a letter to Governor Larry Hogan requesting the Governor extend and expand his Executive Orders on eviction, debt collection, and utilities.”

Rule of Law

• In the United States, “[t]he Trump administration is sending additional federal agents and funding to Cleveland, Milwaukee and Detroit, expanding a program that has targeted Democratic-run cities[.]”
  • Relatedly, the Marshall Project reported that “[a]s the U.S. Justice Department starts sending more federal agents to big cities across the country,…[t]he bad news [is that c]ity officials and prosecutors have no control over these agents and can’t force them to follow local rules on matters like use of force or body cameras. Police officers on the task forces don’t have to abide by those rules, either, and are almost impossible to sue for misconduct. The only way to assert local control, experts say, is to back out of the task forces altogether.”
• In Portland OR, “[i]n the wake of growing protests, attorneys across the region are stepping in. The National Lawyers Guild is sharing multiple hotlines for those arrested, and criminal defense attorneys are creating a list of those willing to work pro bono.”
• In Columbus OH, “officials in Cleveland have tried to quell public concern about the federal agents that were deployed to the city under the Operation Legend banner, saying that the officers are part of an earlier announced Justice Department initiative and not a Portland-style surge.”
• In Oakland CA, “city officials announced legislation today intended to prevent President Trump from sending federal troops to the city — as he threatened to do last week in response to protests — amid heightened concern following Saturday’s demonstration, vandalism and fire to the Alameda County Courthouse.”
• In New York NY, “[a]n NYPD arrest is sparking controversy after a now viral video shows police arresting a protester and taking off in an unmarked car Tuesday evening in Manhattan.”
• Also in New York NY, “President Donald Trump’s lawyers filed fresh arguments Monday to try to block or severely limit a criminal subpoena for his tax records, calling it a harassment of the president.”
• In Washington DC, “[a] National Guard commander who was present during the forcible clearing of protesters in front of the White House k last month accused the Trump administration of an ‘unprovoked escalation and excessive use of force’ on peaceful protesters, and contradicted key elements of Attorney General Bill Barr’s account — including whether tear gas was used in the incident.”
• Also in Washington DC, “Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP) today rolled out a series of critical resources to help local governments and community members across the country protect public safety while fostering First Amendment-protected activity.”

Legal Technology

• In Washington DC, “[a] preliminary study by a U.S. agency [] found that even the best commercial facial recognition systems have error rates as high as 50% when trying to identify masked faces.”
• In Illinois, “[a] new biometric privacy lawsuit has emerged that names Amazon, Google parent company Alphabet and Microsoft as violators of the state[‘s Biometric Information Privacy Act.]”
• Builtin.com published an article on “[NY hedge fund] Two Sigma’s ‘Data Clinic’, a tech alternative to the legal clinic that offers nonprofits, government agencies and mission-driven organizations pro bono tech and data support.”
• Law.com published part II of its series on “An Ethical Framework for Artificial Intelligence”.
• In New Haven CT, “Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self Reliance has resigned her fellowship at Yale University’s Thurman Arnold Project…on the heels of a report from Bloomberg that the director of the Thurman Arnold project, Fiona Scott Morton, is a paid adviser to Amazon and Apple. Bloomberg reported that Fiona Scott Morton ‘didn’t disclose those relationships in papers she recently co-authored outlining how the U.S. could bring antitrust cases against Alphabet’s Google and Facebook.’ ”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In New York, “[p]ointing to the current “immense pressure and hardship” faced by nonprofit organizations “as a result of the twin public health crises of COVID-19 and systemic racism,” the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest has released a 2020 tool kit of guides laying out instructional legal information—on a range of topics—for nonprofits.”
• In Connecticut, “[State Senate] Republicans criticized [Governor] Lamont for a new policy they say blocks nonprofits that received funds through the federal Paycheck Protection Program from receiving any additional coronavirus relief money.”
• In Washington DC, “[a] group of six Democratic senators on Wednesday introduced legislation to ensure federal employees have input into how agencies respond to the coronavirus pandemic.”
• Also in Washington DC, “Senate Republicans unveiled a coronavirus relief package on Monday that would help some agencies struggling to collect fees as a result of the current economic downturn, but leave the U.S. Postal Service in the lurch despite its pleas for emergency funding.”
• In Anne Arundel County MD, “[a] Maryland Legal Aid attorney, who left the pro bono law firm unexpectedly last week, said she was fired just days after she and 11 other top attorneys raised concerns about the organization’s plans to reopen its offices to the public for the first time since March.”

Immigration, Refugee, & Citizenship Issues

• In Los Angeles CA, “the Trump administration asked Judge Dolly Gee of the US District Court of Los Angeles to delay the order [mandating ICE release the more than 100 children currently being held in immigration detention] again, but Gee held firm. Her message was clear: Release the children—but don’t even think about ripping them away from their parents without their consent.”
• In New Jersey, “[b]ackers of a two-year-old New Jersey program that provides free legal aid to people in federal immigration detention say it is working, after the rate of release skyrocketed among detainees who had a pro bono attorney.”
• In New York, “[a]dvocates who have been fighting [] to ensure immigrant communities can safely access courthouses won a major victory last week as the New York State Legislature passed the Protect Our Courts Act, which now awaits Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s signature.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In the United States, “[c]ome Sept. 30, [student loan] payments will be reinstated and the economy will see a significant impact…[A]s the end of that period draws near, families and students might still be financially insecure because of the pandemic.”
• Also in the United States, “Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, linked the forgiving of student debt [] to dealing with racial inequities in the country.”
• Also also in the United States, “[t]he American Bar Association surveyed more than 1,000 new lawyers, and found that they owed an average $160,000 in student loans. That hefty debt is influencing their career paths and life decisions.”
• In Indianapolis IN, a panel of experts convened in a webinar by the Lumina Foundation concluded that “[t]he way the higher education community thinks about student debt, and student debt of Black borrowers in particular, needs reimagining to no longer blame the individual, but instead focus on what problems within the system lead to such discrepancies in education outcomes and debt loads.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he U.S. Department of Education recently announced that it has signed contracts with five companies that will work directly with federal student loan borrowers to provide direct customer service and back-office processing support for student and parent borrowers and partners at postsecondary institutions.”
• Also in Washington DC, “Senator Kamala Harris is making the case for Congress to adopt her priorities for the next stimulus package, including $2,000 monthly stimulus checks and student loan forgiveness.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Chicago IL, the President of the ABA wrote that “[w]ithout immediate action, a tidal surge of evictions is likely to leave in its wake a significant increase in homelessness nationally that could overwhelm state and local governments and strain their precious COVID-19 response resources. As with hurricanes, there are preparations and actions that can — and should — be taken to mitigate the effect of the storm of evictions and protect likely victims.”
• In Tennessee, “the Tennessee Supreme Court Access to Justice Commission released its 2020 Strategic Plan, setting goals for the Commission to strive to meet over the next two years…Going forward, the Commission will refocus its efforts and address issues of racism and disparate impact on racial and ethnic minorities head on.”
• In San Francisco CA, “housing and homelessness service providers worry that City Hall’s budget decisions will leave them unprepared to face an expected wave of housing displacement.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he number of financial complaints filed by consumers in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has risen dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an analysis of the CFPB database by LendEDU[.]”

Access to Justice – Criminal & Decarceration

• In Prince William County VA, “[t]he head of Prince William County’s first public defender’s office hopes to begin accepting cases in September. The office helping defendants in Prince William, Manassas and Manassas Park who can’t afford to hire an attorney was created through a new state law earlier this year.”
• In Lawrence County IN, “[a]fter a turbulent month in which his office was forced to decline cases and pay outside attorney fees, Chief Public Defender Bruce Andis asked the Lawrence County Council Tuesday night to approve another $20,000 in contractual attorney fees[;] council members refused.”
  • Relatedly, “[a] recent study has found some caseload standards for Indiana’s public defenders are too high, a discovery that touches on the state’s long struggle with ensuring indigent defendants have access to a lawyer with enough time to provide a quality defense.”
• In Marin County CA, “[a] Superior Court judge has ordered the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to respond urgently to petitions requesting immediate release of 21 people at San Quentin State Prison. The petitions were filed by incarcerated people at San Quentin and attorneys representing people there over the past month.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In New York NY, the Legal Aid Society released a statement on Twitter providing a strongly-worded response to a New York Post opinion piece from a New York public defender which (in the Legal Aid Society’s words), “takes the position that an anti-racist agenda is a chilling doctrine because it invites discrimination and that the theory of ‘white fragility’ is a ‘small minded book which relentlessly insists all white people are racist and need to think about race all the time.’[:] … This racist perspective is disgusting and results in Black and Brown people being harmed by individuals in public interest roles, who are entrusted with serving Black and Brown clients and their communities.”
• In North Carolina, “[l]aw enforcement agencies and courts across the state are being asked to implement recommendations sent out by the NC Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Interested public. The news continues to lie thickly around us, particularly in the areas of justice reform and the debate around how to responsibly reopen physical courts. There’s a lot of material this week so I’ll keep my summary brief. I do want, however, to call attention to yesterday’s edition of PSJD’s Jobs’o’th’Week. We’ve heard that people want more job highlights from PSJD so my colleague Brittany Swett has expanded her weekly feature to include additional positions that have stood out as she manages our job database on an ongoing basis.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

• In a paper that has yet to undergo peer review, researchers at Boston University’s Technology & Policy Research Initiative “analyze[d] the effects of [] salary history bans (SHBs) on employer page posting and on the pay of job changers [and found that f]ollowing SHBs, employers posted wages more often and increased pay for job changers by about 5%, with larger increases for women (8%) and African-Americans (13%). Salary histories appear to account for much of the persistence of residual wage gaps.”
• In Utah, “[a]s part of an effort to reduce racism and bias in the state’s court system, the Utah Judicial Council is establishing a new Office of Fairness and Accountability to look into this issue and make recommendations for improvement…Both [State] Sen. Weiler and [ACLU SMART Justice Attorney] Groth said they hope to see people of color at the table and included in discussions about systemic racism and bias.”

COVID-19, Remote Legal Practice, & Decarceration

• In Utah, “[p]rotesters in two Utah cities are demanding the release of non-violent inmates during the COVID-19 pandemic. The protests were held simultaneously in Ogden and St. George outside county prosecutor offices[.]”
• In Virginia, “a group of law school graduates who are registered to take the Virginia bar exam in Roanoke at the end of this month have proposed an unconventional solution: waive that notoriously difficult requirement. While the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners has not yet gone that far, last week it added new options for test-takers, including postponement, plus the opportunity to take a shortened version of the exam later this summer.”
• In Tennessee, “hundreds of law students across the state are pushing for change — including graduates from LMU Duncan School of Law and the University of Tennessee College of Law in Knoxville. They’re hoping the supreme court will allow new graduates a special waiver to practice law, so they can start helping the public sooner and aren’t left without a job and dwindling resources.”
• In Massachusetts, “Harvard Law School students joined peers from law schools across the state in a letter urging the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to replace the 2020 bar exam with an automatic admission option — a request the court subsequently denied.”
• In Montana, “[t]he Montana Supreme Court [] denied the request of dozens of recent law school graduates to skip the bar exam in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic but still be licensed to practice law.”
• In New York, “State Sen. Michael Gianaris, D-Astoria, is looking to New York’s Chief Judge Janet DiFiore to prepare alternatives for law students who are scheduled to take the bar exam in early September.”
• In New York NY, “[t]ension has mounted between tenant attorneys and a top New York City civil judge, as the judge moves forward with plans to resume pre-pandemic trials in Brooklyn this month and major unions representing lawyers pledge not to return to court without more safety assurances.”
  • Also in New York NY, “[a] group of New York City public defender agencies have threatened to sue the state’s Office of Court Administration in a last-ditch effort to stop the resumption of in-person criminal proceedings during the COVID-19 crisis.”
• In Virginia, the “Virginia Department of Labor and Industry on Wednesday approved emergency workplace standards that will give workers across the commonwealth health protections amid the pandemic. The binding standards — the first of their kind in the nation — are being hailed by labor groups, while business advocates say employers are already providing for their workers and that the new rules will only force them to endure more paperwork and regulation as they suffer economic damage due to the coronavirus.”

Rule of Law & Voting Rights

• In the Hill, the national president of the American Federal of Government Employees argued that “[the recent Trump administration effort at d]ismantling OPM is a clear attempt to…politicize the non-partisan civil service, and eviscerate decades of federal laws and HR policies that ensure federal workers are hired, fired, promoted or demoted based on the quality of their work – not their political allegiances.”
• In Washington DC, “[c]ivil liberties advocates are urging Attorney General William Barr to name a special prosecutor to investigate possible violations of protesters’ rights during the June 1 crackdown in Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C.[.]”
• In Pennsylvania, the ACLU and other civil rights groups “moved to intervene as defendants in a recent lawsuit brought by the Trump presidential campaign and the Republican Party. The Trump campaign lawsuit, filed June 29, is attempting, among other things, to block voters in Pennsylvania from depositing their mail ballots in drop boxes instead of mailboxes, a secure and streamlined process often used by states that conduct all-mail elections.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he U.S. Supreme Court declined [] to overturn a federal appeals court’s decision that blocked some Florida felons’ eligibility to participate in elections — a major blow to efforts to restore voting rights to as many as 1.4 million people in the battleground state.”

Legal Technology

• Online, the Electronic Frontier Foundation “debuted a new database that reveals how, and where, law enforcement is using surveillance technology in policing strategies.” The new tool is called the “Atlas of Surveillance”.
• In Kansas, the “judicial branch was awarded $1.6 million from the state’s Federal Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Funding Program to help pay for technology improvements that will provide broader digital access to justice and allow courts to conduct more operations remotely.”
• In Washington DC, “Sen. Lindsey Graham is among a group of Republican lawmakers proposing a law that would require tech manufacturers to aid law enforcement trying to break in to criminal suspects’ personal communications. Under the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act, manufacturers would have to add a “back door” for police investigating crimes.”
• The MIT Technology Review published a long investigation revealing that “increasing evidence suggests that human prejudices have been baked into [predictive policing] tools because the machine-learning models are trained on biased police data. Far from avoiding racism, they may simply be better at hiding it. Many critics now view these tools as a form of tech-washing, where a veneer of objectivity covers mechanisms that perpetuate inequities in society.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In the United States, “[a]t least six police unions qualified for a combined total of $2 million to $4.4 million in emergency U.S. government loans intended to help small businesses stay afloat during the coronavirus lockdown, according to data released Monday by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The unions represent about 110,000 law enforcement officers in Philadelphia, Houston, New York state, Michigan and 11 Southern states.”
• Also in the United States, “[t]he Federal Reserve has opened its [Main Street Lending Program] to nonprofit groups, including hospitals, educational institutions, and social service organizations.”
• In Miami Fl, “nonprofits are feeling the COVID-19 squeeze, according to a survey from Florida International University’s Jorge M. Perez Metropolitan Center in Miami. Anticipated revenue is down, layoffs are up and the basic ways they conduct business are changing dramatically.”
• In Minnesota, “[m]ore than 130,000 Minnesota nonprofit employees — a third of all nonprofit workers in the state — have filed for unemployment since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out this spring.”
• Inside Philanthropy observed that “[w]ith the social sector facing rising need, falling revenues, and profound uncertainty about the future…many organizations are once again [considering mergers and other deep partnerships].”

Immigration, Refugee, & Citizenship Issues

• In Washington DC, “[t]he leaders of private sector companies that contract with the federal government to detain immigrants defended their responses to the novel coronavirus pandemic amid growing criticism as cases have spread at facilities around the country.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[f]acing eight federal lawsuits and opposition from hundreds of universities, the Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded a rule that would have required international students to transfer or leave the country if their schools held classes entirely online because of the pandemic.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Forbes, a Senior Advisor with the New America Foundation argued that “[t]here are many ways reparations could be enacted. One idea—to be paired with others—is to cancel the student debt of Black borrowers.”
  • Relatedly, a new memo from Third Way “explains how inequities in higher education relating to student financial aid are being intensified by the coronavirus pandemic.”
• In Washington DC, “[a] ‘coalition’ of Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, asking a federal judge to declare a 2019 Rule issued by the department (ED) ‘unlawful.’”
• Also in Washington DC, “the US Department of Education outlined a plan to transition borrowers from 11 previous servicers to five new student loan servicers. Citing a need for better customer service, the department made contracts with three new student loan servicers and two existing servicers for the upcoming year.”
• In New York, “health care strategists are floating a plan to offer health insurance tax credits assistance to loan-saddled college graduates who have no overage or fear of losing what they do have.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In New York NY, “[p]ublic defenders sounded the alarm last month about the end of a moratorium on evictions, noting that roughly one-third of tenants could not pay their rent. For the moment, an avalanche of evictions has not yet overwhelmed city Housing Courts. Only 13 evictions have been filed since June 22, according to the latest data available from the Office of Court Administration.”
• In Niagra ON, “[s]ome are expecting a “tsunami” of evictions and housing-related cases to hit the courts as Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) funding runs dry. The government issued the final CERB cheques on July 4.”
• In Michigan, “[w]ith Michigan’s eviction moratorium set to lift[], advocates for renters expect a deluge of eviction filings in district courts across the state.”
  • Relatedly, in Detroit MI “residents facing evictions in in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic can now sign up to get free legal defense and rental assistance.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In New York NY, the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution at John Jay College released a “Vision for the Modern Prosecutor”, a statement “signed by many of the elected District Attorneys, academics and criminal justice reform advocates who have joined with the IIP to tackle the most complex issues within the prosecutorial system over the past three years to re-think prosecutors’ roles.” According to the college’s Center on Media Crime and Justice, “[t]he Vision statement is both a call to action and an acknowledgment of the harm traditional prosecution has caused.”
• Also in New York NY, “[t]he Legal Aid Society lauded a decision rendered by New York State Bronx Supreme Court Justice April Newbauer finding that the New York City Police Department’s method of matching of recovered bullets to guns is ‘significantly’ flawed and not generally accepted by the relevant scientific community.”
• Also also in New York NY, “[Mayor] De Blasio signed [] five bills for greater police transparency and accountability as the city faces mounting gun violence and rising tension between the NYPD and the communities it serves.”
  • Relatedly, “[t]he head of the New York State Troopers union is demanding all state police be removed from the New York City over looming reforms. New York State Troopers PBA president Thomas Mungeer issued a scathing statement [] ‘demanding’ that state troopers be removed from the five boroughs ‘and cease any law enforcement activities within that jurisdiction.’”
  • Furthermore, “[a]ttorneys representing New York City’s public safety and law enforcement unions on Wednesday asked a state judge to prevent Mayor Bill deBlasio (D) from releasing employee disciplinary records that have long been kept from the public eye. In a lawsuit filed in New York County Supreme Court, the attorneys said the planned ‘data dump’ of disciplinary records for firefighters, corrections officers, and police officers would ‘destroy the reputation and privacy, and imperil the safety, of many of those firefighters and officers.’ “
• In Hennepin County MN, “[t]he Hennepin County Attorney’s Office has now dropped charges in three cases where Minnesota State Trooper Albert Kuehne was a key witness, but the public defender said prosecutors withheld critical information and still pressed for a guilty plea from one defendant just days before the trooper was formally charged with felony stalking in June.”
• In Los Angeles, “[t]hree Los Angeles police officers face charges for allegedly falsely identifying people as gang members or associates, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office.”
• In Brunswick GA, “a group called The Justice Initiative [aims] to collect 20,000 signatures to force a recall election for [Waycross Judicial Circuit DA] George E. Barnhill[, who had] justified the Arbery shooting as self-defense.”
• In New York, the Legal Aid Society of New York City is “calling on Albany to enact critical legislation to ensure that law enforcement cannot interrogate children before they’ve been allowed to speak with an attorney.”
• The New York Times published an opinion piece from Professor Akbar of the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University, arguing that calls for criminal justice reform are “intersectional. Police violence, global warming and unaffordable housing are not disconnected, discrete problems; instead, they emerge from colonialism and capitalism…And whatever you think of their demands, you have to be in awe of how they inaugurate a new political moment, as the left offers not just a searing critique, but practical ladders to radical visions.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Interested public. Interesting times continue to lay news on thickly–especially concerning criminal justice reform. Other blockbuster stories this week include new rules from the Trump Administration regarding the status of foreign students attending US universities (and universities’ response), mounting calls from the law class of 2020 for states to make changes to their licensure policies, and a new policy document from the Biden campaign reflecting a Biden/Sanders compromise position on student debt.

Take care of one another,

Sams

Editor’s Choice(s)

• In The Appeal, two 2020 graduates of the University of Texas School of Law argued that “Bar examiners are gatekeepers charged with protecting the public from bad lawyers. But amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying economic crisis, prioritizing this gatekeeping function means putting aspiring lawyers at risk and making it harder for nonwhite and low-income people to enter the profession.”
• In New York, Attorney General Letitia James released a preliminary report on the NYPD’s response to demonstrations following the death of George Floyd. As Courthouse News summarized, “[t]he racial disparities [] in the data analyzed between May 28 and June 7 are stark. ‘NYPD arrest data shows that 39 percent of people arrested during the protests were Black and 44 percent were white,’ the 57-page report states….[But] ‘[i]n terms of charging decisions, 16 percent of Black protesters were charged with a felony, eight percent of Latino protesters were charged with a felony, and less than four percent of white protesters and Asian protesters were charged with a felony[.]’.”

COVID-19 & Remote Legal Practice

• In New York NY, “[a] collection of New York City public defender organizations have called on the state court system to continue remote appearances in criminal cases, even as New York’s top judges move to resume in-person proceedings next week.”
• In New York, “[n]ew legislation would allow New York public defender and government law graduates who have twice failed the bar exam to continue to practice under supervision for the duration of the state’s ongoing coronavirus state of emergency.”
• After beginning on Facebook, “United for Diploma Privilege, which seeks automatic admission to the bar for qualifying law grads, became a nationwide effort, with advocacy teams in 31 states and counting.” (http://www.unitedfordiplomaprivilege.org/)
• In Greene County IA, “[t]the Iowa Supreme Court sent out supervisory notices that delayed all in person court proceedings until July 13th and no jury trials until September 14th. However, [Greene County Attorney] Laehn t[old] Raccoon Valley Radio his office has continued to prosecute criminal cases via written statements or telephone conferences. He says the court has allowed misdemeanor offenses to always be done without being in person, but the newest waiver from the Supreme Court is allowing felony cases to proceed without being in person.”

Rule of Law

• In Washington DC, “Geoffrey S. Berman, whom President Trump abruptly dismissed last month as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, told lawmakers on Thursday that Attorney General William P. Barr tried unsuccessfully to pressure him to resign voluntarily, warning that being fired could ruin his career.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[t]he Supreme Court [] rejected President Trump’s bold claims of immunity from local law enforcement and congressional investigators [but] put a hold on the congressional subpoenas [and] also [allowed an opportunity to] challenge the specifics of [DA] Vance’s inquiry.”

Legal Technology

• In the United States, “[l]aw enforcement agencies have been buying up data originally obtained by hackers, including people’s emails, usernames, passwords, internet addresses, and phone numbers, from a cybersecurity company called SpyCloud, allowing them to bypass normal legal processes[.]”
  • “Riana Pfefferkorn, associate director of surveillance and cybersecurity at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, told Motherboard in an email, ‘it’s disturbing that law enforcement can simply buy their way into obtaining vast amounts of account information, even passwords, without having to obtain any legal process.’”
• In New York NY, “[c]laiming the New York City Police Department has been adding DNA samples from suspects not charged with crimes to a controversial city DNA databank rather than taking steps to reduce uncharged suspect’s DNA collection, The Legal Aid Society on Monday called for lawmakers to enact legislation abolishing the databank.”
• In Washington DC, “[after] Trump appointee Michael Pack was confirmed as chief executive officer of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which funds the Open Technology Fund (OTF). Pack promptly fired the entire OTF leadership, leaving in limbo more than $10 million it had pledged to internet freedom projects this year[.]…Digital rights activists and researchers now worry that the turmoil at the OTF could threaten people living in authoritarian countries who rely on the organization to help them navigate censorship and evade surveillance.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Kansas, “[w]orkers at the nonprofit American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas have majority support for a union and have filed with the National Labor Relations Board for an election, after they say executive director Nadine Johnson did not voluntarily recognize the union.”
• In British Columbia, “[t]he B.C. government will wait until the COVID-19 pandemic subsides before investigating how to improve the province’s delay-plagued special prosecutor system, sa[id] the attorney general.”
• In Washington DC, “[f]ederal officials published a revised version of the Federal Labor Relations Authority organizational chart to its website late last month, in apparent response to a statement made by union lawyers during a hearing about the constitutionality of how members of a panel resolving collective bargaining disputes are appointed. The Federal Service Impasses Panel is the target of multiple lawsuits as it increasingly has become the flashpoint in the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on federal employee unions.”
• Also in Washington DC, “Senator Amy Klobuchar has unveiled new legislation to support nonprofit organizations in Minnesota and across the country.”
• In NonProfitQuarterly, Dr. Danielle Moss argued that “we don’t need more statistics, research, or testimonials when it comes to the sector’s failure to uplift Black women in executive leadership roles; we need demonstrable, decisive action in support of Black women’s leadership in this sector.”
• Marketplace.org published a piece explaining “how salary history bans can raise wages for female and black workers[.]”

Immigration, Refugee, & Citizenship Issues

• In Massachusetts, “Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sued the Trump administration in federal court on Wednesday, seeking to block a directive that would strip foreign college students of their visas if the courses they take this fall are entirely online. University leaders and immigrant advocates called the new policy cruel and reckless, with several education groups saying they planned to join the legal battle.”
  • Meanwhile, “[c]ollege and university professors across the country have started offering international students in-person “independent study” courses in a bid to stop the U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agency from being able to deport them under a controversial new policy.”
• In Washington DC, “[a] federal court has ruled that the failure of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to consider less restrictive settings before transferring unaccompanied immigrant youth to ICE detention on their 18th birthdays sviolates U.S. immigration laws.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “Biden’s presidential campaign released a document Wednesday that took into account policy recommendations proposed by its joint task forces, including from supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders…On student debt, the Biden-Sanders team met in the middle on the idea of debt cancellation.” (This news story includes “key highlights” of the student debt proposal. The full document is available here.
• Also in Washington DC, “[t]he U.S. Department of Education has released updated data on student loan forgiveness under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program…According to the newly released data, 3,697 applications have been deemed eligible for loan forgiveness under PSLF. Borrowers working in government accounted for 74% of the applications, with the other 26% working in the non-profit sector.”
• Again also in Washington DC, “[t]he U.S. Department of Education disclosed in a recent court filing that it continues to garnish the wages of student loan borrowers in default on their federal student loans, in direct violation of the CARES Act.”
• Also again also in Washington DC, Forbes reiterated its warning that “[i]f you have student loans, don’t expect student loan forgiveness in the next stimulus.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Nebraska, “Legal Aid of Nebraska sa[id] its phone is consistently ringing these days [as] it’s seeing more than 80 people each week who are being sued for not paying rent.“ Moreover, “the group is worried that in the Fall we could be seeing even more evictions than we’re seeing now.”
• In Virginia, “[t]wo local judges are doing what they can to postpone evictions hearings in the face of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and confusing guidance from the state.”

Access to Justice: Criminal

• In Indiana, “a June study by the Indiana Public Defender Commission [found that c]ontract public defenders in Indiana who earn median pay make only about $5.16 per hour after covering overhead expenses[.]”
• In Hamilton County TN, “Public Defender Steve Smith is asking the County Commission to approve a new $12.50 court fee in order to provide more funding for his office…Mr. Smith said his office has already lost $400,000 in state funding due to state budget woes. He said public defender offices across the state may be cut by as much as $6 million.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In the United States, “public defenders all across the United States recently launched a social media campaign called “Cops Lie: We Witness.” We organized this digital campaign to show that police abuse is not about a couple of bad apples or isolated incidents. For generations, police lying and abuse has been met with indifference by prosecutors, judges, and elected officials alike, with little to no consequences, despite the harms inflicted upon disproportionately black and brown working-class communities. Now, using the hashtag #CopsLie, public defenders are sharing countless stories of cops abusing the truth.”
• In Washington DC, the Washington Post published an opinion from a DC Public Defender arguing that “while police officers are finally (and rightfully) being called out, prosecutors are skating by free of blame, reputations untarnished and funding untouched. In theory, a prosecutor’s job is not to maximize convictions any more than a police officer’s job is to maximize arrests. But walk into any criminal courtroom in D.C. Superior Court, where I practice as a public defender, and you’ll see prosecution treated like a sport.”
• In Detroit MI, “[p]roposed federal legislation that would radically transform the nation’s criminal justice system through such changes as eliminating agencies like the Drug Enforcement Administration and the use of surveillance technology was unveiled Tuesday by the Movement for Black Lives.”
• In Massachusetts, “[l]engthy debate [was] expected…on a major policing and racial equity bill. More than 140 proposed amendments were filed to the bill by [the] deadline.”
• In New York NY, “NYC Mayor de Blasio is reviewing a package of police reform bills including a chokehold ban, following angry backlash from NYPD brass who said the legislation would weaken cops amid a major spike in crime.”
• In Louisiana, “[a] new round of Big Law firms and legal clinics are committing to a new ACLU project aimed at creating a wave of civil litigation in Louisiana to fight racism in policing, positioning the program to begin filing complaints in spring 2021.“
• In San Francisco CA, “a broad coalition – including the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Criminal Justice Taskforce (BASF-CJRTF), the Public Defender, the District Attorney, San Francisco Pretrial Diversion Project, and Jail Health Services – [sent] a joint letter to the San Francisco Superior Court, urging it…to restore the zero bail policy in San Francisco to help reduce the jail population during the ongoing pandemic.”
• Also in San Francisco CA, the California Policy Lab updated its evaluation of the SF Public Defender’s Pre-trial Release Unit.
• In Alameda County CA, “[a]n advocacy coalition says that Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley has agreed she will no longer accept campaign money from police unions, something she was heavily criticized for doing during her last re-election.”
• In Maricopa County AZ, “[t]hree Democratic candidates want to change the county’s harsh approach to charging and sentencing—but they vary in how significantly they want to break with the past.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Interested public. The digest is back this week with another bursting edition; thanks for bearing with me. Chicago Law published a new study on human rights violations in use-of-force regulations for police departments in cities across the United States, while law students in NY, NJ, and CT took action to voice their perspective on racial justice issues within their campuses. The US Supreme Court made the Director of the CFPB easier for the President to remove, while the House Oversight and Reform Committee took up the question of whether the Executive Branch lied to Congress about the legality of its proposal to eliminate the OMB and merge its remainder into the GSA. Attorneys have begun grappling with the beginnings of an eviction crisis as state moratoria on evictions come to a close, the ACLU in both Arizona and Michigan took steps to make prosecutors more accountable for misconduct, and attorneys in Las Vegas began their defense of Legal Observers arrested during recent protests.

As usual, you can find these stories and many others below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choices:

• In Chicago IL, “[a] comprehensive 100-page study by the University of Chicago Law School International Human Rights clinic, titled Deadly Discretion: The Failure of Police Use of Force Policies to Meet Fundamental International Human Rights Law and Standards, found that of the police departments in the 20 most populous US cities, ‘not a single police department was operating under guidelines that are compliant with the minimum standards laid out under international human rights laws.’”
• In New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut “Black law student groups from 17 law campuses [] are pushing their schools to do more to end racial injustice and police brutality and to better support their minority students.”

COVID-19 & Remote Legal Practice

• Across the United States, “[a]t least five law schools have unveiled plans for fully online classes in the fall, even though the majority of schools are hoping to offer a mix of in-person and online coursework amid the COVID-19 pandemic.”
• In Connecticut, “[t]he coronavirus crisis is having a devastating effect on the state court system and, short of a vaccine that returns life to normal, no one is prepared to predict how it will emerge as court administrators work to reconstruct the post-pandemic wreckage…Decades of austerity budgeting has left the Judicial Branch in the electronic stone age, unprepared and ill-equipped for a natural catastrophe. While court clerks in other states are accessing case files from digital data bases, Connecticut still relies on a criminal case filing system based on hand-written, paper records.”
• In Florida, “[a]mid pushback from law-school deans, graduates and lawmakers, the Florida Board of Bar Examiners on Wednesday canceled in-person exams scheduled for late this month and announced the tests will be administered online in August.”
• In Oregon, “[i]n a narrowly split decision, the Oregon Supreme Court voted 4-3 today to waive the July bar exam for 2020 graduates of Oregon’s three law schools.”
  • Meanwhile, in Texas, two law professors at the University of Houston (including the school’s chair in legal ethics) argued that “[e]xtraordinary problems warrant extraordinary solutions. Allowing the law class of 2020 diploma privilege in lieu of taking the Texas bar exam is a humane and logical response to protect the public and to accommodate the lived reality of law graduates who have faced difficulties like no other.”
• In Alabama, “[t]he Supreme Court of Alabama has given the presiding judge for each circuit the authority to either resume in-person hearings or extend their suspension…And legal professionals in Birmingham have said remote hearings could be the way of the future.”
• In Canada, a PhD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School argued that while “[m]any people are enthusiastic about [] virtual hearings and the possibilities they present [and t]he enthusiasm for keeping them as a permanent feature of our court system is good, [] this change is only a tiny antidote to the underlying systemic problems our courts have to face. We need to raise our ambitions as we think about modernizing our struggling courts. We need more than virtual hearings and ‘Zoom Court.’”
  • Relatedly, the Canadian Bar Association’s Manager of Media Relations and Public Affairs argued that “if the fallout from COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s that we need to find a way to need courts less. That is essentially the work of various stakeholder groups studying the impact the pandemic had on Canada’s justice system and legal profession, and envisioning a new way of working in the future.”

Immigration, Refugee, & Citizenship Issues

• In Washington DC, “[i]mmigration judges are suing the Justice Department over a rule that prohibits them from discussing or writing about immigration policy in public, saying the restrictions violate their constitutional rights.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[n]early three-quarters of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services workforce will receive their notices of administrative furlough this week, which, due to their duration, were issued under reduction-in-force procedures. Officials at USCIS, a fee-funded agency, told employees in May that a significant drop-off in application receipts due to the novel coronavirus pandemic has led to an unexpected loss in revenue, potentially leaving the agency unable to meet payroll…One USCIS employee who spoke to Government Executive on the condition of anonymity said he will proactively look for a new job.”
• In New Mexico, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told a [] federal judge that detainees can’t bring class claims over their alleged inability to speak with attorneys through free, private calls, arguing that each migrant’s case is too particular for class treatment.”
• Nonprofit Quarterly published “Immigration Courts: The Case for Independence from the Executive Branch”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “a recent study prepared by the staff of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) [found that] recruiting and hiring attorneys into the federal government is anything but straightforward.”
• Also in Washington DC, “the IRS released its annual disclosure of enforcement statistics. Every year, it’s an opportunity to measure how effectively the U.S. government has sabotaged its own ability to enforce its tax laws.”
• Also also in Washington DC, “[t]he leadership of the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Wednesday announced that the panel would investigate whether Trump administration officials lied in congressional testimony about the legality of the controversial proposal to eliminate the Office of Personnel Management and send most of its functions to the General Services Administration.”
• Again also in Washington DC, “Democrats in both chambers of Congress on Wednesday introduced legislation requiring greater oversight over proposed agency relocations by requiring making analyses of such proposals available for public review.”
• Also again also in Washington DC, “Republican Federal Election Commission Commissioner Caroline Hunter announced she would resign effective July 3, which is exactly four months from Election Day…[F]or the second time in less than a year, the FEC will be precluded from holding meetings, starting audits, creating news rules and imposing fines on those who violate campaign finance laws.”
• Also also again also in Washington DC, “[t]he U.S. Supreme Court ruled [] that the separation-of-powers principle embedded in the Constitution prohibits Congress from giving the director of the CFPB protection from being removed for cause.”
• In New York NY, “[a] new Robin Hood [Foundation] initiative, titled the “Power Fund,” is looking to back [nonprofit organizations that are solely run by people of color] in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide protests after George Floyd was killed by police last month.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Bureau of Labor Statistics’ employee benefits survey for June 2019 reveal[ed] that 3% of civilian and private sector employees have access to student loan repayment plans [and a]lthough student loan repayment plans remain largely uncommon, utilization rates are accelerating. Per SHRM’s 2019 employee benefits survey, SLRPs doubled since 2018, with 8% of employers offering the benefit in 2019, jumping from 4% in 2018.”
• In New York NY, Washington DC, Philadelphia PA, and San Francisco CA, “[a] report by the Student Borrower Protection Center, a consumer advocacy group, analyzed previous borrower data prepared by regional Federal Reserve banks and the city governments of New York City, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and San Francisco and found a commonality that students in majority Black and Latino neighborhoods are more reliant on student loans and shoulder a greater debt burden.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Fresno CA, a professor of sociology argued in the Fresno Bee that because “[e]xperts predict that these past months of economic downturn will bring on an ‘avalanche’ or ‘tsunami’ of evictions as states reopen…[a] right to counsel, guaranteeing legal representation for tenants, is critical. ”
  • Relatedly, in New Orleans LA, “[w]ith landlords moving to kick people out of more than 230 households [] since the state lifted an eviction moratorium on June 15, advocates say they’re scrambling to help desperate tenants who lost jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.”
• In Colorado, “[t]he Colorado Judicial Department has opened the application process for the Eviction Legal Assistance Fund and there is additional funding available to help people impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Nonprofits that provide legal assistance to people experiencing eviction can apply for grants from the fund.”
• In Charleston SC, “Charleston Legal Access, Nelson Mullins, and Jackson Lewis are expanding the S.C. Virtual Legal Clinic, the organizations said in a news release. The clinic, which launched in May to help businesses and nonprofits in the Lowcountry, is part of a nationwide program through the Lawyers for Good Government Foundation.”
• In Ohio, “[t]he Ohio Supreme Court’s [new] guide on home foreclosure disputes promote[d] mediation and technology as major avenues where local courts can forge remedies between homeowners and lenders.”
  • Relatedly, “Cleveland’s housing court opened June 15 after a three-month moratorium on evictions. There are concerns a tidal wave of evictions could be coming.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Baton Rouge LA, “[t]he Senate Judiciary B Committee advanced a resolution with bipartisan support to study improved ways to fund the Louisiana Public Defender Board.”
• In Lawrence County IN, the county’s “Chief Public Defender informed Judge Nathan Nikirk, Judge John Plummer III, and JudgeWilliam Sleva that because of excessive caseloads the Lawrence County Public Defender Agency must decline appointments for public defenders for cases filed from June 19, 2020, through the remainder of this quarter.”

Decarceration

• In Oakland CA, “more than 10,000 people have signed a petition asking Gov. Gavin Newsom to release prisoners to stop the COVID-19 infections racing through San Quentin and other state prisons…Alameda County Chief Public Defender Brendon Woods…deliver[ed] the petition to Newsom and to Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley[.]”
• In San Francisco CA, “[w]ith 2,582 incarcerated persons with active cases of COVID-19 in California prisons statewide, and over 1,100 people incarcerated in San Quentin testing positive, the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office is mobilizing to free people as quickly as possible to prevent the continuing spread.”
• In New York, “prisons are mainly testing inmates who show symptoms of coronavirus — despite federal recommendations for wider testing, prisoner advocates say.”
• In Washington DC, “[a] US District judge has ordered in a lawsuit that the DC Department of Corrections must reform its jail protocol in order to protect inmates from the coronavirus outbreak more effectively.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Washington DC, “lawmakers, those present at the events and legal experts said at a congressional hearing [that] [f]ederal law enforcement officers unnecessarily put the safety of protesters at risk and likely violated the law when they deployed forceful tactics and chemical irritants outside the White House [in June].”
• In Sacramento CA, “[t]he city [] decided to drop charges against individuals accused of violating a curfew implemented during protests against police brutality last month.”
• In Louisiana, “[e]ighteen private law firms have teamed up with the ACLU of Louisiana in a litigation campaign to challenge discriminatory policing practices. Legal Director of the ACLU of Louisiana Nora Ahmed says they are trying to capture cases that were not economical to be taken to court.”
• In Las Vegas NV, “[a]ttorneys for multiple legal observers who were arrested during Saturday night’s peaceful protest on the Las Vegas Strip called for de-escalating what they called military-style tactics used against legal observes and protestors.”
• In Pima County AZ, the ACLU of Arizona called voters’ attention to the records of several candidates for county attorney, stating “we think it crucial to inform voters about troubling misconduct in two candidates’ pasts, only discovered through a years-long investigation into prosecutor misconduct. The ACLU of Arizona is bringing this information to light because it points to a systemic problem within the criminal legal system: it is notoriously difficult to hold prosecutors accountable for misconduct. And it is equally difficult for the public to find out about it.”
  • Relatedly, in Michigan, “[t]he ACLU of Michigan is launching a campaign to hold prosecutors responsible for inequities in the criminal justice system.”
• In Massachusetts, “[p]ublic arrest data has not been posted on the website of Massachusetts’ Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, as required by law. In 2018, Massachusetts passed a law mandating that all police departments submit arrest data to EOPSS. The law requires that data includes “the race, gender, and age of the arrestee.” It states that the department will post the data quarterly. The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts wants those details.”
• In Missouri, the state Supreme Court ruled that “[p]ublic defenders are entitled to official immunity because they are public employees whose official statutory duties concern the performance of discretionary acts.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Interested public. Hope today goes well for you, wherever you are. Big stories this week include two decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court: the 1964 civil rights act protects gay, lesbian, and transgender employees from discrimination based on sex, and the Trump Administration’s attempt to eliminate the DACA program was improper under the Administrative Procedures Act. (Although the Court also declined cert. on many cases before it concerning the doctrine of qualified immunity.) Meanwhile, more district attorneys across the United States announced they will not prosecute protesters arrested in recent weeks. In New York NY, police responded by refusing to work with the DAs offices that issued such statements. Meanwhile, in other news, Washington State has discontinued its Limited License Legal Technicians program and Congress is once again criticizing Secretary DeVos’ handling of student loans.

These stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice

• In New York NY, “[a] few hours after the Manhattan district attorney announced he would not prosecute some of the protesters who had been arrested during demonstrations against police brutality, the Police Department sent him a message: All the officers assigned to his office would be pulled off the job to help with crowd control. The district attorneys in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens made similar decisions and received the same news.”

Public Defense

• In Minneapolis MN, “Mary Moriarty, Hennepin County chief public defender,…sa[id] her office has raised concerns about the behavior of [police] officers for years. …Moriarty said before body cameras, it was hard to get someone to believe a client over an officer’s word. Now that the court system often sees video, she thinks it’s up to them to be part of the solution when they see bad behavior. ‘We all play a role in holding each other accountable in the system. It is usually not just one player in the criminal justice system, not just the police. It is prosecutors, it is judges,’ Moriarty said.”
• In Washington DC, “the [U.S.] Supreme Court declined to take up any cases dealing with qualified immunity.”

Immigration, Refugee, & Citizenship

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program that protects hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the US as children from deportation. The 5-4 ruling was written by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.”
• Also in Washington DC, “A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia [] ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to implement a number of measures to protect detained people’s access to counsel in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prisons amid the COVID-19 pandemic.”
• In Boston MA, “[t]he First Circuit scolded an immigration judge for giving a Salvadoran asylum-seeker two weeks to find an attorney, saying the judge’s conduct ‘makes no sense’ and offering the woman a second shot at fighting her deportation.”
• In Kingston ON, “Queen’s University Faculty of Law has established an online program for students seeking to become regulated immigration consultants.”

Legal Practice & COVID-19

• In Washington State, “faculty and administrators with the University of Washington School of Law were working with local law firms to find solutions for the dozens of students in need of the professional development experience that defines the summers between years of law school and often leads to a full-time job. Together, they came up with the COVID-19 Clearinghouse, a collection of short-term, remote, pro bono projects for private firms and nonprofits that mainly address legal questions specific to life during the pandemic.”
• In Oregon, “[a] tussle over whether newly minted law school graduates must pass the bar exam is dividing Oregon’s legal community.”
• In Ottawa ON, “when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered family courtrooms to all but hte most urgent cases…a group of legal ‘grey hairs’…founded the Virtual Family Law Project, which can help parties resolve their differences outside the courtroom.”
• Across Canada, “a network of legal professionals offering free advice to people in the face of the COVID-19 lockdowns in March…has quickly become a massive access-to-justice [initiative] Canada-wide..[W]hen a person reaches out through the website at natcanlaw.com, they can be connected with a lawyer in their province for some pro bono legal advice on a range of legal issues including commercial leases and contracts. [Alex Don, President of the National Canadian Lawerys’ Initiative] stresses that they don’t offer legal representation.”
• In the United States, “[b]usinesses and schools are increasingly turning to coronavirus waivers to guard against potential lawsuits in the absence of a federal liability shield.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Managment & Hiring

• In Washington State, “[t]he Washington Supreme Court [voted] by majority…to sunset the Limited License Legal Technicians (LLLT) Program. The majority also rejected the LLLT Board’s requested expansion of practice areas and proposed rule revisions.”
• In Minneapolis MN, “[i]n the few days following Minneapolis’ first protests, the tiny, volunteer-run organization [Minneapolis Freedom Fund] raised more than $31 million as donations poured in from all over the country. Two weeks later, some people have been wondering what’s happened to all of those donations. Overnight, the phrase “$35 million” started trending after the MFF tweeted that it had thus far spent only $200,000 on bail over the last few weeks[.]…But the situation that MFF finds itself in is one that’s common after a cause goes viral: A small organization has been overwhelmed with donations from well-meaning people, but doesn’t necessarily have an urgent need for that much money. At the beginning of the protests, the organization had earmarked $10,000 to help bail out protesters, and soon found itself with many times that amount.”
  • Relatedly, “[a] Twin Cities nonprofit that received more than $30 million in donations in the wake of the civil unrest has been the target of online threats over claims it’s not distributing its funds quickly enough….The organization also removed its staff page after it was criticized for showing all-white staff, but it has told BMTN that it did because its board members and staff were receiving threats of doxxing – the malicious publishing and sharing of individuals’ private information. Board president Octavia Smith also said that contrary to the claims online, 4 of its 7 board members are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color).”
• In Washington DC, “the Federal Reserve open[ed] public feedback on the expansion of its Main Street Lending Program in providing loans to ‘eligible’ small and medium-sized nonprofit organizations ‘that could benefit from additional liquidity[.]’ ”
• In Silver Spring MD, “[civil rights groups], including the American Civil Liberties Union, sued [] to block the U.S. Small Business Administration from denying Paycheck Protection Program loans to small business owners with criminal records.”
• In Humboldt County CA, “[a] deputy public defender is seeking thousands of dollars in damages from Humboldt County, alleging he was treated in hostile manner by the public defender’s office after a 2019 incident in which a judge called him a slur and shoved him off a boat at Lake Shasta.”
• In Los Angeles CA, “A former staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California has sued the nonprofit civil rights organization, alleging that as a Black woman, she was subjected to retaliation and discrimination for repeatedly complaining about systemic racism in the workplace.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) have called for an investigation into Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos for possible violations of the Privacy Act of 1974 and undermining legal protections of student borrowers.”
• In New York, “[c]ollectors working with consumers on medical and student debt owed to the state of New York are required to suspend collections for an additional 30 days in response to the financial impact of the spread of COVID-19 after New York Attorney General Letitia James and New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced they have renewed an order to temporarily halt these collections.”
• Forbes provided an update on the prospect of further federal student loan-related COVID-19 relief: “[a]ccording to recent reports, McConnell told reporters in Kentucky that the next legislative package will be the last one. And the colleges asking for more money might face difficulty getting lawmakers to respond to their request. Inside Higher Ed reported last week that McConnell told Northern Kentucky University’s president that any new stimulus money would be related to jobs.”
• MarketWatch published an argument arguing that “[t]he U.S. higher-education finance system is just one of the many products of the systemic racism embedded in our society that have been the focus of protests over the past few weeks experts say. A combination of centuries of policies that have hindered black families from building wealth, decades of decisions that have deprived institutions that educate black students of resources and discrimination in the labor market have meant that black borrowers struggle more with student debt than their white counterparts.”

Legal Technology

• In New York NY, “the New York City Council is all but guaranteed to pass the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology Act – a bill that’s languished in the council since 2017, which will force the New York City Police Department to disclose the technology it uses, how it uses those tools and what privacy measures are in place governing their use.”
• SecurityBoulevard.com reported that “COVID-19 has heightened the emphasis on cybersecurity issues.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Washington DC, “the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects gay, lesbian, and transgender employees from discrimination based on sex. The ruling was 6-3, with Justice Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s first appointee to the court, writing the majority opinion. The opinion was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s four liberal justices.”
• The ABA Journal published an article discussing the ABA Commissionon Homelessness and Poverty on its efforts to create “homeless courts” across the United States.
• In Arkansas, “[t]he American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas filed suit in federal court Monday to overturn the state law that allows courts to jail tenants who don’t pay their rent.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Yolo County CA, “[w]hile the public defender’s office increased its budget from $7.1 million in 2017-18 to $8.9 million recommended for 2020-21, the DA’s office saw its budget increase by over $6 million, while the sheriff’s department increased by $10 million. All of this comes at a time when counties and cities are re-thinking their allocation of law enforcement expenditures and re-imagining ways to decouple mental health and other services from law enforcement.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Seattle WA, “City Attorney Pete Holmes announced [] that charges will not be filed against peaceful protesters arrested in recent weeks.”
• In Birmingham AL, “the Office of the City Attorney announced that protesters who were arrested for violating curfew during June 1 through June 7 will not be prosecuted.”
• In Kitsap County, WA “[the] Kitsap County prosecutor wants the state Attorney General’s Office to decide whether to file criminal charges against law enforcement officers, saying it’s clear the people do not have faith in the system in place.”
• In Flint MI, “[t]he Genesee County Prosecutor won’t be issuing warrants for people who get caught walking in the street or any other low-level ordinance or civil infractions.”
• In New York NY, “[a]fter the repeal of a law that kept police disciplinary records secret, the Legal Aid Society is pushing Mayor Bill de Blasio to make the information public in an online database.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Interested public. Major stories this week follow on the heels of last week’s events–many of which are ongoing. In particular, Public Defenders across the United States marched for racial justice this week. In the world of legal technology, the public learned more about the technological tools law enforcement has brought to bear against protesters while several major tech companies made commitments to refrain from selling specific technologies to law enforcement. Journalists continued their efforts to catalog the various efforts for pro bono assistance springing up in communities across the United States.

These stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice: Systemic Racism & the Unauthorized Practice of Law

• A member of the LSC’s emerging leaders council argued on Law.com that “unauthorized practice of law…policies promote racial inequity and guarantee that black Americans don’t have equal opportunities and equal rights under the law.”

Secret Police

• In Washington DC, “Democrats in the house [introduced] the Law Enforcement Identification Act, which would require uniformed federal officers to wear plainly visible identification while policing First Amendment Assemblies. The bill comes as a response to the use of unidentified Bureau of Prisons crisis management teams as part of federal security efforts in Washington, D.C., during the Justice for George Floyd protests last week.”

Protest Responses

Defenders

• Across the United States, “Public Defenders…are marching in remembrance of George Floyd, Bronna Taylor, Tony McDade, and the countless others who died because of white supremacy.” The event was a “nationwide day of solidarity involving at least 70 [] public defenders’ offices[.]” Some examples:
  • Cincinnati, OH.
  • New York, NY.
  • Los Alamos, NM.
  • Las Cruces, NM.
  • Aztec, NM.
  • San Francisco, CA.
  • Oakland, CA.
  • Santa Barbara, CA.
  • Fresno, CA.
  • Wilmington, NC.
  • Palm Beach, FL.
  • Miami, FL.
  • Tallahassee, FL.
  • Rochester, NY.
  • Detroit, MI.
  • Chicago, IL.
  • Columbus, OH.
  • Knoxville, TN.
  • Anchorage, AK.
  • Las Vegas, NV.
  • Pittsburgh, PA.
  • Salt Lake City, UT.
  • Worcester, MA.
  • Washington, DC.
• In New York NY, “Porsha-Shaf’on Venable, a supervising public defender who staffs the Good Call hotline [a free arrest support hotline]” spoke with Elle about her experience working through the protests: “The first night of protest, I was slaughtered[.] I probably answered five to 10 calls an hour, and I’m low-balling the number…We’ve gone from maybe two to three lawyers during a night to 19 lawyers per shift.“
• In California, “California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (CACJ), a statewide association of criminal defense attorneys in private practice and working in public defender offices, unveiled a package of legislative proposals to address ongoing racial bias in law enforcement and the judicial system.”

Pro Bono Representation

• Across the United States, “more than 9,000 people have been arrested in connection to [the anti-police-brutality] demonstrations—a number that keeps growing every day.” Yahoo.com has compiled a list of spreadsheets, Twitter threads, and other resources where people are collecting information about lawyers that have offered pro bono services.
• Also across the United States, “[t]he Press Freedom Defense Fund and National Press Photographers Association are joining forces to provide legal advocacy for journalists arrested or injured covering news stories.”

Class Actions

• In Washington DC, “Black Lives Matter D.C. and other protesters [] sued President Donald Trump, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and other federal officials for allegedly violating their first First and Fourth Amendment rights.”
• In New York NY, “a letter from the National Lawyers Guild[] and most of the city’s public defender organizations to Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea[] said the city’s “Large Scale Arrest Processing Procedure” deprives arrestees of their normal rights. The letter followed a lawsuit filed by the Legal Aid Society this week charging that more than 100 protesters were illegally held more than 24 hours before being released or seeing a judge.”

Prosecutors

• In Philadelphia PA, “[t]he Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office is creating a task force to investigate the more than 2,000 arrests made in connection to George Floyd protests [in a] ‘collaborative review effort’…intended to reduce jail populations amid the COVID-19 pandemic, honor the rights of protestors, and prosecute those who have endangered the public, which includes police officers.”
  • Relatedly, “District Attorney Larry Krasner raised alarms [] that a proposed $8.7 million budget cut to his office would hamper prosecutions, hobble a new anti-gun violence program, and hurt efforts to hold police accountable.”
• In San Francisco CA, “District Attorney Chesa Boudin [] announced changes within his office designed to ensure police accountability, including the appointment of a seasoned civil rights attorney to lead an investigations unit.”
• In Los Angeles CA, “Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced today that she will not file charges against any protester for a curfew violation or failure to disperse. She directed her legal staff to decline to prosecute these cases in the interest of justice.”
  • Relatedly, as of June 11th “[p]rotests over Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey not prosecuting more police officers for misconduct are growing larger. Hundreds came to a demonstration outside of Lacey’s office in downtown L.A. Wednesday.”

Legal Technology

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Justice Department has granted the Drug Enforcement Administration, typically tasked with enforcing federal drug-related laws, the authority to conduct ‘covert surveillance’ on protesters across the U.S., effectively turning the civilian law enforcement division into a domestic intelligence agency. The DEA is one of the most tech-savvy government agencies in the federal government, with access to ‘stingray’ cell site simulators to track and locate phones, a secret program that allows the agency access to billions of domestic phone records, and facial recognition technology. Lawmakers decried the Justice Department’s move to allow the DEA to spy on protesters, calling on the government to ‘immediately rescind’ the order, describing it as ‘antithetical’ to Americans’ right to peacefully assemble.”
  • Relatedly, “House Democrats [] sent letters to the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, the National Guard Bureau, Customs and Border Protection and the Defense Department seeking to understand whether authorities have deployed powerful tools like facial recognition and cell phone data-tracking against protesters.”
• In New York NY, digital and human rights groups argued that “[l]aw enforcement agencies should be banned from using racially biased surveillance technology that fuels discrimination and injustice…, amid protests over police brutality against black Americans.”
• In a letter to Congress, “IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the company will not support any technology that could lead to mass surveillance, racial profiling or ‘violations of basic human rights and freedoms’.”
• In Redmond WA, “Microsoft Corp. [said] it would await federal regulation before selling facial recognition technology to police, making it the latest big firm to back away from the business following protests against law enforcement brutality and bias.”
• In Seattle WA, “Amazon announced [] a one-year moratorium on police use of its facial-recognition technology, yielding to pressure from police-reform advocates and civil rights groups.”
• On the internet, “[a] consumer advocacy group [] slammed Zoom Video Communications Inc.’s plan to only offer strengthened encryption protections to paying users.”
• Meanwhile, TechCrunch asked “[t]he protests and unrest of the last week have produced enormous volumes of footage documenting police brutality and other crimes. Where is the platform for this important evidence to be collected, collated, and made public? If a major tech company doesn’t step up to the plate soon it can only be attributed to hypocrisy and cowardice.”

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship

• In San Francisco CA, “a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in response to a class action legal challenge by immigrants detained at two California immigration detention centers where conditions are rife for the spread of COVID-19…Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court of Northern California in this order criticized ICE’s ‘obstinance’ in opposing release of individuals ‘on a blanket basis’ in ‘positions that are downright irrational, not to mention inhumane.’”

Student Loans

• In Washington DC, “[a] series of court filings…are raising concerns about the Trump administration’s management of an unwieldy system for recouping past-due student debt, as thousands of borrowers continue to have their paychecks shorted or await the return of their seized pay.”
• Forbes reported that “[t]here’s a good chance the next stimulus bill will not include any student loan forgiveness.”

COVID-19 & Decarceration

• In New Jersey, “prisoners denied a medical furlough or parole in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic have the right to appeal these determinations and courts must decide on individual appeals within a week of their filings, the state Supreme Court ordered[.]”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Tuscon AZ, “[the] state court system is moving to help those who experience domestic violence obtain free legal assistance [through] a pilot program to have a new type of worker provide legal advice to employees and clients of the Emerge! Center Against Violence Abuse.”
• In Toronto ON, “Community lawyers say legal aid legislation at committee could make it harder for marginalized people to access justice.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Baton Rouge LA, “Louisiana’s public defenders asked state lawmakers [] for millions in stopgap aid to offset dollars they’ve lost to defend the poor because of court closures caused by the coronavirus pandemic.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Kansas, “Republicans in the Kansas Senate…denied a judgeship to a respected longtime public defender, Carl Folsom III, because he was once assigned to represent a man convicted of possessing child porn.”
• In Queens NY, “[t]he Queens District Attorney’s office has launched a Major Economic Crimes Bureau to investigate and prosecute a variety of large-scale financial crimes[.]”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Interested public. I compile this digest each week (well, most weeks) to bring you public interest law news. This week, the news is that public protests and the forces of the law are in perilous tension. After Minneapolis law enforcement slowly murdered a Black man in their custody in broad daylight and in full view of multiple witnesses and cameras, people across the United States have been moved to protest against systemic racial oppression. Law enforcement officers have responded with brutal violence while many mayors demonstrated bipartisan disinterest in police accountability. The President of the United States has placed the District of Columbia under military occupation and threatened sovereign U.S. states with similar treatment rather than consider meaningful reforms. Retired and serving members of military leadership have begun to remind soldiers of their Constitutional oaths while the U.S. Attorney General deploys heavily-armed, unmarked forces in downtown DC.

The legal community, in response, has begun bringing lawsuits. Lawyers across the country have committed to serving protestors pro bono. The Supreme Court of the United States weighed whether to revisit the doctrine of “qualified immunity” for law enforcement. The Supreme Court of Washington issued a challenge to the legal community:

“As lawyers and members of the bar, we must recognize the harms that are caused when meritorious claims go unaddressed due to systemic inequities or the lack of financial, personal, or systemic support. And we must also recognize that this is not how a justice system must operate. Too often in the legal profession, we feel bound by tradition and the way things have “always” been. We must remember that even the most venerable precedent must be struck down when it is incorrect and harmful. The systemic oppression of black Americans is not merely incorrect and harmful; it is shameful and deadly.”

Finally, as the New York Attorney General says “she’s prepared to legally challenge President Donald Trump’s threat to send in the military”, at least one legal commentator (Elie Mystal of the Nation) questioned the relevance of a legal response to a military encounter:
“If the military is told to occupy New York City or Los Angeles, they’ll go. If they’re told to secure the streets, in violation of the constitutional right to peaceable assembly, they’ll do it. If they’re told to round up and arrest protesters, or members of the press, they’ll do it. They won’t even have to open fire on a crowd of unarmed civilians—the threat that one of them might is more than enough to vitiate any pretense of constitutional democracy…People have to think [] about how to stop a man who is above the law, using all the peaceful tools (always the peaceful tools) available to us.”

These stories are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

• In Washington DC, “Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said [] George Floyd, the African American man who died following a violent arrest in Minnesota, was “murdered” at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department….Appearing on CNN a short time later, she was even more blunt calling Floyd’s death ‘an execution’.”
• As USA Today describes the public response, “[t]here have been demonstrations in at least 430 cities and towns so far, large and small, across all 50 states [and t]he number of places that have held rallies or protests is still growing[.]”
• Across the country, protestors and journalists documented law enforcement officers engaging in acts of violence.
  • The Baltimore Sun: “As demonstrators took to the streets in cities across the nation to decry police brutality in the wake of the ruthless killing of yet another unarmed black man by a white police officer, law enforcement throughout the country again and again reacted with violence.”
  • Slate: “police all over the country tear-gassed protesters, drove vehicles through crowds, opened fire with nonlethal rounds on journalists or people on their own property, and in at least one instance, pushed over an elderly man who was walking away with a cane[; …] law enforcement officers escalated the national unrest.”
  • The Guardian: “These lawless rioters are out of control. They have driven an SUV into a crowd, tossed journalists to the ground and pepper-sprayed them, beaten people with batons and even blinded a woman in one eye. They have been launching unprovoked attacks on peaceful, law-abiding citizens exercising their constitutional rights. The violent behavior of these mobs should be condemned by all. We need to restore order: someone must stop the police.”
  • The ACLU: “Police violence is one of the leading causes of death for Black men in America, and police officers who kill rarely face any type of accountability. This needs to stop. Yet in too many cities, the police response has been only more brutality.”
• Police departments have engaged in this behavior despite the fact that, as the Marshall Project notes, “[r]esearchers [who] have spent 50 years studying the way crowds of protesters and crowds of police behave…will tell you [that] disproportionate police force is one of the things that can make a peaceful protest not so peaceful.”
• Mayors of many prominent cities sought to justify law enforcement’s actions–although some elected officials’ positions have moved. A few examples:
  • In New York NY, the Center for Constitutional Rights stated that “mayor [Bill de Blasio]’s justification of police brutality, including the mowing down of protestors with police vehicles reminiscent of the depraved actions by white supremacists in Charlottesville, is unconscionable. Add to that his disregard for the rights of citizens to protest for their very lives, and it is clear that he is fully committed to protecting police impunity…we call on Mayor de Blasio and Commissioner Shea to resign.”
  • In Los Angeles CA, “Mayor Eric Garcetti said Tuesday he still has confidence in Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore, despite his comments when he equated looting to the in-custody death of George Floyd.”
    • Also in Los Angeles, “On Wednesday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced he is throwing out plans for a massive police budget hike as support for slashing police department funds grows among activists in the wake of George Floyd’s death.”
  • In Philadelphia PA, “Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw…and Mayor Jim Kenney both defended the department’s use of tear gas and other tactics…Police arrested more than two dozen people in the highway protest Monday evening, when they fired bean bags and rubber bullets and lobbed tear gas at protesters who had nowhere to run.”
  • In Murfreesboro TN, “Demonstrators marched…in a largely peaceful display for George Floyd[;]…Video provided to News 2 by Tyler Croney shows what appears to be law enforcement deploying [tear] gas into a crowd including multiple children. Corney told News 2 none of the children in attendance were older than 12 years old…Mayor Shane McFarland [said] the gas was necessary to break up protesters who were blocking the intersection and on top of cars.”
  • Meanwhile, in Washington DC:
  • “Trump and some of his advisers calculated that he should not speak to the nation because he had nothing to say, according to a senior administration official. He had no tangible policy or action to announce, nor did he feel an urgent motivation to try to bring people together. So he stayed silent.”
  • Silent, that is, until “[i]n a massive show of force, federal law enforcement officers fired rubber bullets and chemical gas at peaceful protesters outside the White House on Monday evening as President Trump appeared in the Rose Garden to threaten the mobilization of ‘thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers’ to quell ‘lawlessness’ across the country…Arlington County officers who were supporting Park Police at Lafayette Square were ordered to leave downtown after county officials realized they had been a part of what they called a presidential publicity stunt.”
  • Steve Herman, White House bureau chief for Voice of America, reported that Principal Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley told reporters on Thursday,“ ‘All options are on the table’ for use of the military to deal with nationwide unrest[.]” Herman went on to note that Ted Lieu (CA-33), a member of the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, reacted to this statement with alarm.
  • Additionally, “[t]ensions between President Trump and U.S. military leaders have escalated over the handling of protests, culminating in officials reminding troops about their oath to the Constitution. Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, and National Guard chief Joseph Lengyel have sent out guidance to take that oath seriously as protests swell across the country in response to the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes while Floyd pleaded for his life.”
  • Relatedly,
    • “On Wednesday, Secret Service and National Guard troops created a perimeter between protesters and the White House. Several [] unidentified officers also stood guard.They declined to specify where they came from, according to reporters at the White House, who said some of the officers identified themselves only as affiliated with the Justice Department. The reporters speculated they were likely prison officers because a few wore gear marked with acronyms and other small insignias from federal prisons.”
    • DC Mayor Muriel Bowser noted, in her formal objection to military and unidentified federal forces’ presence in the District, that “[w]hen citizens are unable to clearly identify legitimate law enforcement officers, it creates unnecessary risks for both protesters and officers. In fact, we found many years ago that conflict between police and citizens is reduced when law enforcement affiliation is apparent[.]”
• In the Legal Community:

• The ACLU has begun bringing lawsuits in collaboration with protest organizers:
  • In Washington DC, “[s]everal protesters and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the federal use of force to disperse a peaceful protest in Washington, DC, ahead of President Donald Trump’s photo-op at a local church.”
  • In Minneapolis MN, “[t]he American Civil Liberties Union this week filed a lawsuit against a number of Minnesota law enforcement agencies alleging that they violated journalists’ constitutional rights by interfering with their coverage of protests and riots in the Minneapolis area in the wake of George Floyd’s death in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department.”
  • In Los Angeles CA, “[t]he American Civil Liberties Union and Black Lives Matter L.A. have filed a lawsuit against local political and law enforcement leaders, calling for an end to the “draconian curfews” imposed as largely peaceful protests continue throughout Southern California.”

• Across the United States, “attorneys and law firms have publicly volunteered free services.” (This link includes a list of such offers.)
• Notably, in Indianapolis IN, “Midwest boutique Saeed & Little [has received s]o many [pro bono requests], in fact, that the firm has relied on volunteer law students to call back and take down information.”

• In Washington DC, “the U.S. Supreme Court [] consider[ed] whether to revisit its 50-year-old doctrine of “qualified immunity” for law enforcement officers, which has shielded cops from civil lawsuits even in cases where a citizen’s rights have been violated.”
• In New York, Attorney General Letitia James felt the need to make this statement:

“The President of the United States is not a dictator, and President Trump does not and will not dominate New York state. In fact, the president does not have the right to unilaterally deploy U.S. military across American states[.] We respect and will guard the right to peaceful protest, and my office will review any federal action with an eye toward protecting our state’s rights. Rest assured: We will not hesitate to go to court to protect our constitutional rights during this time and well into the future.”