Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! I won’t dodge. Things have been busy here at NALP, both with the PSJD Mini-Conference that happened at the end of October and with a number of projects in the office that I’m hoping to share with you all later this year. But also, it’s been hard to face the news the last few weeks and find a face to wear for all of you.

But the world continues to turn and the digest is back. Major news this week includes the likely demise of a successful and critical legal aid program in Ontario, ominous questions concerning the legitimacy of cy pres from the Supreme Court, a new, free, online caselaw library from the Harvard Law Library Innovation Lab, and a number of high-profile district attorney elections that went to candidates promising substantial progressive reforms.

See you around,
   Sam

Immigrants & Refugees 

• The Justice Department began using video hearings to have migrant children testify in immigration proceedings from detention, according to the Associated Press, “some attorneys and judges say[] that technical glitches…are actually making it much harder for teens in shelters to have a fair hearing.”
• In Seattle, WA, Seattle University suspended its externship program with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “based on its current policies and practices.” 

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Washington, Justices Roberts, Alito, and Kavanaugh made comments during oral argument in Frank v. Gaos  that questioned the legitimacy of cy pres deals by extending reasoning from the Court’s recent holding in Janus v. AFSCME: According to law360, “Chief Justice John Roberts questioned whether it’s appropriate to hand out funds to charities–which may make political or other speech–that class members have not approved.” As the publication notes, “the scrutiny of these deals indirectly threatens a system that the American Bar Association estimates sends approximately $15.5 million every year to legal aid service organizations.”
• In Ontario, “[a] program that gets lawyers to volunteer their time to help people navigate the civil court system in Toronto and Ottawa is shutting down next month for lack of funding–even though a study shows it saves Ontario’s justice system more than $5 million a year.”
  • A former president of the Ontario Bar Association launched a GoFundMe campaign in an attempt to save the program.
• In the Ohio News-Herald, the Managing Director of Ohio State University’s Student Legal Services program discusses the student-legal-services model.

Veterans Services

• In Washington DC, the Department of Veterans Affairs led other government agencies (including Labor, Justice, Defense, and the US Navy), “signed a joint statement aimed at improving access to free legal services for Veterans in need.”

Student Debt

• Citing reports from the Urban Institute and Brookings, Forbes reported that “40% of student loan borrowers may default on their student loans by 2023.”
• AboveTheLaw suggested “law students should join ROTC to help minimize their student debt.”
• In Washington DC, “[DC] Attorney General Racine and a coalition of 20 states called on U.S. Department of Education (ED) Secretary Betsy DeVos to help student borrowers who attended schools that abruptly closed have their loans discharged.”
• In Maine, lawmakers extended the state’s “Educational Opportunity Tax Credit” program, a state policy that offsets student loan payments for recent graduates who stay in the state, “making a similar offer to graduates from outside the state; in effect, trying to lure them to Maine.”
• In Newburgh Heights, Ohio, the mayor has proposed a program which would offer $50,000 in loan forgiveness to people who move to the town, buy a home, and stay for at least 10 years.
• In Washington DC, Bustle.com speculated that the influx of younger congress-members may create an institution more inclined to treat student debt reform as an urgent issue.
• In Milwaukee, WI, the state journal reported the story of a former student loan debtor who reports that the Department of Education began requesting additional payments months after he received official notice his debts had been paid.

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Michigan, “[t]he Michigan Indigent Defense Commission is preparing to distribute $84 million in grant money to counties in an effort to provide fairer legal representation to those who cannot afford it.” (This disbursement will be the culmination of many months of work by the commission, documented in earlier editions of the digest.)

Criminal Justice Reform

• In jurisdictions across the country, voters elected district attorneys promising to reform their offices:
  • In Dallas County, TX, John Creuzot won with a platform of police accountability and bail reform.
  • In Bexar County, TX, Joe Gonzales won with a platform of cite-and-release for minor offenses.
  • In St. Louis County, MO, Wesley Bell won with a platform of diversion and drug treatment.
  • In Boston, MA, Rachel Rollins won with a platform of eliminating cash bail, dismissing minor offenses, hiring a more diverse staff of prosecutors, and collecting data to discover biases among her staff.

Legal Technology

• In Cambridge, MA, Harvard Law School’s Library Innovation Lab launched the CaseLaw Access Project: “a new free website [that] makes available nearly 6.5 million state and federal cases dating from the 1600s to earlier this year.”
• According to Gizmodo, “[i]n a company-wide meeting[], Amazon addressed its relationship with law enforcement agencies, including Immigrations Customs and Enforcement–its first direct response to employee concerns raised in June about the company’s often successful attempts to provide cloud infrastructure and facial recognition software for these government authorities.”
• The Chief Program Officer for the Pew Charitable Trusts wrote for governing.com on how “[t]echnology can help people who don’t have lawyers and make courts more efficient.”
• A new report, “Government Jobs of the Future,” examines how changes in technology might affect the types of roles humans play in the administration of government.

Music Bonus

Dolly Parton, “19th Amendment“

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Major news this week includes changes to Apple’s approach to dealing with data requests from government authorities, ABA plans for disaster aid to regions affected by Hurricane Florence, and the ACLU’s release of 50-state policy blueprints for reducing mass incarceration. There’s lots more besides, though! Read on below.

See you around,
   Sam

General Interest

• The Pacific Legal Foundation’s VP for Litigation called out Senator Whitehouse (D-RI), via an op-ed in The Hill, for a line of questioning during Judge Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings that seemed to question the legitimacy of impact litigation: “They … look for cases around the country that they believe they can use to bring arguments before the court … to hire a client whose case they could take to the Supreme Court with a purpose to make a point … and it causes me to think that sometimes the true party in interest is actually not the named party before the court, but rather the legal group that has hired the client and brought them to the court more or less as a prop in order to make arguments trying to direct the court in a particular direction… .” (As quoted in The Hill.)
• Nonprofit Quarterly discussed the latest internal controversy within the ACLU, over its decision to file an amicus brief in support of the NRA’s First Amendment lawsuit against the State of New York in the context of how “nonprofits [must] navigat[e] a new world of donor activism and political upheaval.” (The NPQ piece draws heavily on a more in-depth article on the ACLU’s internal debate published last month in Slate.)

Immigration & Refugee Issues

• In Virginia, the Legal Aid Justice Center filed a class-action federal lawsuit “challeng[ing] the sheriff’s policy of honoring…requests from U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement to hold immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally after they were due to be released on state charges.”
• In Washington, DC, “Mayor Bowser announced that her Administration will provide Immigrant Justice Legal Services (IJLS) grant funding to 15 community-based organizations that offer legal services for immigrants in Washington, DC.”
• In Florida, “[t]he University of Central Florida Legal Services Department, which is known for helping students with speeding tickets and underage drinking charges, plans to add immigration services to its list of legal troubles it can aid students with.”
• The LA Times reported on the difficulties the Trump Immigration’s asylum policies are creating for Christians from the Middle East.

Legal Technology

• Apple updated its Privacy Policy in advance of plans to launch an online portal for law enforcement requests for data “by the end of the year.”

Disaster Legal Aid

• The ABA Young Lawyers Division’s Disaster Legal Services Program announced plans to work with FEMA and local legal aid offices to provide legal assistance to disaster victims in the path of Hurricane Florence.
• In California, “a legal hotline is now available for people impacted by the Mendocino Complex fire.”

Student Loans

• The US House of Representatives passed the “Empowering Students through Enhanced Financial Counseling Act, H.R. 1635, which provides annual financial counseling for student loan borrowers.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Rhode Island, Operation Stand Down Rhode Island, an organization that provides social services to veterans, announced a full-time, year-round legal service…Legal Assistance for Warriors, or LAW.

Criminal Justice Reform

• The ACLU released “Smart Justice 50-State Blueprints” with policy recommendations that “show how each state can cut the number of people behind bars by half.”
• In Louisiana, an appeals court upheld a ruling below that the DeSoto Parish district attorney’s office acted unconstitutionally when it funded the public defender’s office with money from a pretrial diversion program.
• In Brooklyn, NY, the District Attorney announced “an initiative to help up to 20,000 New Yorkers wipe away pass records for marijuana convictions.”
• In Florida, two ACLU staff attorneys criticized a recent decision by the Chief Judge of Florida’s Fifth Judicial Court to remove two judges from Marion County Criminal Court after receiving a complaint from the county prosecutor asserting that the judges in question behaved favorably toward defendants. In the words of the ACLU, “[r]uling for the defense, or not doling out sufficient ‘punishment,’ is not legitimate grounds for removal. This would be true even if the judges were consistently getting it wrong on the facts or the law–but they weren’t. Florida’s appellate courts regularly affirmed these judges over [the county prosecutor]’s objections.”

Music Bonus!

Led Zeppelin, “When the Levee Breaks”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Major news this week includes regulatory action from the Trump administration that would allow the government to detain children for the duration of their asylum proceedings, the resignation of a CFPB official charged with safeguarding student borrowers, and a Louisiana court’s class certification in a structural right-to-counsel  lawsuit brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center. For these stories and more, read on!

Meanwhile, in NALP news:

• Registration is now open for the 2018 NALP/PSJD Public Service Mini-Conference. Scheduled each year to occur immediately before Equal Justice Work’s Annual Conference and Career Fair weekend, the Mini-Conference is an ideal opportunity to meet and network with colleagues from across the country, attend substantive and skills-based programs, and interact with NALP staff members! The conference will take place on Thursday, October 25th, with additional programming for newcomers to the field on the evening of Wednesday, October 24th. 

See you around,
   Sam

Immigration & Refugee Issues

• According to TIME magazine, “the [Trump] Administration filed proposed regulation to terminate [a ‘longstanding court agreement that requires the government to release immigrant children after 20 days in detention’ and detain entire families for the duration of the legal proceedings that determine if they can stay. The rule, which will published (sic) on Friday, would also allow the federal government to transfer family units to facilities that are not ‘state licensed,’ which is currently required.” 
• In Boston, MA, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice filed a class action lawsuit “call[ing] on the federal government to compensate the estimated 2,500 children affected by the family separation policy and to establish a fund for mental heath care for children traumatized after being forcibly removed from their parents.”
• In Washington, DC, the Washington Post called attention to the fact that “unlike other cities that have created immigrant defense funds since Trump took office, Washington does not use tax dollars to help undocumented adults once they are detained by federal authorities and face deportation.”

Student Loans

• In Washington, DC, “[t]he consumer protection official charged with safeguarding student borrowers [resigned] in protest of the Trump administration, claiming it is siding with predatory lenders over consumers and enacting policies that will lead to ‘far-reaching harm.’“
• FiveThirtyEight.com reviewed the student loan crisis and federal proposals to fix it, using the hypothetical example of a Georgetown Law grad to underline the role of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.

Legal Technology

• In California, “[s]tate lawmakers voted to pass a bill…ensur[ing] all California broadband customers have equal access to content on the internet. The law would be the strictest for internet providers in the United States, and put California at odds with the federal government.”
• The international law firm Dentons “announced last week that it is partnering with workflow platform provider Paladin to develop a system which will allow attorneys at law firms to discover pro bono opportunities without having to seek them out themselves.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In San Francisco, CA, the San Francisco Public Press laid out next steps for the city’s right to counsel in evictions program, now that voters have approved plan to set up a program to provide universal representation in eviction cases by July 2019.
• In Sacramento, CA, Dean Schwartz of McGeorge School of Law wrote an overview of ongoing rural access to justice initiatives, framed by a forthcoming article in the Harvard Law & Policy Review.

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Louisiana, the Southern Poverty Law Center announced that “a [state] court has certified a class action lawsuit from the SPLC that challenges the constitutionality and funding structure of the state’s overburdened public defender system.”

Music Bonus

U2, “Where the Streets Have No Name”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! In a relatively slow week (aside from ongoing immigration developments) I have one specific recommendation for you: 

In Wired Magazine, Professor Susan Crawford of Harvard Law wrote about a recent event where “a hand-picked group of university presidents and provosts from across the country, plus a few university faculty members, met for two days at an estate-turned-conference center on Long Island to catalyze the intentional creation of a new academic field aimed at addressing precisely this gap in interdisciplinary opportunities. This new area, “public interest technology,” is still being defined; it encompasses designing public policy and laws with an awareness of how technology actually works, as well as ensuring that technology is being used to serve public values of fairness and equity.”

One more thing: PSJD is currently considering nominations for the 2018 Pro Bono Publico Award. If you know students at PSJD subscriber schools who have made outstanding pro bono contributions to their communities, please take a moment and let us know about their work. The deadline for nominations is 8/31.

See you around,
Sam

Immigration & Refugee Issues

• According to the San Diego Union Tribune, “[t]he Center for American Progress published ” the third in a series of surveys of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program recipients by UC San Diego professor Tom Wong, who worked as adviser to the White House under the Obama administration. Wong found that 55 percent of more than 1,000 DACA recipients surveyed said they think about being deported from the U.S. at least once per day.”
• In San Diego, CA, a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order preventing the federal government from forcibly deporting parents while their children’s asylum claims are pending.
• In Washington, DC, 29 parents filed a lawsuit alleging that the federal government acted improperly when it rejected asylum claims based on interviews conducted with confused and traumatized parents who had been separated from their children: “Lawyers representing their parents…claim it violates procedural safeguards set out for people fighting deportation…and violates their due process.”
• Insider NJ called attention to the DOJ’s recent practice of “disqualifying specific immigration judges with whom the Attorney General disagrees. Earlier this month, the National Association of Immigration Judges filed a grievance against the Department of Justice for removing Judge Steven A. Morely, who sits in Philadelphia, from 87 cases, because Sessions found fault with the way Judge Morely handled a case of an undocumented Guatemalan national who in 2014 entered as an unaccompanied 17-year-old.”

Disaster Aid

• In Santa Clara County, CA, as part of a legal brief filed in a lawsuit aimed at restoring ‘net neutrality’ “[t]he Santa Clara County Central Fire Protection District says a communications vehicle it dispatched to the Mendocino Complex, the largest wildfire in California’s history, was rendered essentially useless after Verizon reduced data speeds to a fraction of what firefighters needed.”

Access to Housing

• Non-Profit Quarterly reported that “US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson issued a statement last week explaining why he was in the process of rescinding the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule enacted during the Obama administration…The rules…required communities and local governments receiving federal funding to…actively work[] to eradicate historical discrimination and segregation practices in housing.“

Music Bonus!

Paul Simon, “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Immigration policy continues to be a major story, with a number of new developments this week. You’ll also want to check out the A2J news out of LA, which may join other major cities in the right-to-counsel-for-eviction movement.

Closer to home (or rather, my desk), I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome the 2018-2019 PSJD Fellow, Awa Sowe! You’ll begin seeing Awa’s work on PSJD.org and here on the blog in the coming weeks. We’re very lucky to have her with us.

One more thing: PSJD is currently considering nominations for the 2018 Pro Bono Publico Award. If you know students at PSJD subscriber schools who have made outstanding pro bono contributions to their communities, please take a moment and let us know about their work. The deadline for nominations is 8/31.

See you around,
Sam

Immigration & Refugee Issues

• The Huffington Post reported that “[o]nly a small fraction of the nearly 600 migrant children reported to still be in the custody of the U.S. government at the beginning of the month have been reunified with their families, according to a status update from the Trump administration filed Thursday.”
• NBC News reported that “The Trump administration is expected to issue a proposal in coming weeks that would make it harder for legal immigrants to become citizens or get green cards if they have ever used a range of popular public welfare programs…part of White House senior adviser Stephen Miller’s plan to limit the number of migrants who obtain legal status in the U.S. each year.”
• In Washington, DC, “a federal judge…halted a deportation in progress…and threatened to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt after learning that the Trump administration started to remove a woman and her daughter while a court hearing appealing their deportations was underway.“
• In Boston, MA, the ACLU filed documents in an immigration case that “show officials from the Boston-area offices of ICE…discussed scheduling interviews with immigrants at times that were convenient for ICE agents who would be waiting to arrest them — and in some cases initiate the deportation process…ICE officials ask[ed] to spread the interviews over time to avoid media scrutiny and for logistical reasons.”
• In response to an EOIR memo requiring immigration judges to complete at least 700 cases per year, “more than 120 law professors denounced the Justice Department’s new performance metrics for immigration judges as a danger to due process and an infringement on judicial independence.”

Disaster Legal Aid

• “A legal hotline is now available for people impacted by the Carr Fire [in] Shasta County, California (additional counties may be added).”

Public Service Job Search

• You may hear some familiar voices on the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s latest edition of their “ADMITTED” podcast for law students: Rachel Kronick Rothbart of USC and Katrina Denny of Loyola LA. The episode covers legal career search issues generally, but includes some tips specific to public service careers, such as the ideal timeline when reaching out to employers in the LA area.

Voting Rights

• Noting that “although voting restrictions for ex-offenders are getting looser in a handful of states, many of those potential voters aren’t aware of changing laws,” NonProfit Quarterly suggested that “responsibility for educating [those affected] is part of the ongoing debate on voting rights for ex-felons.“

Legal Technology

• The ABA’s Legal Rebels podcast interviewed Nicole Bradick about her technology-focused approach to access to justice issues. “For example,…creating an app to help low-income tenants in Chicago navigate landlord-tenant matters such as evictions and to help pro bono lawyers better serve these tenants by providing information and automated document tools.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Los Angeles, CA, the “City Council’s Housing Committee has recommended that the city explore a ‘right to counsel’ ordinance that would guarantee tenants have access to the information and representation they need when faced with landlord harassment, eviction or other issues.” This move puts LA on track to join other major cities such as NYC and SF in initiatives to provide counsel in eviction cases, as noted in earlier editions of this digest.
• In Ohio, the state’s “nonprofit legal aid societies are teaming up to provide more legal services to low-income residents[–]the Alliance of Ohio Legal Aids[.]“

Music Bonus!

“Bridge Over Troubled Water,” Aretha Franklin

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! It’s been a relatively slow news week, but one with a couple particularly weighty pieces. Several high profile organizations including government, civil society, and corporate actors critiqued law enforcement’s growing reliance on facial recognition technology. In Canada, experts warn that proposed changes to sentencing structure for minor offenses could have a profound affect on defendants’ ability to obtain representation from law student volunteers.

See you around,
Sam

Immigration and Asylum

• In New York, NY, Mayor DeBlasio announced plans “to send city government lawyers and social workers to Texas to provide free legal help to families being detained at the border.”

Legal Technology

• Law.com published an article detailing various high-profile critiques of law enforcement use of facial recognition, challenging the appropriateness and accuracy of the technology. Critics include the ACLU (which demonstrated dramatic flaws with Amazon’s facial recognition API, Microsoft (which called for greater government oversight), and members of Congress.
  • In particular, Microsoft’s critique–posted by its CEO on the company’s blog–is worth a look.
• In Canada, a research project headed by a professor at Carleton law and funded by the Law Foundation of Ontario’s Access to Justice Fund aims to study the benefits of mobile apps for family law, in hopes of helping the increasing numbers of self-represented litigants using Canada’s courts.

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Nevada, a study commissioned by the Nevada Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission found that “three out of four low-income Nevadans with legal challenges aren’t able to get a lawyer for cases involving issues such as domestic violence, home foreclosures or workplace discrimination.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Canada, “[p]roposed changes to Canada’s Criminal Code could have serious consequences for low-income, first-time offenders of less serious crimes,” as changes to minimum sentencing would reclassify these offenses and inappropriate for law student volunteer representation. According to a criminal defense attorney, “[i]f these students aren’t allowed to help anymore, we’re going to have a greater number of self-representing litigants in the system.”
• In North Carolina, more accounts of plainclothes ICE agents conducting arrests at courthouses (see earlier editions of the digest for coverage of similar episodes in New York City) prompted an ABC News piece interviewing experts who caution these tactics “could have a chilling effect on immigrants’ willingness to access and participate in the criminal justice system.“
• In Nevada, the Sixth Amendment Center’s Executive Director warned the state that it has “no infrastructure to ensure that [it’s Constitutional obligation to ensure defendants are provided effective legal representation] is being met.” (The Center is advising a commission studying Nevada’s public defender system.)

Music Bonus!

“I’ll be Watching You”, Sting & the Police

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Immigration and refugee issues continue to dominate the news this summer. Another noteworthy story is in the “Civil Rights” section, where reporting out of New Mexico looks at stalled efforts at reforming civil asset forfeiture in the state.

See you around,
Sam

Immigration & Refugee Law

• Bloomberg News profiled the contributions Lawyers for Good Government have made in recent weeks to addressing issues related to the Trump administration’s family separation policy.
• In Alexandria, VA, [t]he Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition, Legal Aid Justice Center, and Muslim Advocates announced they have “filed a class-action lawsuit…to challenge a new and fundamentally unfair policy that keeps immigrants detained after they win their cases, violating the basic tenets of due process.”
• In Tuscon, AZ, KVOA (a local news station) reported on the “whirlwind of confusion” surrounding the Trump administration’s efforts to meet the court-determined deadline for reuniting children and families separated by the administration’s border policies.
• In Texas, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) “received a $20 million donation from a Facebook fundraising campaign started in the wake of the separations.”
• In Milwaukee, WI, the Milwaukee Independent reported on the difficulties immigration lawyers in the state have meeting the current demand for their services.
• In Connecticut, Yale Law School and Connecticut Legal Services helped reunite two Central American children with their parents, in what Yale professor Muneer Ahmad says is the first challenge to the Trump administration’s policy of separating families at the border brought by children, rather than their parents.

Legal Technology

• In Vermont, the Associated Press reported on Norwich University’s decision to join a number of other colleges now offering undergraduates “income share agreements, in which colleges receive a percentage of the student’s future salary, in place of some student loans.”

Legal Technology

• In Montreal, QC, Lawyersdaily reported that “[t]he Cyberjustice Laboratory launched an Autonomy through Cyberjustice Technologies (ACT) research partnership in June 2018 that brings together 45 researchers and 42 industry partners in a six-year project [concerning] AI’s impact on conflict prevention, conflict resolution and governance and policy.”
• According to lawsitesblog.com, “[l]egal directory Avvo is shutting down its controversial…service that provides fixed-fee, limited-scope legal services through a network of attorneys.”

Civil Rights

• In New Mexico, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported that three years after the state became the first in the country to ban civil forfeiture “the effort..appears stalled.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• According to Ability Magazine, a new report  from the Global Initiative for ICTs (Information & Communication Technologies) “finds that people with disabilities lack fundamental access to the legal system…not just in developing countries but in developed ones as well.”

Music Bonus!

“Cold War,” Janelle Monae

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public. Noteworthy news this week includes a special advance announcement for readers of the digest. See below!

See you around,
Sam

Public Service Attorney Compensation

• On Monday, NALP will be officially announcing the release of its 2018 Public Service Attorney Salary Report, analyzing data collected during a survey of local public defenders’ offices, local prosecutors’ offices, legal aid offices, and public interest organizations conducted earlier this year. For the first time, the report is available for free to PSJD account holders. (Students and alumni of PSJD subscriber schools can create a PSJD account for free.) The big splash is next week, but if you check out the link above now (and you have a PSJD account) you can get an early look at the new, interactive tool.
• In New Mexico, “[f]ive female employees of the statewide Law Offices of the Public Defender have filed a lawsuit accusing the agency of violating New Mexico’s Fair Pay for Women Act.”
• In Philadelphia, PA, the Philadelphia Law Department announced an across-the-board pay increase for its 217 attorneys.
• In New York, NY, the Legal Aid Society asked for increases in public defender pay, as the city prepares a pay bump for entry-level prosecutors.

Immigration

• In Sacramento, CA, “[a] federal judge rejected the U.S. Justice Department’s request to block California’s ‘sanctuary laws’ protecting undocumented immigrants…But the judge also temporarily barred a law that had required employers to restrict federal immigration officials’ access to workplaces.”
• “Thirty-four large corporate law firms — half of them with offices in Texas and two firms based in Texas — have signed a pledge to provide legal support and resources for immigrant families who are separated from their children when crossing the border to seek asylum.”
• In Tuscon, Arizona, the federal public defender’s office put together “a legal education class for attorneys and advocates on how to handle cases of separated families.”
• In New Jersey, the governor and state legislators passed a budget that includes “$2.1 million to help pay for attorneys for immigrants fighting deportation.”
• The Huffington Post reported that “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are telling detained migrant parents that to be reunited with their children they must sign a voluntary deportation form.”
• The Nation published an article documenting how “[a] sudden surge in the number of children starting deportation proceedings in 2017 and 2018 means that tens of thousands of more children have entered courtrooms with attorney representation.”

Disaster Relief

• “A judge has ordered federal emergency officials to extend vouchers for temporary hotel housing for nearly 1,700 Puerto Rican hurricane evacuees, saying ending the program could cause irreparable harm.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Spokane, WA, the county public defenders’ office has reached caseload limits set by the state. “Officials say some defendants charged with felony crimes will not have a chance to speak to a court-appointed attorney and could spend up to seven days behind bars.“

Music Bonus!

“Baby of Mine” (from Dumbo) [German lyric version]

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public. Lots of news this week. I’ll let the pieces speak for themselves.

See you around,
Sam

Immigration

• According to Law.com, “[t]he ABA is coordinating volunteers and donations through its South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project.”
• PRNewsWire.com reports that HKM Employment Attorneys “agree[d] to provide pro bono legal assistance to any federal employee who refuses to separate children from their parents at the border.“
• In Texas, the President of the State Bar Association released a statement to members of the bar, urging Texas attorneys to volunteer: “Whenever we have had manmade or natural disasters in this state, Texas lawyers have risen to the occasion to help those who cannot help themselves.“
• In Austin, Texas, the Austin Bar Association held clinics preparing lawyers to assist families through the initial steps of the asylum process.
• Also in Texas, the Texas Tribune published a “list of organizations that are mobilizing to help immigrant children separated from their families.“
• In Oregon, the ACLU “sued the federal government…to open access for attorneys to work with immigration detainees housed in Sheridan’s federal correctional institution.” The District Court has granted a temporary restraining order forcing the Department of Homeland Security to Allow attorneys to visit or communicate with civil immigration detainees.
• In Albany, NY, lawyers from Greenberg Traurig “working pro bono with LegalHealth, New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG), helped draft and lobby for legislation [now] signed into law to allow parents who are at risk of detainment or deportation based on immigration status to designate a standby guardian to care for their children in the event the parent is detained or deported.“
• Also in New York, “[a]fter demonstrators began protesting outside a New York City immigration court and temporary detention facility, federal authorities started holding immigration hearings through video conference.“
• Also in New York, “[t]he New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) announced a plan yesterday to bring pro bono leaders from several New York law firms and attorneys throughout the state to help the families that have been separated after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.“
• In Florida, “[several]…law firms have pledged to help reunify separated immigrant families and volunteered to represent asylum seekers on the U.S.-Mexico border.”
• In California, “[i]mmigrant-rights advocates asked a federal judge to order the release of parents separated from their children at the border, as dozens of demonstrators decrying the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown were arrested Tuesday at a rally ahead of a Los Angeles appearance by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.“
• Also in California, the state legislature sent two bills to the governor’s desk “that would boost legal aid for immigrant students by $21 million.“
• The ABA reported that “[t]he Lawyers for Good Government Foundation is organizing an effort to reunite immigrant families separated by the federal government after they were caught crossing the U.S. border…[the project] brings together large law firms and immigration law nonprofits.“
• According to the Huffington Post, “[h]undreds of Georgetown University alumni are calling on Kirstjen Nielsen, a fellow alumna, to resign as homeland security secretary over her role in separating migrant children from their parents at the border.“

Student Loans

• In California, “California’s attorney general said he would file a lawsuit accusing the company of widespread deceptions and mistakes that cost borrowers millions of dollars…California would be the fourth and largest state to sue Navient, joining Illinois, Pennsylvania and Washington.“
• Also in California, “[a] U.S. judge on Wednesday threw out a lawsuit by the state of California accusing the Trump administration of illegally reneging on an Obama-era commitment to quickly forgive the loans of students defrauded by the Corinthian for-profit college chain.” The state has an opportunity to amend its suit to establish standing.

Pro Bono

• In Pennsylvania, “[r]etired Pennsylvania attorneys interested in providing pro bono legal service will now be eligible for emeritus status through a new program approved by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.“
• Law.com profiled a number of large firms’ recent contributions to cases seeking to redress gerrymandering.

Environmental Law

• The Daily Caller reported that “Bloomberg Philanthropies launched a $6 million campaign to embed experienced attorneys in states attorneys offices across the country to push back against Trump administration efforts to roll back environmental regulations. So far, only Democratic attorneys general have hired Bloomberg-funded legal fellows.“

Legal Technology

• At Amazon.com, “[e]mployees…are calling on chief executive Jeff Bezos to end the sale of facial recognition technology to law enforcement agencies and to discontinue partnerships with firms that work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).“
• In a gloss on the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Carpenter v. United States, the Director of NYU’s Policing Project wrote in the New York Times that “[t]he growing use of technology by law enforcement agencies to monitor or target people — particularly people and communities of color — is expanding at head-spinning speed, and nothing the courts do is going to stop that…What we need is regulation, and fast, and it is going to have to come from the local, state and federal governments, not the courts. Even Justice Samuel Alito, in his dissent, understood that “legislation is much preferable.” He said that was “for many reasons, including the enormous complexity of the subject, the need to respond to rapidly changing technology, and the Fourth Amendment’s scope.”
• In California, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 became law. “The law, which takes effect in 2020, gives consumers sweeping control over their personal data.“

Public Interest Funding

• The University of South Carolina School of Law received a second gift of more than $1 million from the Kondurous Fisherman Fund. The gift will build on programs established by the fund’s previous gift, including scholarships and summer internships for students aspiring to work in public service through governmental and non-profit agencies.

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Suffolk County, MA, “[a]t a forum described as the first-of-its kind in the country…[c]andidates hoping to lead the largest prosecutor’s office in Massachusetts field questions from…inmates at a Boston jail.“

Music Bonus!

Bruce Springsteen, “American Land”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! It’s been quite a week, with major developments in Access to Justice, Student Loans, and Immigration. In Colorado and Connecticut, the right-to-counsel-for-eviction-cases movement seems to be gaining ground. Meanwhile, Wisconsin is engaged in some soul-searching about its pay rate for private attorneys assigned indigent defense cases. And in DC, the DoE’s Inspector General accused the Department of slow-walking applications for student debt forgiveness while Senators Warren and Rubio introduced a bill to protect the professional licenses of student loan borrowers in default. Last but far from least, General Sessions issued an immigration ruling with a dramatic impact on asylum seekers.

See you around,
Sam

Immigration

• According to Reuters, “[ICE] has entered into a 120-day agreement with the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the U.S. Marshals Service to house to up about 1,600 people awaiting immigration hearings or deportation in prisons.” Prison workers and immigration advocates argue the move “puts [both immigration] detainees and prison staffers at risk”.
• In an agency adjudication, U.S. Attorney General Sessions “overturn[ed] a precedent set during the Obama administration that allowed more women to claim credible fears of domestic abuse [as grounds for asylum].” General Sessions’ decision also affects the asylum claims of victims fleeing gang violence.
• The US DoJ threatened the Seventh Circuit, which has stayed an en-banc rehearing of its April 19th decision in Chicago v. Sessions pending the Supreme Court’s resolution of Trump v. Hawaii. It a letter, the DoJ threatened to take its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court if the Seventh Circuit has not ruled by Monday on the DoJ’s “effort to block a nationwide injunction restricting its power to deny certain funds to so-called sanctuary cities.“
• Following a deeply-disturbing visit to a migrant processing center, and after being denied entry to a separate immigration detention facility, Senator Merkeley announced he would promote a bill “allow[ing] members of Congress to visit any detention facility in the United States given 24 hours notice.“

Student Loans

• The Washington Post reported that “[a]s thousands of applications for student debt forgiveness poured into the U.S. Education Department, the Trump administration cut the staff working on the claims and ordered a halt to an overhaul of the system, according to the agency’s inspector general.“
• According to Law.com, “U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Marco Rubio on Thursday introduced a bill that would prohibit states from suspending professional licenses and driver’s licenses of those who fail to pay their federal student loans.“
• An opinion column in The Hill argued that “the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)…should stay out of the federal student loan program. That’s the business of the U.S. Department of Education.“

Law & Technology

• Joyce Raby (the 2018 NALP Education Conference Public Service Luncheon Speaker!) argued on the ABA’s “Legal Rebels” podcast that technology is a compliment to other access to justice efforts but not the “saving grace for the justice ecosystem” which is it sometimes presented as.
• Fordham Law School’s Center for Legal Information Policy published a report calling attention to the lack of regulations protecting student information and documenting the “commercial ecosystem” for student data.
• In San Francisco, CA, the district attorney announced plans to partner with Code for America to automate the task of clearing past cannabis convictions under a provision of California’s Proposition 64.
• According to CTV, “Apple is closing a security gap…that will thwart law enforcement agencies that have been exploiting the vulnerability to collect evidence in criminal investigations.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• The NLADA released its 2017 Impact Report!
• In Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court modified its rules to reduce obstacles for retired attorneys who want to perform pro bono service.
• In Denver, CO, “Colorado Legal Services and other lawyers are participating in [a] pilot program [providing free legal services for people facing eviction.” The program has strong support from the Denver City County, many of whom “donated money from their office budgets or personal accounts to start the program.“
• In Connecticut, the Editorial Board of the Connecticut Law Tribune argued that “this may be the best time to explore whether an investment in a right to counsel in eviction matters would help improve outcomes for Connecticut families, while also alleviating financial burdens placed on our state and municipal governments.“
• Others are also taking notice of the growing trend of right-to-counsel movements focused on eviction and immigration. The 2018 Equal Justice Conference featured a panel discussing the trend. You can hear from the panelists, who spoke with the Legal Talk Network about their work.

Access to Justice – Criminal

• The NLADA released its 2017 Impact Report!
• In Wisconsin, attorneys petitioned the Wisconsin Supreme Court, seeking to increase pay rates for private attorneys appointed to indigent defense cases. Wisconsin has the lowest compensation in the country for private attorneys taking such cases.
  • Meanwhile, officials in La Crosse County, WI, argued that low pay for indigent defense translates into longer jail stays, costing taxpayers millions of dollars.
  • Finally, the Wisconsin State Bar published a thorough overview of the situation.
• In Louisiana, a lawsuit challenging the state’s indigent defense system argued for class action certification.
• In Bexar County, TX, the Editoral Board of the San Antonio Express-News argued that “[t]he Bexar County Public Defender’s Office must grow [because]  a more robust office would serve as a much-needed complement, and competitor, to private attorney representation. One that could set the bar for indigent defense but also serve as a hub for continuing legal education, providing assistance to private lawyers and mentoring new attorneys.“

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Chittenden County, VT, a state prosecutor announced her office will decline to prosecute any citations or arrests for misdemeanor possession of certain opioid compounds. The move presents a challenge to the U.S. District Attorney for Vermont, who recently scuttled an initiative from county leaders to open a supervised injection facility in the county by “suggesting her office would prosecute anyone who tried to open [such a site] and seize the property.”
• In Clark County, Nevada, a progressive candidate running for district attorney was defeated in Tuesday’s primary.
• In Wisconsin, the Wisconsin State Bar published an article on the fiscal and social costs of mass incarceration in the state.

Music Bonus!

Barbara Streisand, “Children Will Listen” (Into the Woods)