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)

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! The past week has been an eventful one, particularly concerning Federal agency action (and responses to such action by other government and civil institutions). Additionally, the Movement Advocacy Project (MAP) released a report on the changing dynamic between state legislatures and local authorities. You’ll find these tidbits first, ordinally, below. Along, of course, with other news of interest.

See you around,
Sam

Federal Government

• The Washington Post reported that “Mick Mulvaney, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, fired the agency’s 25-member advisory board Wednesday, days after some of its members criticized his leadership of the watchdog agency.“
• According to Waterworld.com, a broad coalition of interest groups, “including public health, environment, faith-based, farming and ranching, and legal advocacy groups” signed a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services “calling for the immediate release of a suppressed federal study that says perfluorinated chemicals in drinking water are hazardous at much lower levels than the [EPA]’s guidelines state.”
• Courthousenews.com reported that “[a] host of legal advocacy organizations, human trafficking survivors, attorneys and prosecutors called on the Justice Department Wednesday to reinstate funding for post-conviction relief to expunge trafficking survivors’ criminal records.“

State & Local Government – Civil Rights

• The Movement Advancement Project published a report chronicling the efforts “many state legislatures” are taking to limit local governments’ authority to “protect their residents on a range of issues, including workers’ rights and benefits, the minimum wage, nondiscrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, pro-immigrant policies, environmental efforts, and more.”
• Governing.com profiled efforts within state governments to reduce barriers to hiring individuals with disabilities into government positions.

Legal Employment

• In Brooklyn, NY, “staff attorneys at CAMBA Legal Services…announced that they have won union recognization after a card check agreement was reached.“

Immigration

• The Mayors of Los Angeles, CA; Houston, TX; Tucson, AZ, and Albuquerque, NM sent a letter to Attorney General Sessions condemning the Department of Justice’s policy of separating children from their families at the border as “cruel,” “morally reprehensible,” “not an appropriate use of taxpayer resources,” and “utterly inconsistent with our values of decency and compassion.”
  • Meanwhile, Vice reported that the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement–“a federal program that for over a decade has funded organizations representing unaccompanied minors in immigration court…told the groups [it funds] to stop taking new cases just days after the family separation policy began.”
• In New York, NY, Human Rights Watch released a report criticizing New York City’s “criminal carveout” excluding immigrants with certain criminal convictions from city-funded immigrant legal services.
• Haaretz profiled the joint efforts of faith communities across the country to provide sanctuary to immigrants within their spaces of worship.

Access to Justice – Civil

• In San Francisco, CA, “[a] ballot measure to give tenants facing eviction lawsuits the right to taxpayer-funded legal representation won Tuesday…with nearly 56 percent in favor[.]“
• In Quebec, legal aid eligibility thresholds increased by 6.67%, as a result of minimum wage increases implemented on May 1st.
• In the Northwest Territories, the Court of Appeal ruled that a Legal Aid Commission policy against funding human rights complaints is not discriminatory.

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Texas, reporting out of Austin decried the fact that indigent defense, “a program that’s supposed to be fully funded by the state[,] now has local tax dollars covering about 90 percent of the costs.”
• In Maryland, the Court of Special Appeals ruled that “[c]onvicts have a right to counsel when being resentenced after a determination that their original sentence was illegal.”
• In Livingston County, NY, the Public Defender Office announced plans to hire new attorneys in order to comply with a new state mandate providing a right to counsel at arraignment.

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Minneapolis, MN, the Minneapolis Police Department announced plans to stop conducting stings of low-level marijuana sales due to their disproportionate racial effects.
• In California, “voters appeared to reject liberal challengers in three closely watched district attorney races on Tuesday, delivering a sharp defeat to a national network attempting to reshape the criminal justice system by electing left-leaning prosecutors.”
• In Kansas, the Federal Public Defender’s Office said it has discovered that the Core Civic prison in Leavenworth, a Federal holding facility, recorded over 1,300 conversations between public defenders and their clients over a two-year period.

Music Bonus!

Mumford & Sons, “Not in Nottingham” (Disney Cover)

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Two BIG highlights this week:

• The Federal Student Aid Office has published a page describing the Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which may be able to help borrowers whose PSLF applications have been denied. See “Student Loans,” below.
• An article in The Practice attempts an empirical examination of “public-interest drift,” the phenomenon wherein law students with nonprofit or government career ambitions decide instead to pursue positions in private law firms.

See you around,
Sam

Public Service Career Development

• In The Practice (the journal of Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession), CLP Research Fellow John Bliss conducted “a systematic qualitative look at the public-interest drift process.” Bliss defined “public interest drift” as the phenomenon wherein students with nonprofit or government career ambitions decide instead to pursue positions in private law firms. He concluded that “these students struggle most with a lack of preparation for the job market.” The article concludes with “policy recommendations focusing on preparing students to broker the job market.”

Student Loans

• The Federal Student Aid Office published a guide to the Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, under which “[i]f your PSLF application was denied because some or all of your payments were not made on a qualifying repayment plan for PSLF, you may be able to receive loan forgiveness under a temporary opportunity.”
• In the U.S. Senate, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand discussed a pair of bills she hopes to schedule votes on which would help alleviate student debt.

Immigration

• In Montgomery County, MD, the county council “passed a special appropriation that creates a legal fund for undocumented immigrants who live in the county and could face deportation.“
• In California, the State Senate “and more than 20 cities and counties have come out in support of the state’s ‘sanctuary’ law, which limits police and sheriff agencies from cooperating with federal immigration agencies” in amicus court filings authored by former U.S. Attorney General Holder, submitted in the federal lawsuit brought by Attorney General Sessions against California’s immigrant policies.
• Meanwhile, also in CA, NPR examined whether the Trump administration’s new “zero tolerance” border policy is having its desired effect.

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Washington, DC, the President of the ABA testified before a Senate subcommittee that “[t]he Legal Services Corp.’s funding should be restored ‘at least’ to inflation-adjusted 2010 levels.“

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Missouri, the Director of the State Public Defender’s Office filed a motion in a high-profile first-degree murder case arguing that “it’s not fair that the state is stepping in to help county prosecutors while also ‘depriving the defense of the resources necessary to provide diligent, effective, and conflict-free representation.'” According to the National Post, “[t]he motion is the latest effort to draw attention to funding problems that have prompted an ACLU lawsuit and increasingly led Missouri public defenders to turn down new cases.”
• In New Mexico, the president of the state prosecutors’ association suggested that public defenders should turn to charitable donations and other sources of private fundraising, instead of seeking to decline new cases in the face of unconstitutional caseloads. The Public Defender Commission in the state is developing new rules “that would allow overburdened public defenders in New Mexico to refuse new cases rather than provide inadequate legal representation.”
• In Wisconsin, the Supreme Court “voted to raise the hourly rate of pay for court-appointed attorneys from $70 to $100 per hour [in response to] a petition from a coalition of lawyers and judges who say Wisconsin’s current system for public defense attorneys is so underfunded, it’s facing a constitutional crisis.” However, the ruling “leaves the pay rate for state-funded public defenders at $40 per hour, the lowest in the nation.”
• In Buffalo, New York, local TV spoke with a public defender at the Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo about his hopes for the state’s new Public Defense Reform law.
• In Mississippi, a local television station reported on the unacceptable lengths of pre-trial detentions in Mississippi–an issue the Mississippi Public Defender Task Force and the ACLU have been working to raise with state lawmakers.
• In Texas, a local county commissioner called out the state government at a conference of county judges and commissioners. According to reporting from Go San Angelo, the official claimed “the State of Texas is seriously in arrears when it comes to reimbursing counties for indigent defense attorneys, and that could make it difficult for county officials to balance the budget in the future.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Baltimore, MD, “[s]chool discipline reform advocates have asked the Baltimore city schools police to adopt a youth-specific Miranda warning to let children know their legal rights.”
• In New Orleans, LA, Court Watch Nola (CWN) called out the New Orleans District Attorney’s office for recording and listening to inmates’ calls to their lawyers.

Music Bonus!

Phil Collins, “In the Air Tonight”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! The big news for this week once again grew out of our recent conference, as the conversation we were having during the Public Service Luncheon about diversity and legal technology became a talking point in the ABA Journal. And folks working on proposals for NALP’s 2019 Conference may want to check out the Center for Court Innovation podcast below (see Criminal Justice Reform), where a longtime public defender discusses the power of prosecutors to change the system.

See you around,
Sam

Legal Technology

• The ABA Journal discussed the implications of a new report calling attention to the lack of diversity among the founders of legal technology firms.
• The New York Times published a primer on the European Union’s new “General Data Protection Regulation”–a new legal regime that is attempting to force companies to be more transparent about what data they collect, and to offer consumer more say in how their information is used.

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Massachusetts, the Supreme Judicial Court is accepting applications for volunteer, at-large appointments to the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission.

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Alberta, negotiations continued between the provincial government, Legal Aid Alberta, and the Law Society of Alberta over funding for legal aid.
• In Montana, the Public Defender’s Office reported that the agency’s total caseload has decreased by 5 percent since last year, crediting the reduction to indigent defense reforms the Montana legislature introduced in 2017.
• In Michigan, the Lansing State Journal profiled the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission.

Criminal Justice Reform

• The Center for Court Innovation interviewed a public defender about how reform-minded prosecutors have the power to reshape the justice system.

Music Bonus!

Childish Gambino, “Stand Tall”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! I must confess, with the Annual Education Conference very much on my mind the news that leapt off the page for me this week concerned coverage of efforts in Newark and San Francisco to create a right to counsel in eviction cases, in the model of New York City. The Public Service Section’s Conference Proposals Committee is considering proposing a conference session on these kinds of new initiatives and their implications for legal hiring; if you’re a NALP member feel free to reach out to me for details on how to attend the open meeting where we’ll be discussing this proposal and others, today at 1:30pm EST.

See you around,
Sam

Funding & Loans

• In Canada, uncertainty around a federal pay system has led to a situation in which “thousands of public servants [] don’t know whether they have been paid the raises and back pay owed to them [and won’t know] before June 30, 2019.”
• The President of the ABA argued in The Hill that “Congress must increase funding for the Legal Services Corporation.”
• In the US, major private industry leaders participated in a panel discussion discussing whether payroll-integrated student loan repayment and financing support should be a new form of job benefit.
• The US Department of Education revealed in court filings details of its new plan for serving borrowers in default on their federal student loans.

Legal Technology

• In Ohio, the Toledo Legal Aid Society launched a website, toledolegalaid.com, “intended to better connect underserved populations with legal representation.”
• The Center for Agriculture & Food Systems released the “Farmland Access Legal Toolkit,” an online resource designed to “support[] current and aspiring farmers in finding and transitioning farmland.”
• In Canada, “the federal government is willing to accept the privacy and security risks of storing data in the internet cloud as an alternative to its own aging computers that are ‘at risk of breaking down,’ says an internal policy paper.”
• Ars Technica’s Senior Technology Policy Reporter previewed arguments from his forthcoming book, Habeas Data, in the Los Angeles Times.
• In California, the ACLU wrote in support of SB1186, “a bill that helps restores power at the local level and makes sure local voices are heard when surveillance proposals are on the table.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Newark, NJ, the Mayor proposed a “municipal ordinance that would provide Newark’s low-income residents with access to free legal representation in landlord-tenant disputes.” The proposed ordinance would cover tenants facing eviction in Essex County Landlord Tenant Court earning up to 200 percent of the federal poverty line.
• In San Francisco, CA, the San Francisco Public Press profiled Proposition F–an upcoming ballot initiative that would provide free legal aid to tenants facing eviction.
• In Minneapolis, MN, the Star Tribune profiled the medical-legal partnership at the Community-University Health Care Center–one of the first such programs in the country, and an idea that has gained increasing traction at clinics and hospitals nationwide.
• In Albany, NY, the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Center for Legal Services.
• In South Dakota, the State Bar of South Dakota sponsored a 3-day Ask-A-Lawyer event, an annual program allowing people to call in and ask anonymous questions about legal issues for free.

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Louisiana, “the Louisiana Public Defender Board recently reached a compromise on a new plan intended to more fairly distribute state funds used to pay lawyers who represent indigent defendants…[b]ut because the amount of money available under the new plan is still limited, almost all districts are still worried.“
• In Wisconsin, “[t]he number of lawyers…willing to defend indigent clients for $40 an hour dropped 16 percent in five years, the head of the State Public Defender’s office told the supreme court.”
• In Missouri, the Pulitzer Center published a story detailing how “Missouri Public Defenders are Overloaded with Hundreds of Cases While Defendants Wait in Jail.”

Music Bonus!

2Cellos, “Thunderstruck”