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.”

The Organization

Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) is a national organization that advocates for the rights of unaccompanied migrant and refugee children. Employees and partners of KIND recognize that the needs of unaccompanied migrant children are multi-faceted so they use a holistic strategy for addressing these needs. KIND’s services include pro bono legal representation, policy and advocacy for fair treatment, and mental and social services. KIND has successfully been referred more than 20,000 children, trained over 50,000 participants on how to represent children, and hosted over 644 legal partners.

The Positions

KIND seeks applicants with all levels of experience to fill intern, paralegal, and attorney positions in their offices across the country.

For each of these positions, the ideal candidates will have experience with immigration law, experience working with children, cross-cultural communication skills, and fluency in Spanish.

For more information about openings with KIND, see KIND’s profile on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/org?orgid=108087

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[.]”

The Organization

A Better Balance is a national legal advocacy organization promoting fairness in the workplace to help workers take care of themselves and their families without sacrificing their economic security. A Better Balance employees achieve their goals through policy work, direct legal services, strategic litigation, and public education. Thus far, A Better Balance has achieved victories in equal pay, breastfeeding accommodations, pregnancy and caregiver protections, protection for diverse families, and much more. Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, A Better Balance attorneys and staff are working to strengthen emergency and permanent policy procedures, providing direct legal services, and conducting Know Your Rights public education.

The Position

A Better Balance seeks an entry-level lawyer passionate about the rights of women, families, and caregivers to work as a Legal Fellow for at least one year. The Fellow will be responsible for managing A Better Balance’s free and confidential legal helpline to provide assistance to Spanish- and English-speaking low-wage workers. The Fellow will also provide litigation support and create public education materials in Spanish and English.

The ideal candidate will be Spanish-English bilingual, have experience in providing direct legal services, and be committed to work and family law and advocacy for low-income individuals.

See the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/job?OppID=101771

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.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Interested public.

No words today,

Sam

• In Geneva, “UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet…condemned the killing of George Floyd, an African American man whose death in police custody on Monday was captured on video and has led to serious ongoing protests in Minneapolis:
  
  ‘This is the latest in a long line of killings of unarmed African Americans by US police officers and members of the public[.] …The US authorities must take serious action to stop such killings, and to ensure justice is done when they do occur. Procedures must change, prevention systems must be put in place, and above all police officers who resort to excessive use of force should be charged and convicted for the crimes committed.’”
  
  
• Relatedly, in the United States:
  
  
  • In 2020, “[U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota] MacDonald, when asked why an average citizen would have been arrested either at the scene or much earlier than the early evening hours of Thursday, said that the possible defendants’ roles as police officers added a complicated legal wrinkle. Because officers can use force while making arrests and enjoy some legal privileges that ordinary citizens do not enjoy, the case was more complicated and required additional analysis and review[.]”
    
    
  • In 2014, writing for the New York Times opinion section, two Harvard Law 3Ls observed that “ERIC GARNER was not the first American to be choked by the police, and he will not be the last, thanks to legal rules that prevent victims of police violence from asking federal courts to help stop deadly practices…Public indignation about police violence should be directed not only at the grand juries and prosecutors that fail to vindicate victims of police violence, but also at the legal rules that enabled this violence in the first place. The law shouldn’t just serve to punish past conduct: It should also drive reform.”
    
    
  • In 1983, Thurgood Marshall noted, in dissent, that “THE CHIEF JUSTICE asked in Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents, 403 U. S. 388, 403 U. S. 419 (1971) (dissenting opinion), “what would be the judicial response to a police order authorizing shoot to kill’ with respect to every fugitive”? His answer was that it would be “easy to predict our collective wrath and outrage.” Ibid. We now learn that wrath and outrage cannot be translated into an order to cease the unconstitutional practice, but only an award of damages to those who are victimized by the practice and live to sue, and to the survivors of those who are not so fortunate. Under the view expressed by the majority today, if the police adopt a policy of “shoot to kill,” or a policy of shooting 1 out of 10 suspects, the federal courts will be powerless to enjoin its continuation.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! The news continues to pour in, shaking the windows and rattling the walls. Major stories this week include student loans, in which the Democratic caucus released a debt relief proposal as part of the HEROES Act only to amend their proposal two days later, significantly reducing their proposed forgiveness. In civil access to justice, reporting from DC highlighted the stark difference in FEMA’s efforts to provide legal services during the pandemic, compared with its approach to other disasters. In the legislative branch, a bipartisan group of Representatives proposed a civil Gideon bill. Meanwhile, on the criminal side, legal authorities in Colorado and Massachusetts highlighted a vacuum of authority when considering decarceration as a public health measure. And the Michigan legislature cancelled its session in the face of armed opposition.

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

Stay well,

Sam

Bar Exam Changes

• In Connecticut, “[f]aced with hundreds of Connecticut law school graduates not able to take the state bar examination in July due to COVID-19-related disruptions, the Rules Committee of Superior Court has approved recommendations to loosen guidelines to allow students to make court presentations—in some instances—without a supervising attorney present.”
  • Note: There are many stories of this nature across the United States at the moment. The National Conference of Bar Examiners is working to keep track of these changes on a consolidated page; you can find a link to this page and other COVID-19 national survey materials at www.psjd.org/covid19

Remote Court Practice & Lawmaking

• Writing for The Marshall Project, a public defender with the Kentucky Department of Advocacy noted that as court procedures move online standards for due process are suffering:

  “[t]here is no virtual substitute for many of [our] duties. As a result, we now can accomplish only the bare minimum, namely emergency hearings and arraignments (those first court appearances). What isn’t happening in many counties are competency hearings at which we would argue that a client is not being properly evaluated by mental-health professionals. Hearings for mitigation specialists that might show that a client has faced trauma are on hold because we cannot obtain records from closed schools and social-service agencies. Drug and veterans courts are closed too. And we can’t have trials, because it would be impossible to convene a jury or to subpoena witnesses to appear with current social distancing rules.All the while, the bar for “justice” constantly gets lowered.”

• Across the United States, “[m]any state and local governments…have suspended public records requirements amid the coronavirus pandemic, denying or delaying access to information that could shed light on key government decisions.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he Senate came one vote short Wednesday of approving a proposal to prevent federal law enforcement from obtaining internet browsing information or search history without seeking a warrant.”
• In Palo Alto CA, leaders of the Center on the Legal Profession at Stanford Law School argued that “[t]his pandemic underscores the need to assist millions of individuals and small businesses through greater innovation in legal services.”

Rule of Law

• In Michigan, the state “closed down its capitol in Lansing on Thursday and canceled its legislative session rather than face the possibility of an armed protest and death threats against Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he presiding judge in Michael Flynn’s criminal case has appointed a retired judge to present arguments in opposition to the Justice Department’s move to dismiss its prosecution of the former national security adviser.”

Pro Bono Response

• In Oklahoma, Katie Dilks, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Access to Justice Foundation (and former PSJD Fellow), and Michael Figgins, ED of Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, reported that “[t]he foundation is working with partners across the state to launch a statewide pro bono portal where lawyers can connect with volunteer opportunities, both in their communities and across the state.”
• In Tennessee, “Legal Aid of East Tennessee (LAET) has announced the launch of Pro Bono Matters on its website[.] Pro Bono Matters offers volunteer attorneys the opportunity to express interest in specific cases, which will help LAET to achieve its mission of strengthening communities and changing lives through high-quality legal services.” You can find the new program here.
• In Central Islip NY, “Touro law school [h]as established a helpline to answer legal questions arising from the pandemic. Volunteer attorneys will provide referrals to [Touro’s] own clinic program and appropriate legal partners[.]”
• In New York NY, “[m]ore than 150 Columbia Law School students are working with faculty on pro bono projects: They are guiding small-business owners through the federal Paycheck Protection Program loan process, supporting public defenders working to win the release of prisoners vulnerable to COVID-19, and finding crucial resources for unemployed workers and immigrants.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “[j]ust two days after releasing the Heroes Act, House Democrats [] released an amendment to the bill. The original bill called for $10,000 in student loan cancellation for all borrowers and a suspension of student loan payments through September 30, 2021. This new amendment scales back the proposed student loan forgiveness.”
• Also in Washington DC, “Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander on Tuesday said, ‘interest rates on new federal student loans will drop to historic lows on July 1.’ …The interest rate on undergraduate loans will be 2.75 percent for the 2020-2021 school year, down from 4.53 percent in the 2019-2020 school year. The interest rate on loans for graduate students will be 4.3 percent (down from 6.08 percent) and for PLUS loans for parents and graduates will be 5.3 percent (down from 7.08 percent).”
• Also also in Washington DC, “[r]esponding to a lawsuit from the National Students Legal Defense Network, DeVos noted that her agency instructed nearly 37,500 employers to halt the practice Monday. Over the weekend, it assured some 83,500 borrowers in default that their wages would not be garnished.” Overall, “[a]bout 54,000 workers had their wages garnished as of May 7. This is about 14% of the 390,000 Americans who saw March wages garnished.”
• In Wisconsin, We are Green Bay described the efforts of the state’s Student Debt Task Force, created in January, which “will meet eight times in the coming months, with a goal of submitting a series of recommendation to the governor to deal with student debt, which he will include in his next biennial budget.”
• In New York NY, Judge Ramos of the Southern District of New York “ruled he will allow full discovery” in a suit by New York State against “the Federal Education Department’s sole-source contractor FedLoan Servicing…for ‘failing miserably in its administration of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness [sic].” The docket for this ongoing case is available here.
• Benefits Pro reported that under the CARES Act, “[e]mployers can now help their employees pay down student debt faster and save a significant amount of money on student loan interest.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington, “[u]nprecedented job losses and furloughs have pushed millions of Americans to the brink of eviction during the coronavirus pandemic, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the White House have failed to fund a legal assistance program that is routinely available to disaster survivors.”
• In Kentucky, the “court system will impose a statewide hiring freeze and suspend out-of-state travel to reduce expenses as the coronavirus drives down revenues, the state’s chief justice said.”
  • Note: There are many stories of this nature across the United States at the moment. NALP is working to keep track of news related to this issue on a consolidated page; you can find a link to this page and other COVID-19 national survey materials at www.psjd.org/covid19
• In Washington DC, “the nation’s charitable nonprofits strongly urge[d] leaders in both the House and Senate to take swift action to ensure that nonprofits of all sizes receive critical relief so they can continue to serve their communities through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.”
• In British Columbia, “non-profit organizations say they’re at risk due to pandemic restrictions, with 15-19% saying they face closure and 23% saying they might not last another six months.”
• In Edmonton AB, “a University of Alberta law professor…raised more than $120,000 for his 100 Interns Project through online seminars, direct employment donations, and financial contributions.”
• In the United States, Government Executive reported that “the federal government lags when it comes to attracting Generation Z tech talent.”
• In Canada, “[t]he economic fallout from the coronavirus has cut off scores of young Canadians from summer jobs and internships, which usually help them bridge gaps between tuition payments.”

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• In Montgomery County MD, “[a] nonprofit group has filed a federal lawsuit against Montgomery County seeking to prevent local officials from distributing COVID-19 relief funds to people living in the country illegally.”
• In Cambridge MA, Forbes profiled “Immigrants Like Us (ILU)[,] a new nonprofit based out of Harvard University’s Innovation Lab.” Its founder describes its mission as one “to democratize access to legal information for low-income immigrants.”

Access to Justice – Criminal & Decarceration

• In Massachusetts, “Supreme Court Chief Justice Ralph Gants had a question for attorneys who argued Thursday that some state agencies should not be named in a lawsuit seeking to release more prisoners because of COVID-19. ‘We’ve got the governor saying, `Not my problem, I shouldn’t be ordered to do something.` We’ve got the Department of Correction saying, `We manage the prisons, the only thing we’re involved with is medical parole,` and now we’ve got the parole board saying that it’s not their problem. So who’s supposed to do it?’ Gants asked during Thursday’s SJC hearing on a class action lawsuit seeking to reduce the number of people incarcerated to stem the spread of the coronavirus behind bars.”
• In Aurora CO, the Colorado Sentinel reported on how efforts to release municipal offenders to slow the spread of the pandemic highlighted a vacuum in legal authority: “City Attorney Dan Brotzman…wrote in an email…citing a bevy of case law [that] ‘in Colorado and across the country, it is clear that a commutation or pardon of a municipal ordinance violation cannot be performed under the executive power of the governor, nor of any city official, unless that power is granted to that official. Under the Colorado Constitution,…the governor is provided that specific power…only for state crimes, not convictions for ordinance violations.’“
  • Note: There are many stories of this nature across the United States at the moment. The Prison Policy Initiative is working to keep track of news related to this issue on a consolidated page; you can find a link to this page and other COVID-19 national survey materials at www.psjd.org/covid19
• In Chicago IL, University of Chicago News covered the experience of students in the law school’s Federal Criminal Justice Clinic, which executed “a quick pivot…as the coronavirus pandemic took hold [and] urgent needs emerged in the federal criminal justice system just as other clinic projects were postponed.”
• In Louisiana, “public defenders face steep financial challenges as the coronavirus rages on, forcing leaders to declare an emergency shortfall in funding this week. The outbreak has shuttered courthouses across the state, halting the flow of user fines and fees that account for about half of the Louisiana Public Defender Board’s budget.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Washington, “Two Republicans, Reps. Susan Brooks of Indiana and Fred Upton of Michigan, and thirteen other Democrats, including Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Jerrold Nadler of New York, have so far co-sponsored [a] resolution [from Rep. Joe Kennedy III], which aims to provide counsel in civil proceedings tied to ‘health, safety, family, shelter or sustenance’ for those who otherwise could not afford or access it.”
• In California, the “State Bar voted Thursday to form a group to study launching an experimental ‘sandbox’ to come up with innovative ways to give more people access to legal services, which could include relaxing rules regarding the unauthorized practice of law and nonlawyer ownership of firms.”
• In Southern California, “[t]hree…cities have received letters threatening lawsuits if they don’t repeal eviction bans enacted to protect out-of-work or ill renters during the coronavirus pandemic. Two of the cities–Upland and La Verne–repealed their bans after getting the letters.”
  • Meanwhile, in New York, “[m]any of those unable to pay monthly rent or mortgage payments are at the mercy of the state and federal governments as the potential for mass evictions looms when the pandemic subsides.”
• In Missouri, “Legal Services of Eastern Missouri has expanded its services to help people with the unemployment benefits application process.”

Criminal Justice Reform

We are pleased to announce that the 2019-2020 PSJD Pro Bono Publico Award Winner is Leslie Alvarez, a 3L at St. Mary’s University School of Law. NALP confers this honor each year to a law student whose extraordinary commitment to law-related public service work contributes to the overall growth of pro bono culture within their law school and their broader community.

Last fall, after much deliberation, we selected five finalists from among the students nominated for this award. In addition to our winner, we have also selected one student to honor as a Merit Distinction finalist. Leslie Alvarez received her award at a meeting of NALP’s Public Service Section held via videoconference last week.

Our winner, Merit Distinction finalist, and other finalists are highlighted below. Thank you to our impressive pool of nominees for the valuable work each of you do for your communities.

You can read more about each of these outstanding students by following the links below to individual blog posts from earlier this year highlighting their achievements.

WINNER: Leslie Alvarez | St. Mary’s University School of Law

Ultimately, we selected Alvarez as our 2019-2020 PSJD Pro Bono Publico Award winner for her work fostering pro bono opportunities for her classmates at St. Mary’s — to the benefit of the San Antonio community broadly. In the words of one of Alvarez’ supervising attorneys:

In my 20 years of practice I have never worked with a law student who is such a doer….Leslie approached my law firm to partner with St. Mary’s Law School on a clinic for young people with disabilities. That by itself was exciting but more so was her follow through: she immediately set up a meeting of interested stakeholders, took charge of recruiting fellow law students, identified community partners to hose the clinic, coordinated multiple trainings, and conducted outreach to parents and students with disabilities. When the first clinic had low turnout, she immediately started brainstorming on solutions and realized we needed a broader outreach network. The second clinic was the most successful my law firm has hosted in our history of doing guardianship alternative work and it is because of Leslie’s dedication.

Statement of Support for the Nomination of Leslie Alvarez;
2019-2020 PSJD Pro Bono Publico Award

Congratulations Leslie!

Merit Distinction Finalist: Ming Tanigawa-Lau | UCLA Law

Although the award ultimately went to another student, the Award Committee wanted to take time additionally to call attention to the exemplary work of Ming Tanigawa-Lau, a 2L at UCLA Law. Tanigawa-Lau has played an instrumental role organizing students’ pro bono efforts to assist asylum seekers in Tijuana. In the words of a postgraduate fellow who worked with Tanigawa-Lau:

As a 1L board member, Ming was an amazing asset to the student group, Law Students for Immigrant Justice (LSIJ) last year. She spent her school breaks volunteering with detained asylum-seeking women and children in Dilly Texas, as well as migrants in Tijuana, Mexico…Ming also created opportunities for other law students to get involved in immigrant justice work[.]

Statement of Support for the Nomination of Ming Tanigawa-Lau;
2019-2020 PSJD Pro Bono Publico Award

Congratulations Ming!

Other Finalists

Finally, the Award Committee wants to recognize one more time the achievement of the other finalists for the 2019-2020 PSJD Pro Bono Publico Award:

• Ashley De La Garza | St. Mary’s University School of Law
  Outstanding dedication to criminal justice reform.
• Chelsea Reese | University of Georgia School of Law
  Pro bono work on behalf of children and vicitms of domestic violence.
• Emily Holland | Pepperdine Caruso School of Law
  Human rights work, internationally and domestically.

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! The days remain packed, even as we all stay at home. Some major stories include a decision to restrict the New York bar exam to people who graduated from law school in New York, a judicial opinion out of Ontario suggesting that courts may not want to return to in-person appearances under some circumstances, a decision in New Jersey to allow out-of-state-licensed lawyers to provide temporary, supervised pro bono assistance, and a lawsuit alleging that Secretary DeVos has illegally continued to garnish the wages of student debtholders after the CARES Act suspended this practice.

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

Stay well,

Sam

State Bar Exams

• In New York, “[b]ecause of space concerns related to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the New York bar exam will now be administered at law schools there. And for now, applications are limited to people who graduated in the state.”
  • Relatedly, “deans at 21 top law schools across the country fired off a joint letter saying that ‘the news of your approach has fallen hard on the many students who had planned to sit for the bar in New York,’ adding that they were worried that the ‘resulting delay in the exam’s administration and admission to practice will fall hardest on the most economically vulnerable” and those who may not be able to stay in the country.’ “

Remote Court Practice & Lawmaking

• In Ontario, “[a] judge said [while dismissing a lawyers’ objections to proceeding through a video-conference mini-trial] ‘we should not be going back’ to costly personal attendance in court, comparing it to writing with a quill and ink.”
• Also in Ontario, Barry Leon continued his series for The Lawyers’ Daily on lessons learned from the application of technology to court proceedings in the province.
• In Oneida County NY, “[t]he DA’s office…has put together a memo [for the courts] on how to move forward and do business while minimizing the risk of becoming sick.”
• In Arkansas, the state “Supreme Court issued [for] guidelines once in-person appearances resume in the courts.”
• In Chicago IL, “a group of lawyers has stepped in to offer free legal advice with the help of an artificial-intelligence powered chat bot.” The site is rentervention.com.
• In the United States, “[t]echnology companies helping to fight the coronavirus are policing themselves to protect consumer data in the absence of a comprehensive U.S. statute and only a few state privacy laws.”

Voting Rights

• The Tuscon Weekly reported that “[i]n n an April report that warns of the risks of fraud in mail-in voting, a conservative legal group significantly inflated a key statistic…[A]fter ProPublica provided evidence to PILF that it had in fact doubled the official government numbers, the organization corrected its figure.”

Rule of Law

• At The Hague, “the International Criminal Court is moving forward with investigations into the situation in Afghanistan.”
• In Washington DC, “[o]ne of the lead prosecutors in the case against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn has stepped down, as the U.S. Justice Department moves to dismiss the charges.”

Pro Bono Response

• In New Jersey, the state “Supreme Court has issued an order to allow attorneys not licensed in New Jersey to provide temporary, supervised pro bono assistance to individuals and small businesses impacted by the novel coronavirus pandemic.”
• In Chicago IL, “[t]he American Bar Association is unveiling a new online portal designed to better connect pro bono attorneys with individuals and families who need free legal services because of the national COVID-19 emergency.” You can access this portal here.
• In Kentucky, “[l]egal aid societies statewide have launched free training for lawyers who agree to provide pro-bono work in exchange for specialized training on the civil issues Kentuckians are expected to need the most help with.” The initiative, “Together Lawyers Can”, is available at this link.
• In New York, “[a]lmost two years after the New York Workers’ Compensation Board approved rules to allow law students and interns to represent injured workers in medical-only claims, the program has gone nowhere, leaving many workers to represent themselves.”
• In Massachusetts, “Safety Net Project Director Julie McCormack and the students working with her on criminal record sealing (a mostly administrative process before the Massachusetts Probation Service) have taken advantage of the enforced slow-down brought about by COVID19 to develop audio-visual self-help materials for veterans and others seeking to remove the stigma of long ago involvement in the criminal justice system.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “[s]tudent loan borrowers have filed a lawsuit against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for allegedly illegal wage garnishments…[as n]early six weeks after the effective date of the CARES Act and the associated mandated suspension of collections, however, the Department of Education has allegedly continued to garnish the wages of some defaulted student loan borrowers.”
• Also in Washington DC, “Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) has proposed new legislation to delay federal student loan payments for new college graduates for up to three years. The [] Act would apply to anyone who graduates college from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020. Interestingly, the proposed legislation would empower the Secretary of Education (who is currently Betsy DeVos) – not Congress – to extend eligibility to anyone who graduates in 2021 or 2022[.]”
• Business Insider published a guide to which student loans qualify for forebearance under the CARES Act.

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• The consultancy Bridgespan and Echoing Green, “an organization that invests in and provides support for leaders of emerging social enterprises,” released a report finding that “[o]rganizations led by people of color win less grant money and are trusted less to make decisions about how to spend those funds than groups with white leaders[.]”
• In Arizona, “[t]he Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits, an advocacy group representing more than 20,000 nonprofits, estimates the state’s nonprofit sector has already lost more than $40 million due to the COVID-19 pandemic and anticipates a $433 million loss be year’s end.”
• In the United States, “[a]lthough it remains unclear when or if the United States will effectively “flatten the curve” of the coronavirus outbreak, federal agencies appear poised to begin calling at least some employees back to the office in the coming weeks.”
• In Washington DC, “[a] new bill in the House would ensure that federal workers who cannot take vacation this year due to the coronavirus pandemic and end up exceeding annual limits on how much time off can carry over from year to year. would not lose their paid leave.”

Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues

• In New Mexico and Texas, detained immigrants “are barred from placing free, private calls to their attorneys, hindering their access to counsel and robbing them of attorney-client confidentiality, a new lawsuit in New Mexico federal court alleges.”
• In Cambridge MA, “Harvard Law School immigration experts said a recent executive order suspending immigration to the United States will especially harm young children and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients.”

Access to Justice – Criminal & Decarceration

• The Appeal commented on how state bar exam delays may impact indigent accused persons’ access to justice: “what will happen to the marginalized—and Gideon’s mandate—when an entire class of public defenders cannot begin their jobs as scheduled in the fall of 2020?”
• In Missouri, “[s]even judges have been dismissed from a lawsuit over Missouri’s public defender wait lists. Circuit Judge William Hickle ruled the judges were not necessary parties to the lawsuit, which seeks to end the use of wait lists for public defenders.”
• In New York, the Legal Aid Society filed a lawsuit “argu[ing] that…[named] inmates particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 because of their race and pre-existing medical conditions [should be released immediately].”
• In New Mexico, the state “Supreme Court…denied a request to hasten the release of some inmates from prisons across the state to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Legal Services Corporation’s Board of Directors will meet remotely on Tuesday, May 19, 2020…Unless otherwise noted herein, the Board meeting will be open to public observation.”
• In Charlottesville VA, “[the] Legal Aid Justice Center call[ed] Governor Northam’s pending decision to begin reopening the state’s closed businesses “reckless”. Executive Director Angela Ciolfi told Morning News Virginia is nowhere near where [the state] need[s] to be in terms of testing capacity and contact tracing in order to make the move.”
• In Utah, the state Bar Foundation “has released a report addressing the unmet legal needs of lower-income Utahns. The report…highlights the civil legal needs of the roughly 26% of Utah’s population living at or below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines.” The full report is available here.
• In Washington DC, “[f]ederal relief aid in the CARES Act was supposed to ensure the country’s indigenous peoples were not forgotten. Instead, tribes have been embroiled in a legal fight with the Trump administration over attempts to send the money to for-profit Native corporations in Alaska. While a federal judge sided with the tribes last week, the U.S. Treasury Department has yet to release any of the funds…[w]hen the money finally does flow…Native Hawaiians won’t see any of it.”
• In South Carolina, “legal experts said…in the weeks and months ahead, they expect a deluge of renters and homeowners who will be unable to keep up with payments.”
• In San Francisco CA, “Mayor London Breed received a demand letter…insisting she follow the Board of Supervisors’ unanimously passed ordinance to procure 8,250 hotel rooms and put vulnerable homeless people in some 7,000 of them.”
• In New York NY, local reporting argued that “[a]mid this pandemic, it is imperative that New York City expands the Right to Counsel law by increasing legal capacity to meet the inevitable COVID-19 eviction demand, and, building on this model, establish a new initiative to provide free legal representation to vulnerable small businesses.”

Criminal Justice Reform

The Organization

ECPAT-USA (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes – USA Office) is a U.S.-based nonprofit policy organization that strices to end the commercial sexual exploitation of children. ECPAT-USA’s work focuses on efforts in awareness, advocacy, policy, and legislation. ECPAT-USA achieves its mission by promoting corporate responsibility, educating first responders and citizens, and empowering youth, and advocating for state and federal policy to end the sexual exploitation of children.

The Position

ECPAT-USA seeks a law student intern to remotely assist in the preparation of a report on state and local anti-trafficking regulations pertaining to the hospitality industry. The student will contribute research and writing to a report that will be distributed to advocates, policy-makers, and businesses seeking to comply with changes in the legal landscape.

For application instructions, see the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/job?OppID=101249