Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Photo: Harris and Ewing Collection, Library of Congress
Hi Interested Public,
Welcome to the end of another week. Lots to wrap up in the stories below, from news over the first weeks of December. I’ll cover the second half of the month Friday after next, and be back on a regular schedule in the new year.
“The Trump administration on Friday requested the Supreme Court block a review of whether the president has rendered key civil service laws as no longer functional, arguing a lower panel of judges that required the inquiry had overstepped its authority. The looming review followed a lawsuit from immigration judges within the Justice Department, but the administration’s top lawyer said they must take their case to a separate, executive branch appeals panel rather than federal court. Any steps Trump may have taken to undermine that pathway, he argued, is not material to the case. Chief Justice John Roberts acted quickly on Friday to pause an appeals court ruling that would have required the fact-finding inquiry into the impacts of Trump’s changes to civil service policies.”
“Briefs addressing these questions have now been filed by the parties and by 51 amici curiae: 16 in support of the Administration, 32 in support of Commissioner Slaughter, and 3 for neither party. Ahead of the Court’s oral argument on December 8, 2025, this “bench memorandum” provides a concise reader’s guide to the main arguments of the parties and the amici.”
“A group of Senate Democrats is demanding the Trump administration cease its efforts to dramatically grow the Interior Department’s police force, calling the hiring surge a “dangerous” centralization of power.”
“[The proposed] agreement, pending court approval, would end the long legal battle over SAVE by ending SAVE itself. The Education Department would commit not to enroll more borrowers in SAVE, to deny all pending SAVE applications and to move the roughly 7 million borrowers still enrolled in SAVE into other repayment plans – though some of those plans are also in flux.”
“Attorney General Anthony Brown (D) and Public Defender Natasha Dartigue announced in a letter dated Wednesday that the Maryland Equitable Justice Collaborative has been dissolved, a little more than two years after its October 2023 launch. The collaborative — which included working with about three dozen groups that included state agencies, law enforcement personnel and nonprofit and community organizations — has fulfilled its original charge to deliver recommendations on ending mass incarceration, the letter said.”
“The idea, according to Tran’s office, is to ensure every state can offer 24/7 legal help with a hotline staffed by real people, rather than having seniors fill out a form and wait to hear back.”
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Photo: Harris and Ewing Collection, Library of Congress
Hi Interested Public,
Welcome to the end of another week–and the end of the United States’ longest shutdown of the federal government. Welcome back, to all the federal workers who returned to work yesterday. The “Federal Shutdown” section below includes a number of stories picking apart what reporting indicates we can expect next. The “Editor’s Choices” section includes a number of additional, noteworthy stories. Additional stories, as always, are in the links below.
“The Justice Department has lost thousands of experienced attorneys since the start of the Trump administration and has backfilled a fraction of the open jobs, with the process snarled by a lack of qualified candidates, bureaucratic delays and hiring freezes, according to people familiar with hirings in the department.
…Employment law experts said they worry that some Trump officials are finding work-arounds in the hiring process to ensure that new hires for nonpolitical career positions align with the president’s politics. When prospective Justice Department employees apply for a job, for example, they are asked to detail a Trump executive order or policy that is significant to them and how they would advance that initiative. The question is also asked of people applying to other executive branch agencies.”
“In 1985, President Ronald Reagan appointed me as a federal judge. I was 38 years old. At the time, I looked forward to serving for the rest of my life. However, I resigned Friday…My reason is simple: I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom. President Donald Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment. This is contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench. The White House’s assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me that I feel compelled to speak out. Silence, for me, is now intolerable.”
“The resolution of Ms. Comey’s challenge to her dismissal could affect the legal rights of nearly all federal employees…According to the latest version of the law, passed in 1978, employees are entitled to “fair and equitable treatment … without regard to political affiliation … and with proper regard for their privacy and constitutional rights,” and personnel actions (including firings) must be based on merit and fitness, and must not be arbitrary, capricious or discriminatory. According to her legal claim, Ms. Comey was fired in violation of these provisions. Her lawsuit is a nearly perfect test case, because she had an impeccable record as a prosecutor.”
“Two months later, the Justice Department, hobbled by scores of resignations and firings and strained by a crisis in morale, has not responded to the lawsuit. The department, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, has struggled to determine which of its offices and lawyers will handle Ms. Comey’s lawsuit, leading to the highly unusual lapse. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal Justice Department affairs.”
“Nemer was one of the first immigration judges fired by the Trump administration after a slew of dismissals of leaders at the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the branch of the Justice Department that houses immigration courts. Later that month, the administration fired 12 judges — an entire incoming class that had just been trained and was about to take the bench…The pattern has been consistent. Every few months this year, a new class of judges gets termination notices in the middle of the day, often while they are in the middle of immigration court proceedings. The notices often target those who have reached the end of their two-year probationary period, a trial period for federal workers before they are "converted" to permanent employees. It was previously common for these civil servants to be converted to permanent employees of the DOJ.
…She wonders if her past experience representing immigrants got her fired, even though she also worked at DHS as an asylum officer. Her hunch has some correlation with the data.”
“The Trump administration has formally determined the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s current funding mechanism is unlawful, a move that puts the agency on track to close in the coming months when its existing cash runs out. The decision, disclosed in a court filing late Monday, marks the administration’s most direct effort yet to dismantle the consumer watchdog and sets up a new front in the ongoing legal battle over its future. The administration said it now considers the CFPB legally barred from seeking additional money from the Federal Reserve, which is the agency’s typical source of funding.”
“A top federal prosecutor in Florida has issued more than two dozen subpoenas targeting Donald Trump’s critics and perceived political enemies as part of a sprawling criminal inquiry into an alleged “conspiracy” among former officials who previously investigated the president.”
“In one concession to Democrats, the bill will unwind the more than 4,000 layoffs the Trump administration issued during the shutdown. Those reductions in force are currently paused by a federal court…The legislation would ban all agencies from carrying out any RIFs through January. The package of three full-year funding bills would largely reject funding cuts proposed by President Trump, particularly those within USDA.”
“Legal experts say a memo from the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, asserting that federal judges can order attorneys to represent indigent defendants without pay during a lapse in Criminal Justice Act funding, raises a host of constitutional and practical problems. ”
“[S]tates that have issued partial benefits this month may run into more complications when the shutdown ends, as they will have to recalculate the remaining benefits for their beneficiaries. For some states, this could mean hiring third-party vendors to handle this administrative task, as many don’t have the necessary infrastructure to process the unprecedented disruption. States that managed to maintain full benefits so far have run into roadblocks of their own…Green noted this disruption has crucial implications. Because of provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, states will have to begin paying for part of SNAP benefits beginning in 2028, with this percentage determined by payment error rates. Error rates hovered around 11 percent nationally in 2024.”
“With the longest shutdown ever over, Sweet and hundreds of thousands of other federal workers who missed paychecks will soon get some relief. But many are left feeling that their livelihoods served as political pawns in the fight between recalcitrant lawmakers in Washington and are asking themselves whether the battle was worth their sacrifices…But the whiplash of the past six weeks, coupled with the concern that the longest shutdown ever may not be the last they face, has shaken many in the workforce…For Sweet, the feelings of frustration are only compounded by a feeling that she was betrayed by the Democratic-aligned senators who broke with the party on the health care subsidies…“There are other federal workers who understood what we were holding the line for and are extremely unhappy that line was crossed and that trust was breached,” she said.
The federal workers who spoke to The Associated Press had one common message: that they were reeling but ready to get back to work.”
“In 2021, Congress passed into law a provision excluding student debt cancellation from taxable income. As a result, borrowers who received student debt relief after years of repayment were not faced with high and unexpected tax bills. However, that provision is set to expire at the end of this year. Absent action from President Trump or Republicans in Congress, this expiration will mean that borrowers on IDR plans who have legally earned debt cancellation after 20 or 25 years of repayment will be hit with significant tax bills.”
Okay. We’ve got some catching up to do. This digest covers the last week of October and the first week of November. I’ll be releasing another one tomorrow at the regular time to cover this week. The news below primarily concerns the new final rule from the Department of Education giving them the authority to disqualify PSLF payments from borrowers employed with public service organizations with a “substantial illegal purpose” (read all about that in Student Loans, below). In tomorrow’s digest, I’ll look at news from this week–including stories analyzing the Continuing Resolution ending the federal shutdown, which included a number of provisions related to federal employee compensation and reductions in force. (So, you won’t find that story below; check in again tomorrow.)
Solidarity,
Sam
Editor’s Choice(s)
Federal Grantees May Soon Face More Limitations on Speech (Law360; 28 Oct 2025)“In many cases, grantees have alleged that the government’s actions violated their right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Recipients should be aware that, in its responses to these allegations, the government has recently asserted that grant recipients have narrower speech rights than those it acknowledged just a few years ago in similar litigation.”
Federal Whistleblowers Sound an Alarm Over Civil Rights at HUD (The Nation; 31 Oct 2025)“[F]our attorneys and staff workers at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD’s Office of General Counsel and Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, went public with an emergency complaint…Civil rights enforcement at HUD and throughout the federal government is being dismantled…When you come to us with a complaint, it might not even get investigated because of the staffing cuts or because political appointees say that, “We don’t want to look into that type of case anymore. That’s DEI now. We’re just not going to do that.”
The ‘deeply inefficient’ legal path to fight Trump funding cuts (Politico; 28 Oct 2025)“in a departure from their usual procedures, the states also filed suit in a specialized court in the nation’s capital — one that the Supreme Court has suggested in short emergency orders is better equipped to decide disputes over terminated grants.”
Third Trump Term Raised by DOJ, Opposing Lawyer at Argument (Bloomberg Law; 27 Oct 2025)“Attorney Robert J. Olson first told the three judges on the Cincinnati-based court that a new administration will be in place “in three years or in seven years.” Then, when DOJ attorney Sean R. Janda argued, he repeated a variation of that line, talking about a change that may occur, “as my friend on the other side said, three years in the future or seven years in the future.” None of the judges pressed either attorney on those statements. A DOJ spokeswoman declined to comment. Olson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.”
Interior misuses ‘acting’ titles, nonprofit watchdog says (E&E News [Politico]; 31 Oct 2025)“The Interior Department failed to follow federal law by letting senior officials who lack Senate confirmation serve in “acting” roles, according to a nonprofit watchdog group. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is planning to send a letter Friday to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, accusing four senior Trump administration officials of serving with improper titles.”
Feds demand Portland turn over protest data, say city is violating key use-of-force agreement (The Oregonian; 30 Oct 2025)“The U.S. Department of Justice is prodding Portland to turn over more protest records — by leveraging the decade-old settlement agreement between federal officials and the Portland Police Bureau…The federal government’s missive is the latest in their pledge to launch a “full investigation” into the Portland Police Bureau, which it claims engages in “viewpoint discrimination” by supporting left-wing protesters at the expense of counterprotesters and right-wing media.”
Doing good motivates aspiring lawyers, new LSAC study finds (ABA Journal; 29 Oct 2025)“Aspiring law students are increasingly motivated by the opportunity to make their mark on the world, but more anticipate financial hurdles to do so, according to a study released Tuesday by the Law School Admission Council.” [study available here]
Trump’s Loan Forgiveness Regs and the Danger of Federally Defined “Public Good” (Cato Institute; 31 Oct 2025)“As unhelpful as the distinction between employment by nonprofit and for-profit entities is, it is probably not as dangerous as deciding who serves the public good and who subverts it. And the Trump order is very much about subversion.”
Lawsuit Challenges the Department of Education Over New Public Service Loan Forgiveness Rule (American Immigration Council; 5 Nov 2025) [complaint available here]“Four non-profit public-interest organizations filed a lawsuit today to challenge a new rule issued by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) that threatens to disqualify certain employers from eligibility for the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. The plaintiffs in the case — Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the American Immigration Council, The Door – A Center of Alternatives, Inc., and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) — are represented by Student Defense and Public Citizen Litigation Group.”
Attorney General James Sues U.S. Department of Education Over Weaponization of Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (New York State AG; 3 Nov 2025) [complaint available here]“132. [T]he Department intends to require all PSLF employers to affirmatively certify that they are not engaged in activities that have a ‘substantial illegal purpose’. The Rule does not affirmatively state this requirement anywhere, but the Department confirms in the NPRM and in discussion of the Final Rule that it will require employer certification. … 151. The Department also estimates that the Final Rule will generate ‘long-term savings…for taxpayers’ in the form of ‘$1.616 billion over the next ten years.’ Or, put another way, the Department estimates that it will withhold over a billion dollars of PSLF forgiveness over the next decade by declaring entities ineligible for PSLF.”
Republican who oversaw student debt launches class action effort against Trump administration (CNBC; 31 Oct 2025)“A Republican who oversaw the country’s $1.6 trillion federal student loan portfolio during President Donald Trump’s first term has funded a class action effort against the administration over its current borrower policies. The proposed class action lawsuit, filed this week in federal court in Atlanta, said Education Secretary Linda McMahon and the largest credit rating companies are violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act — a federal law that, among other provisions, requires information in consumer credit reports to be accurate.”
Opinion: How Student Loans and Inflation Are Reshaping Credit Risk (CardRates.com; 31 Oct 2025)“Despite the early warnings that student loan payments were really being reinstated, the many delays and false starts created a period of denial for borrowers. Now that student loan payments have resumed, and are counted in credit scores, reality has set in with a vengeance. Younger borrowers are a particularly risky segment in this environment: They have thinner credit reports, and more student debt. Many live in higher cost areas and face even sharper rising costs of living that compete for their dollars when it comes to paying their credit card bills.”
Millions of borrowers will be eligible for student loan forgiveness after AFT union sues Trump administration (Fast Company; 30 Oct 2025)“The Trump administration has agreed to resume student loan forgiveness for an estimated 2.5 million borrowers who are enrolled in certain federal repayment plans following a lawsuit from the American Federation of Teachers. Under the agreement reached Friday between the teachers union and the administration, the Education Department will process loan forgiveness for those eligible in certain repayment plans that offer lower monthly payments based on a borrower’s earnings. The government had stopped providing forgiveness under those plans based on its interpretation of a different court decision.”
‘Catastrophic’ Hack Underscores Public Defender Security Gaps (Bloomberg; 28 Oct 2025)“Recent cyberattacks on public defenders’ offices in multiple Western US states have spotlighted the technological vulnerabilities of an often overlooked but critical part of the US judicial system.”
Eviction aid for low-income Milwaukee residents may disappear under 2026 budget cuts (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; 31 Oct 2025)“Eviction Free MKE, which is also known as Right to Counsel and is run through Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee, is facing a tenuous future. The program has faced uncertain funding in recent years as remaining federal pandemic aid runs dry.”
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Photo: Harris and Ewing Collection, Library of Congress
Hi Interested Public,
Welcome to the end of another week. I’ve highlighted five big stories across a range of issues that have consumed much of this newsletter’s attention over the past 10 months. Still, lots of big stories lurking in the lower headings as well.
“When the government shutdown ends, Donald Trump will have succeeded in staging the single biggest expansion of presidential power in American history because of the single largest shift in the constitutional balance of powers ever…This is vastly more important than Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, an unguided bulldozer rambling through government. Vought’s strategy is all out of a single piece of carefully woven cloth.”
“A striking number of former government attorneys who have served both Republican and Democratic administrations agree that a red line has been crossed and that the garbled legal justifications provided by the administration are inconsistent with the facts and the law. Based on reporting by the Wall Street Journal and CNN, there are lawyers currently serving inside DoD who also agree and have tried to push back.
…the current administration’s approach has been to centralize legal authority, discourage dissent, and marginalize career legal professionals—including military attorneys with deep operational law expertise. Reports suggest that Combatant Command and Pentagon lawyers were excluded from meaningful review of the Caribbean strikes, which, if true, would be a troubling departure from long-established practice. This sidelining reflects a broader pattern that predates the Trump Administration but has only accelerated: a “post hoc” approach to national security lawyering—where legal reasoning is developed after operational decisions are made, often without the benefit of full interagency legal review.”
“The White House did not provide a rationale for the removal, as required by law. The president has fired nearly 20 watchdogs since the start of his second term.”
“The government shutdown has raised lots of questions about the retirement process, and retirement benefits, for federal employees while agencies remain closed. Here are some of the most pressing answers.”
“North Carolina House lawmakers held a hearing Wednesday to question how millions of dollars in legal aid grants are distributed through a state program. The House Select Committee on Oversight and Reform questioned the Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts. Under that program, the interest from certain accounts held in escrow is distributed to nonprofits that provide legal services for people who can't afford them. The General Assembly froze the program's grantmaking in July while lawmakers investigated how funds are given. Rep. Allison Dahle warned that the freeze could jeopardize hundreds of jobs at Legal Aid of North Carolina, the state's largest nonprofit law firm.”
“After a week of backlash from nonprofits angry that donation pages GoFundMe created for their organizations were showing up high in searches by donors, the company has announced it is making the pages opt in and removing and de-indexing pages that have not been claimed. Tim Cadogan, GoFundMe’s CEO, also issued an apology to nonprofits for the initial policy.”
“The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, a nonprofit dedicated to defending freedom of speech, press, and government transparency, brought the suit after the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) allegedly failed to respond adequately to formal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. These requests sought the release of correspondence, memoranda, and agreements connected to pledges that several elite law firms reportedly made earlier this year to provide nearly $940 million in pro bono legal services to the Trump White House.”
“The primary federal agency charged by Congress with enforcing the federal employment discrimination laws recently made it easier for employers to discriminate against workers, according to a new internal memo, reported but not yet publicly released.”
“After urging Illinoisans last month to record concerning actions by federal agents, Gov. JB Pritzker signed an executive order Thursday creating a commission to review documentation submitted by the public.”
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Photo: Harris and Ewing Collection, Library of Congress
Hi Interested Public,
It’s been a long week. I’ve highlighted a few urgent stories with my “Editor’s Choices” but there’s simply too many major items for that section to contain. In addition: the “Federal Shutdown” area contains some of our first glimpses of the Trump administration’s approach to government spending during the shutdown; some employees are continuing to draw paychecks (“We got the people that we want paid — paid,” Trump said”). “Non-Federal Government Issues” includes some interesting responses to our extraordinary circumstances from local governments: a proposed tax increase from the Mayor of Chicago and a newly-declared State of Emergency in Los Angeles County which will provide legal aid funding for affected residents. And “Civil Society” includes a story on planned efforts to retool the IRS to “Enable Pursuit of Left-Leaning Groups.” As always, these stories and more are in the links below.
“The judicial branch announced that beginning on Monday, Oct. 20, it will no longer have funding to sustain full, paid operations. Until the ongoing lapse in government funding is resolved, federal courts will maintain limited operations necessary to perform the Judiciary’s constitutional functions. Federal judges will continue to serve, in accordance with the Constitution, but court staff may only perform certain excepted activities permitted under the Anti-Deficiency Act.”
“Government attorneys looking to land on their feet in Big Law are facing an increasingly difficult job market. The job market for attorneys headed to the private sector has been over-saturated for months, and Big Law firms are hitting their limit on the number of government attorneys they can hire this year, recruiters say.”
“So far this year, however, the Justice Department has hired significantly fewer assistant US attorneys than in previous years…The administration has proposed hiring more than 400 additional attorneys in the US Attorneys' Offices, bringing the total to 6,144. So far, that's off to a slow start.”
“Multiple people at multiple agencies said their bosses have told them to email up the chain if they hear about RIFs, because, per one source, "they probably won't be told if people are fired."
““We believe it’s our duty to sound the alarm about this administration’s degradation of DoJ’s vital work, and its assault on the public servants who do it,” according to an open letter signed by 282 former officials, obtained exclusively by MSNBC.”
“The Defense Department started the trend this week by repurposing $6.5 billion in unspent research and development funds to keep active-duty service members from missing a paycheck on Wednesday. Military personnel have never missed a paycheck during a government shutdown. In another unusual step, FBI Director Kash Patel told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that the Trump administration has taken steps to ensure that the bureau’s special agents will be paid during the shutdown…Patel didn’t specify what funding the FBI would use to keep paying its special agents, and the FBI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment…Meanwhile, attorneys at the Justice Department are continuing to represent the Trump administration in court, even though they are working through the shutdown without pay.”
“The Trump administration has promised tens of thousands of federal agents carrying out his immigration crackdown that they will be paid during the government shutdown, according to emails seen by Reuters, even as other federal workers go without pay…After the story was reported, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said in a statement that more than 70,000 law enforcement officers across DHS including those at CBP, Ice, the Secret Service and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will be paid. They are to receive by 22 October a “supercheck” covering pay for all hours worked during the shutdown period and the next pay period, she said.”
“It is also far from normal for an administration to fire line-level civilian employees during a government shutdown as a way to punish the opposing political party. But this is precisely what President Trump has announced he is doing[.]”
“In a letter to the Office of Management and Budget, House and Senate lawmakers wrote that the law is clear: Furloughed employees are owed back pay, just as excepted employees are. The letter comes after OMB questioned whether the law actually guaranteed pay for furloughed feds. OMB’s legal opinion, though, quickly received backlash from lawmakers, unions and other employee organizations.”
“Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed Senate Bill 485, which would have required a three-fifths vote of county boards of supervisors and a showing of cause to remove chief public defenders from office. The decision drew disappointment from the California Public Defenders Association, which said the bill was a necessary safeguard for independence and integrity in public defense.”
“Rent relief for tenants who have fallen behind as a result of the ICE raids and money for legal aid and other services are among the provisions in the declaration.”
“Twenty-three Democratic members of Congress signed a letter addressed to Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Sept. 26, stating the government had failed to provide the required notice to borrowers. “These seizures have already led to evictions and utility shutoffs that are harming American families,” the Democrats wrote in the letter. The lawmakers say the Education Department is required to give borrowers 60 days’ notice before their tax refunds or Social Security benefits are seized.”
Conflicts Over Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Photo: Harris and Ewing Collection, Library of Congress
Hi Interested Public,
I wasn’t able to wade through last week’s news by the end of it, so you’re getting two weeks at once this week. But I’m splitting them up to make things easier to track. This digest covers news from this week, but you can find last week’s news digested for you here. I’ve highlighted several stories in the lede section, but lots of other important events are covered in the links below, including major stories related to student loans, federal restructuring, and the ongoing federal shutdown.
“The Trump administration began laying off federal workers on Friday, the 10th day of the U.S. government shutdown, administration budget chief Russell Vought said in a social media post…The Office of Management and Budget, which Vought leads, soon after confirmed that "RIFs have begun and are substantial."”
“The Trump administration plans to deploy America's counter-terrorism apparatus – including the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department – as well as the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department against certain left-wing groups it accuses of funding and organizing political violence, the officials said.”
“In late September, President Trump signed an executive order purporting to designate “Antifa” as a “domestic terrorist organization.” A few days later, he issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7) on Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence. This analysis evaluates the claims made in these documents and their potential damaging effects, drawing on the Brennan Center’s decade of work on the government’s framework for responding to terrorism, both foreign and domestic.”
“NSPM-7 directs the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to aggressively monitor, investigate, and take action against organizations purportedly linked — directly or indirectly — to acts of “political violence or domestic terrorism.” This new framework combines tax enforcement, financial tracing, and criminal prosecution tools — creating substantial risks and exposure for tax-exempt organizations (including charities, advocacy groups, and political organizations), along with their networks of funders and supporters.”
“More than 3,000 nonprofits have signed an open letter condemning the directive, assailing the administration memo as a violation of free speech and civic engagement. However, it’s clear that strongly worded letters can only achieve so much. NPQ spoke with experts about how, beyond writing letters of protest, nonprofits and the public can effectively respond.”
“The “compact” is quite explicit: Universities that do not sign on to this thing thereby “elect[] to forego federal benefits.” What benefits? Well, that same first paragraph lists quite a few specific “benefits”: “(i) access to student loans, grant programs, and federal contracts; (ii) funding for research directly or indirectly; (iii) approval of student and other visas in connection with university matriculation and instruction; and (iv) preferential treatment under the tax code,” which means 501(c)(3) status. This compact is a “reward” in exactly the same sense that it is “rewarding” to purchase protection from the Mafia. The compact is an open, explicit threat. It nonetheless does represent a tactical shift on the part of the Trump Administration. The Trump team’s goal has not changed. They want an unprecedented—and flagrantly unconstitutional—degree of government oversight and control over American universities…the administration is pivoting to a new tactic, which seems to be to roll up the higher ed sector from what you might call the upper middle. Instead of starting at the very top with the high-stakes confrontation with Harvard and working their way down, the new tactical approach is to start with whichever prestigious schools seem likeliest—for various reasons—to be amenable to the government’s overtures.
In the remainder of this blog post I’ll do two things at once. First, for the benefit of any journalists who read this, I think it’s important to lay out in a few simple bullet points what this “compact” does, and why the spin adopted by so many mainstream reporters is incorrect…Second, along the way, and at the end, I want to situate this “compact” in this administration’s overall approach to law. That approach is to try to sideline law itself—its regularity, predictability, transparency, and treating likes alike—and replace the law with “the deal.””
“Next week, the City Council’s Rules committee will discuss a resolution that delegates authority to the City Attorney to defend officials — which would include councilmembers — when they’ve been accused of committing a crime in the course of doing their job…“This is not based on any actual threat or specific threat against any official in Oakland, whatsoever,” Oakland’s supervising deputy city attorney, Selia Warren, told The Oaklandside. “This is merely us trying to be proactive and actually stay ahead of events. We would love to not have to use this, ever.” However, Warren also said, “Anyone can read the headlines in the news these days about what’s going on.””
“Federal employee groups decried the second consecutive year of premium increases eclipsing 10 percent amid a government shutdown and a proposed 1% pay raise for non-law enforcement personnel.”
“When the Trump administration has faced pushback over attempted cuts to California’s federal funding, it has shifted strategy and gone after the funding again. The strategy has both complicated and expanded the scope of California’s legal fight against the administration, which now includes more than 40 lawsuits.”
“Trump’s public instructions to Attorney General Pam Bondi (which he may have intended as a private DM) were not subtle. The president named three public figures he has long detested and urged the Justice Department to prosecute them immediately. Now, less than three weeks later, two of them are under indictment: former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Both have denied wrongdoing. And the many other targets Trump wants to see in jail are bracing for who will be next.”
“The top lawyer at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) argued in the draft that the law Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed in 2019 that guaranteed back pay to furloughed workers does no such thing.”
““The supposed ‘new legal analysis’ is, to use a technical legal term, horseshit,” said one former lawyer for the White House budget office of the threat to withhold pay.”
“Gibbons P.C. is pleased to welcome back to the firm Michael R. Noveck as the new Executive Director of the John J. Gibbons Fellowship in Public Interest & Constitutional Law…As Executive Director, Mr. Noveck will carry forward the Gibbons Fellowship’s legacy of pro bono representation involving cutting-edge cases implicating constitutional and individual rights and freedoms. He brings significant litigation experience in an array of areas, including criminal justice, Megan’s Law registration, police accountability, and education.”
“Trump administration officials are exploring options to sell off parts of the federal government’s $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio to the private market, according to three people familiar with the matter…Selling federal student loan debt raises significant logistical and legal concerns, adding new uncertainty for borrowers. Key questions include what happens to borrower protections—typically more generous than in the private market — and whether the government would continue guaranteeing any of the loans. The federal government enjoys more powerful debt-collection abilities — such as garnishing tax returns or Social Security benefits — than do private lenders.”
“Sharlyn Grace, the deputy public defender for policy at the Cook County Public Defenders Office, noted that ICE has not coordinated with court authorities either, especially in cases where immigrants have been detained while at court on other business. “There is no coordination or cooperation with us,” Grace said. “We’ve had clients not show up and later we have to identify them and find out they’ve been detained. There is no regard for the state court process or any sharing of information. The client’s other cases are forced to the side, and they could end up with warrants issued against them inappropriately, because the court wasn’t notified that they were detained.” Grace said she suspects ICE is accessing public documents to find the names of people to target without warrants.”
“The long-running legal challenge over Maine's failure to provide attorneys to criminal defendants who can't afford them has reached the state Supreme Court.”
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Photo: Harris and Ewing Collection, Library of Congress
Hi Interested Public,
I wasn’t able to wade through last week’s news by the end of it, so you’re getting two weeks at once this week. But I’m splitting them up to make things easier to track. These stories cover last week. The next edition will cover the current week. I’ve highlighted several stories in the lede section, but lots of other important events are covered in the links below.
“The brief, unsigned order cautioned that the ruling “should not be read as a final determination on the merits” but instead “reflects our preliminary view, consistent with the standards for interim relief.”…Justice Elena Kagan dissented, in an eight-page opinion that was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Kagan wrote that “the effect” of Friday’s order “is to prevent the funds from reaching their intended recipients—not just now but (because of their impending expiration) for all time.””
“Trump’s conduct, the judge wrote, violated the sacred oath of a president to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” and the actions of his administration represented a “full-throated assault on the First Amendment.”…Young, highlighting the significance of the case, wrote that it is “perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court” and “squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us.””
“The administration wants to bring in as many as 600 military-trained attorneys to help make decisions about which immigrants can stay in the country. Advocates are alarmed by the move to use military lawyers to bolster staffing in the backlogged immigration courts as President Donald Trump's administration ramps up immigration arrests…“They’re letting a lot of experienced judges go, terminating them with no notice, and yet they claim that there’s a shortage so they need to have these military JAG officers step in and take over,” said Margaret Stock, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and immigration lawyer…“It will lead to more appeals of decisions. It will further increase the backlog. It’s going to be an inefficient and costly endeavor,” [Matt] Biggs[, president of IFPTE,] said. “It sets a dangerous precedent in this country when it comes to due process protections.””
“The American Federation of Government Employees filed a lawsuit accusing the US Department of Education of unlawfully inserting partisan language into automated out-of-office emails sent from accounts of furloughed workers. The union claims email settings for department workers were changed without their permission to include messages blaming the shutdown on Democratic lawmakers. The lawsuit alleges that forcing civil servants to speak on behalf of the political leadership's partisan agenda is a blatant violation of federal employees' First Amendment rights.”
“The top national security prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Virginia circulated a scathing departure letter to his former colleagues Friday slamming DOJ leadership, who he said "is more concerned with punishing the President's perceived enemies than they are with protecting our national security."”
“Our Constitution and its First Amendment remain the same,” former UnidosUS Education Policy Analyst Tania Valencia told department officials. At the time of the hearing, she was serving as a higher education senior program manager at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “The department does not have the authority to exclude employers based on their participation in disfavored speech and activities. Every major civil rights advancement, from the desegregation of schools to marriage equality, began as a viewpoint that challenged existing power structures.”
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Photo: Harris and Ewing Collection, Library of Congress
Hi Interested Public,
Hope this message finds you. Big week for public service legal news. It’ll take time for some of the lines cast this week to fully play out. Beyond the “editor’s choices”, you’ll find reporting that IRS & DOL are working to re-hire some workers who took the “fork in the road” retirement offer last Spring, and that the Supreme Court of Arizona is setting aside briefly-floated plans to provide create a pathway to criminal legal practice in the state based on a single year of classroom legal education.
Solidarity,
“The Affirmative Litigation Section will represent the United States by filing lawsuits against states, municipalities, and private entities that interfere with or obstruct federal policies, ensuring nationwide compliance with the U.S. Constitution and federal law.”
“(b) The [The National Joint Terrorism Task Force and its local offices] shall investigate potential Federal crimes relating to acts of recruiting or radicalizing persons for the purpose of…conspiracy against rights;
…
(c) The JTTFs shall also investigate: (i) institutional and individual funders, and officers and employees of organizations, that are responsible for, sponsor, or otherwise aid and abet the principal actors engaging in the criminal conduct described in subsections (a) and (b) of this section.”
“A senior Justice Department official has instructed more than a half dozen U.S. attorney’s offices to draft plans to investigate a group funded by George Soros, the billionaire Democratic donor whom President Trump has demanded be thrown in jail. The official’s directive, a copy of which was viewed by The New York Times, goes as far as to list possible charges prosecutors could file, ranging from arson to material support of terrorism. The memo suggests department leaders are following orders from the president that specific people or groups be subject to criminal investigation — a major break from decades of past practice meant to insulate the Justice Department from political interference.”
“District Judge Ana C. Reyes, a Biden appointee, wrote that it is “obvious” that Trump broke federal law when he fired 17 of the governmental watchdogs on the fifth day of his second term because he ignored requirements to notify Congress 30 days in advance and provide the “substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons” for the removals…Reyes determined they could not show that they suffered irreparable harm. She noted that, if they were reinstated, Trump could easily remove them again after 30 days by providing notice and rationale to Congress.”
“Last month, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a stay of an earlier preliminary injunction that found that the White House’s effort to outlaw unions at most federal agencies under the auspices of national security was mere pretext for retaliating against labor groups that had challenged the administration’s workforce policies in court, actions considered to be protected speech under the First Amendment. That effectively allowed implementation of the order to proceed during the course of litigation. But later that month, a judge on the court called for all 11 jurists on the Ninth Circuit bench to examine whether to revisit the three-judge panel’s decision. The news came after federal agencies began formally terminating collective bargaining agreements, despite Justice Department attorneys’ and the Office of Personnel Management’s assurances that such steps would not be taken until the “conclusion of litigation.””
“The Internal Revenue Service and the US Department of Labor have taken steps to rehire workers who took the deferred resignation offer. The DOL is considering rescinding about 100 deferred resignations in “mission-critical roles,” a spokeswoman said last week, while the IRS is hiring back an unspecified number of the 26,000 workers who accepted the incentive…The scope of the rehirings is still unknown. Agencies are required to notify the OPM whenever they reverse a deferred resignation, Kupor said. He declined to say how many notices he had received, but said it’s “very small” compared to the roughly 150,000 people who took the incentive.”
“A new online retirement system, coupled with record summer claim volumes, has created delays and confusion for federal employees transitioning to annuitant status, even as OPM works to streamline processing and reduce errors.”
““Nothing in the Internal Revenue Code authorizes the administration to distinguish between organizations whose messages with which they agree and those whose messages they dislike,” David A. Super of Georgetown University Law Center told Tax Notes. “As long as an organization meets the Code’s broad definition of a charitable or educational purpose, the administration has no basis for challenging them.””
“Though I’m a solo practitioner with limited resources, I took the case pro bono because my values drive me to help indigent clients. I was aware of the government’s catch-me-if-you-can scheme to move detainees around without notice to escape court oversight, but I felt prepared for the challenge because I’m also an independent legal scholar who published a practice guide to help lawyers navigate habeas corpus actions for immigrant clients…I knew President Trump had issued a proclamation attempting to justify removals after the fact, but I used my best judgment and skills to ask the court to enforce the actual law as written. The government nevertheless proceeded to take my client out of the United States. So I was taken aback when the government asked the judge to punish me for my efforts via a motion for sanctions – which is a novel strategy by the administration to go after immigration attorneys personally by attempting to ruin their record or fine them. I was now a target.”
“In a letter to law firms, Democrats cited a law which prohibits the government from accepting any voluntary services. The law is intended to ensure that the government does not owe any debts or money which has not been approved by Congress. “I hope these law firms realize there is no safety in appeasement,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., stated. “Once we get through this nightmare, we have to make sure nobody in the White House or in state power can shake down law firms, media, colleges and universities again for his or her personal enrichment.””
“Consider what happens when AI makes brief writing 10 times faster. A junior associate who previously drafted one motion per week can now produce 10. But here's what the efficiency prophets miss: opposing counsel also has AI. They're filing 10 motions too. The court's docket explodes. Every case becomes a war of attrition fought with infinite ammunition…The transformation won't be in quantity of work but in its nature.”
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Photo: Harris and Ewing Collection, Library of Congress
Hi Interested Public,
Hope this message finds you. Apologies for leaving you hanging again last Friday; ongoing illness. Today, I bring you last week’s news; more to come on Friday. Major stories include a class action from the AFT aimed at restoring affordable student loan repayment programs, reports of significant changes to hiring processes within the US DOJ’s civil rights division, and further market indicators of the widespread effects of restarted student loan repayments. As always, these stories and more are in the links below.
Solidarity,
“The American Federation of Teachers, a union representing some 1.8 million members, has said that the U.S. Department of Education is denying student loan borrowers their legally required rights to affordable repayment plans and loan forgiveness programs.”
“Veteran Manhattan prosecutor Maurene Comey on Monday sued the Trump administration over her abrupt firing this summer — days after she’d been assigned to take the lead on a major public corruption case — alleging she was targeted based on the president’s long-held animus toward her father.”
“The parties are directed to brief and argue the following questions: (1) Whether the statutory removal protections for members of the Federal Trade Commission violate the separation of powers and, if so, whether Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U. S. 602 (1935), should be overruled. (2) Whether a federal court may prevent a person’s removal from public office, either through relief at equity or at law.” (emphasis added)
“The revised process diverges from procedures that put hiring in the hands of career staff in response to a politicized recruitment scandal during President George W. Bush’s administration. At least two of the new hires were removed or suspended from prior local prosecutor positions while facing legal and professional complaints, according to their former supervisors and court filings in one instance…Three of the four managers selecting new hires had no prior DOJ supervisory experience, said multiple former civil rights division colleagues.”
“In the joint letter, signed by 136 organizations, they condemned political violence and any potential retaliation directed their way…The letter comes as the scrutiny against left-leaning organizations in the U.S. by the Trump administration has increased after the killing of Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA. The president and other administration officials have characterized those left-leaning groups as playing a part in inciting violence, raising concerns that they might be targeted.”
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Photo: Harris and Ewing Collection, Library of Congress
Hi Interested Public,
Hope this message finds you. Apologies for leaving you hanging last Friday at the end of (another) eventful news cycle. Today, I bring you last week’s news; more to come on Friday. The major stories last week concerned a judgment out of the Northern District of California vindicating fired federal probationary employees’ rights but declining to craft them remedies and an order out of the US Supreme Court allowing the Trump administration to continue its “pocket rescission” of billions in foreign aid pending the final disposition of a lawsuit accusing the President of exceeding his authority. In student loan news, most reporting focused on proposed changes to the PSLF program (the deadline for public comment on the matter is tomorrow, 9/17). Outside of the federal government, the Second Circuit ruled that the First Amendment could not shield a non-profit’s novel strategy for involving non-attorneys in its operations from accusations of the unauthorized practice of law.
Solidarity,
“In the ordinary course, this order would, as required by the APA, set aside OPM’s unlawful directive and unwind its consequences, returning the parties to the ex ante status quo, and as a consequence, probationers to their posts. But the Supreme Court has made clear enough by way of its emergency docket that it will overrule judicially granted relief respecting hirings and firings within the executive, not just in this case but in others. And, too much water has now passed under the bridge since the Supreme Court stayed this Court’s preliminary injunction reinstating probationary employees. The terminated probationary employees have moved on with their lives and found new jobs. Many would no longer be willing or able to return to their posts. The agencies in question have also transformed in the intervening months by new executive priorities and sweeping reorganization. Many probationers would have no post to return to.” (emphasis added)
“A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday set aside a ruling [based on the First Amendment] that blocked New York from enforcing rules prohibiting the unauthorized practice of law against a nonprofit that provides limited legal advice to poor people in the state…[by] train[ing] people who aren't lawyers to provide free legal advice to people facing debt-collection lawsuits[.]”
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