Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Every week I drink from the firehose; this week even more than usual. There are too many highlights below to even list, but one issue does stand out:

This week’s bombshell news was the Executive Order the President signed yesterday, which addresses both student loans and campus speech policy. The bit that’s getting the most attention is its provision that “agencies shall…take appropriate steps…to ensure institutions that receive Federal research or education grants promote free inquiry.” But the order additionally directs the Department of Education to publish more information about loans–both individual data via a “secure and confidential website and mobile application” and “program-level data for each certificate, degree, graduate, and professional program” through changes to the College Scorecard program. (Inside Higher Ed has some thorough reporting on both aspects of the order.) Many, many keystrokes have been entered about this order since it was issued yesterday, especially in relation to the President’s request that Congress cap student loan borrowing earlier this week. I’ll start you off with the resources I’ve linked in this paragraph.

Also in the lede, I’ve been asked to mention the ABA’s John J. Curtin, Jr. Justice Fund 2019 Summer Legal Internship Program. This scholarship program will pay “a $3,500 stipend to three law students who spend the summer months working for a bar association or legal services program designed to prevent homelessness or assist homeless or indigent clients or their advocates.” The scholarship application deadline is March 29th, and the program is still actively seeking applicants. Applicants should already have unfunded summer employment with qualifying organizations. [Reminder: you can read about the Curtin Justice Fund and other summer scholarship opportunities in the PSJD Resource Library.]

Lastly, because it does’t fit many other places, the Washington Post reported this week on the Trump administration’s “extraordinary record of legal defeat…paint[ing] a remarkable portrait of a government rushing to implement far-reaching changes in policy without regard for long-standing rules against arbitrary and capricious behavior.”

See you around,
Sam

Immigration, Refugee, & Citizenship Issues

• In San Diego, CA, NBC followed up on its report last week that “U.S. officials made list of reporters, lawyers, activists to question at border” (mentioned in a previous edition of the Digest) with interviews with the people the government detained and questioned: A staff attorney with the Santa Fe Dreamers Project told NBC “They asked me what my opinion was on the administration, just generally. And how we are doing economically,” and NBC reported that “[a]fter four hours at the station, he says he finally agreed to unlock his phone and watched as they scrolled through his contacts. He worries about the information they might have gleaned about the client he works with.” A legal coordinator for Annunciation House told NBC “four agents escorted her into the station [where one] told her she was not being detained, but she was being ‘inspected’ and would be arrested if she refused to answer his questions. He also told her she had no right to an attorney.” NBC noted that “[t]he House Homeland Security Committee…has sent a letter to DHS Secretary Nirstjen Nielsen, asking for a copy of the list and the reason for its existence.”
• In New York, NY, “[a] coalition of public defenders alarmed by government efforts to expedite deportation cases [asked] the City Council [] to invest more money providing [sic] legal representation to immigrants in custody.”
• In Washington, DC, the Supreme Court “backed the government’s power to indefinitely detain some immigrants…without giving them a chance to argue for bond before an immigration judge.”
• In Massachusetts, the mayors of Cambridge and Somerville “announced…the establishment of the United Legal Defense Fund for Immigrants, a partnership between the Mayors’ Offices and the Cambridge Community Foundation.”
• On Monday, March 18th, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement released a “Statement on False Reports of Sick Child” on Twitter “in response to anonymous reports of a sick child” “confirm[ing] that not child currently in custody at the Karnes Family Residential Center is exhibiting signs of dehydration, nor was any resident seeking medical attention for a child with the symptoms described in the reports.” the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services replied that the reports were not anonymous, as RAICES made them directly, and the client’s child in question had symptoms that stopped the previous Friday, March 15th. (RAICES also shared that the baby and his father were released early this week.) The statement from ICE has been interpreted as a response to the “#StoriesFromKarnes” hashtag RAICES launched as part of its lawsuit alleging the Department of Homeland Security is violating the Flores agreement by detaining children for longer than 20 days. (Mentioned in a previous edition of this digest.)

Student Loans

• In Washington, DC, “Senate Education Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander…said he welcomes the Trump Administration’s Higher Education Reform Proposal.” [The administration’s proposal and a related executive order are covered in the first paragraph of this week’s introduction, which you should go back and read if you skipped it and this topic interests you.]
  • Meanwhile, the director of policy and planning for the Institute for College Access & Success asserted that “[t]here’s no strong evidence that shows a causal link between federal student loans and pricing at colleges[.]”
• In New York, the State Assembly “proposed $1 million to implement [a Student Loan Consumer Assistance Program],” which would “provide New York’s 2.4 million student loan borrowers with free, expert, unbiased advice on how to manage their student debt.”
• Also in New York, “[p]ublic service workers whose student loans were serviced by Navient Corp. told a federal judge that their state-law claims accusing the company of misleading them about access
  to a federal loan forgiveness program are not preempted by the federal Higher Education Act.”
• In Pennsylvania, “[l]awmakers unveiled a bill which aims to help people pay down loan debt and handle the cost of borrowing.” Among other measures, the plan notably “includes incentives for employers to help pay down student loan debt of their employees.”
  • In related news, Pulse profiled FutureFuel.io, a company whose “goal is to make student debt benefits a standard offering in employer-sponsored benefits plans.”
• Politico.com overviewed “nearly 200 bills with a variety of debt solutions [proposed by l]awmakers across the country [who] have set their sights on student loans.”
• In Ottawa, ON, the “federal budget announc[ed] a range of changes to try to make life easier for students[.]”

Public Service Management & Hiring

• RollCall.com reported on “a little-known provision tucked into annual appropriations bills expressly bars most non-U.S. citizens from working for the federal government, including Dreamers. / Even congressional staffers with legal residency, including refugees, must sign an affidavit swearing they are taking steps toward full citizenship, according to the most recent appropriations bill’s language.” (The article helpful links to this 2019 whitepaper from the Congressional Research Service addressing the issue.)
• Meanwhile, “[s]trong bipartisan support is showing in both the House and the Senate for criminal justice reform that removes barriers to employment for people with a criminal record.”
• In Montgomery, AL, “[t]he Southern Poverty Law Center has tapped Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff to lead a “top-to-bottom” examination of its workplace culture, less than a week after the anti-hate nonprofit fired co-founder Morris Dees for misconduct and its staff complained of discrimination against women and people of color.”
• In New York, NY “[t]he Legal Aid Society is asking the city to allocate $12 million to $15 million to public advocate organizations in the 2020 budget in order to establish pay parity with attorneys from the city’s Corporation Counsel.” (See also Law.com‘s reporting on this issue.)
• Above the Law reported on LexisNexis’ new “LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation, a non-profit entity coordinating rule of law initiatives all over the world[;] an ambitious program that goes beyond the traditional fundraising effort [sic] that form the core of most social responsibility projects. The two driving principles behind the [foundation] are, first, to deploy the core skills of LexisNexis where possible and, second, to work with partners that bring skills to the table that LexisNexis can’t.” The article’s author used the event as an opportunity to opine that “[p]ublic service should be based around core strengths–if you’re in real estate, help a homeless shelter secure a new location and save the capital cases for the folks still in that practice.”

Disaster Relief

• In Nebraska, “[t]he Legal Aid Disaster Relief Project is offering free legal assistance for low-income families in Nebraska impacted by the flooding.”
• In Puerto Rico, “[t]housands of Puerto Ricans who lost their jobs due to Hurricans Irma and Maria could be eligible for six additional months of unemployment aid–but few have taken advantage of a federal disaster program that is slated to sunset in May…The small pool of applicants has frustrated legal advocates, who blamed a lack of serious outreach by the Puerto Rican government and its decision to require benefit-seekers to fill out paperwork not mandated by the federal Labor Department.”

Legal Technology & Privacy

• In Oklahoma City, OK, “[Family & Children’s Services] and the Tulsa County Public Defender’s Office have partnered together on an app designed to help reduce failure-to-appear charges.”
• Slate reported that “[s]ince April 2018, law enforcement investigations stemming from DNA searches in consumer genetics databases have led to nearly three dozen arrests. In every case, those ultimately arrested did not actually upload their own genetic profiles to any database. Rather, they were identified through partial matches between crime scene DNA samples and the genetic profiles of often-distant relatives shared on consumer platforms like GEDmatch or FamilyTreeDNA.”
• In California, “[a] former judge and family law education has teamed up with tech entrepreneurs to launch an app they hope will help divorced parents better manage their co-parenting disputes…leveraging a combination of AI technology and on-demand human interaction to help co-parents navigate high-conflict situations.”
• Forbes profiled “an immigration attorney who has helped countless families…[b]y utilizing artificial intelligence…to provide legal services at up to 75% lower rates than those offered by traditional firms, and also in rural areas where people typically would not be able to find lawyers.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Vancouver, BC, the Vancouver Sun interviewed legal aid recipients to illustrate the human consequences “if lawyers withdraw services April 1 to protest a generation of government underfunding.” (As mentioned in prior editions of this Digest.)
• In Washington, DC, “[for] the third year the Trump administration has suggested the elimination of the Legal Services Corporation[.]”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Idaho, “[a] district court judge…recommended the Idaho Supreme Court weigh in on a civil lawsuit…which claims Idaho’s criminal public defense system is inadequate.”
• In Chautauqua County, NY, “[t]he public defender’s staff is about to double thanks to a $15 million state grant.”
• In Isabella County, MI, “the county commission gave its approval Tuesday night to enter into a contract with the state agency tasks with implementing [indigent defense] programs across Michigan.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Philadelphia, PA, “District Attorney Larry Krasner is announcing a new probation policy in hopes of reducing the number of people on supervised parole.”

The Organization

PSJD (formerly PSLawNet) is a unique online clearinghouse for law students and lawyers to connect with public interest job listings and career-building resources. Created in 1989 at NYU Law, PSJD has been maintained by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) as one of its Public Service Initiatives since 2003.

The Position

The PSJD Fellow is the principal manager and administrator of the PSJD.org website. PSJD, a NALP initiative, catalogues thousands of job announcements for public service legal positions each year and curates a directory of civil society, government, and other public-service-oriented employers. The site also publishes a library of professional development and career search resources to assist jobseekers with legal training pursuing public service careers. Law students and alumni from hundreds of law schools in the United States and Canada rely on these materials to help them discover opportunities and make decisions about their public service careers. In addition, the Fellow gains non-profit management and administration experience and has the opportunity to write for publication, speak publicly, and build relationships with public interest organizations across the country.

The Fellow will work at NALP’s Washington, DC office–with some travel required (varying slightly, year-to-year).

See the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/opportunitydetails?OppID=90561

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! It’s been an eventful couple of weeks.

First, the elephant in the room: Operation Varsity Blues. The articles highlighted in this week’s NALP News Digest are worth a look. I’ll just add one more here: “Asha Rangappa [former Yale Dean of Admissions] says the biggest victims of the U.S. college admissions scandal are the bright and diverse students from less privileged backgrounds who will be discouraged from applying to Ivy League schools.“

In addition to that news, the Trump Administration released a budget packed with changes for the student loan world, the former student loan ombudsman of the CFPB and current head of the Student Borrower Protection Center testified to Congress, Texas attorneys are suing their state bar in objection to the bar’s diversity and immigration-related efforts, under a “forced-speech” rationale, and Civil Legal Aid is making headlines of all kinds in British Columbia, with an upcoming strike of the Association of Legal Aid Laywers leading the bill. You can find all this and more, below.

See you around,
Sam

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• The Pacific Standard reported that “[t]he number of infants under the age of one in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention at the border has increased since January, reaching levels that alarm immigration advocates.”
  • Meanwhile, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services “filed a civil rights complaint against the Department of Homeland Security, arguing that the Trump administration is blatantly flouting the Flores agreement–the law that dictates how long the U.S. government can keep children in custody.“
• In New York, as part of his “Liberty Defense” project, Gov. Cuomo announced two new measures to “help and protect immigrants targeted by ICE, [including] a Rapid Response Program which has regional providers and attorneys ready for any actions taken by ICE [and] 21 New Opportunity Centers…which will offer new, free services to immigrants…such as education, legal guidance, naturalization assistance, and guidance within their neighborhoods.“
• NBC News confirmed speculation from immigration attorneys (discussed in the March 1st digest), reporting that “Customs and Border Protection has compiled a list of 59 mostly American reporters, attorneys and activists who are to be stopped for questioning by border agents when crossing the U.S.-Mexican border at San Diego-area checkpoints…according to documents obtained by NBC station KNSD-TV and interviews with people on the list.“
• In California, N.D. Cal. “ruled that Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross’ efforts to place a citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. Census violate the Enumeration Clause of the U.S. Constitution and the [APA].“
• In Washington DC, “[t]he Trump administration is reportedly planning to freeze the hiring of immigration judges amid a massive backlog of cases due to budgetary constraints[.]“

Student Loans

• In Washington DC, the Trump Administration released its proposed budget, which includes a variety of changes to the student loan regime–most notably a proposed end to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Forbes has some excellent reporting on the specifics of all student-loan-related proposals and the potential implications of Trump’s plan to “consolidat[e] the multiple income-driven repayment plan programs into one “simple” income-driven repayment plan.”
• Also in Washington, DC “the U.S. House Financial Services Committee held a hearing to discuss the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau…and the newly-introduced Consumers First Act.” During the testimony, the CFPB’s former student loan ombudsman “spoke at length about the $1.5 trillion in outstanding student debt [and] noted that his former position…has yet to be filled six months after his resignation and the the Bureau’s 2018 report on student debt is yet too be released….One committee member raised twice…that the job posting only went up the day prior to the hearing.“
• Also also in Washington, DC “Sen. Brian Schatz and Rep. Mark Pocan…led a group of 42 members of Congress in reintroducing the Debt-Free College Act[.]“
• In Massachusetts, State Senator Lesser advocated for his “Student Loan Bill of Rights”–a bill similar to laws passed in recent years in California and Connecticut–in the pages of the Boston Globe.
  • Meanwhile, in California the Sacramento Bee discussed new bills in the state legislature intended to advance the state’s student debt reform approach still further.
• In Newburgh Heights, OH, a “2,000-person town[] less than 10 miles from Cleveland,” the local government announced plans to pay half of the student debts, up to $50,000 for student debtholders who purchase a house worth at least $50,000 within five years of graduation and live in the city for 15 years.
• The former chief of the US Department of Education’s Office of the General Counsel and current president of the National Student Legal Defense Network suggested “[f]ive steps Congress should take to repair the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.“
• In Iowa, “[t]wo bills in the [] Legislature would help student-loan borrowers in different ways, one with the implementation of a student-loan ombudsman and another [by] eliminating licensing sanctions against borrowers who are delinquent or default on their loans. These proposals have drawn bipartisan support.“
• Travelers Insurance joined other companies now “allow[ing] payments that U.S. employees make toward their student loans to be eligible for the company’s 401(k) matching program.“– a solution that the AP reported “a leading national retirement plan advisor [considers] a ‘Wow’ benefit that is budget neutral by simply allowing employees to allocate existing matching dollars without an additional cost to an employer.“

Public Service Management & Hiring

• The Hill reported that “[t]ax-exempt, nonprofit organizations across the country may be shocked this year to discover that, possibly for the first time, they must pay taxes simply for providing employees with access to transit and parking [while] a growing number of municipalities require, by law, that employers of a certain size provide transportation benefits to their employees.“
• In Texas, “three conservative lawyers are seeking to overturn Texas laws that require attorneys to join the State Bar of Texas and pay annual dues…argu[ing] that being forced to pay dues that support ‘inherently poiltical or ideological’ priorities violates their free speech rights.” In particular, the attorneys object to “being forced to subsidize diversity programs or efforts to help immigrants at the border with Mexico.“

Legal Technology

• A brief article in the National Law Review examined the growth of biometric data collection–and the growth in its regulations–to argue that “[c]ompanies, regardless of industry, should be reevaluating their biometric use practices and taking steps to compy with a growing body of law surrounding this sensitive information.“
• The Pew Foundation reviewed states’ efforts to adopt online dispute resolution, suggesting that “a national body could create standards for successful use of ODR in civil courts.“
• In New York, NY “[t]he New York City Legal Aid Society has released a searchable database of federal lawsuits brought against the New York City police, which it said could arm plaintiffs attorneys with crucial information for their own civil rights suits.”
• Also in New York, NY, “[a] new study from [NYU] and NYU’s AI Now Institute concludes that predictive policing systems run the risk of exacerbating discrimination in the criminal justice system if they rely on ‘dirty data’.“
• Meanwhile, in Minneapolis, MN “[t]he Hennepin County Attorney’s Office…launched a new online tool that gives the public access to years of statistical information involving criminal cases, including racial breakdowns.“
• In Massachusetts, a ransomware attack left “[t]he Massachusetts public defender agency [] unable to access its it network for weeks [and] unable to pay the bar advocates who handle 80 percent of the public defender caseload in Massachusetts…CPCS has since cleared the ransomware off its network and is gradually restoring its systems from backup data.“

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Oregon, the state’s Access to Justice Coalition released a study based on a survey of low-income Oregonians finding that “Oregon is meeting only about 16 percent of the need for low-income civil legal aid services.“
• In Wisconsin, “Gov. Tony Evers took some steps [in his budget] to address underfunded district attorney’s offices and staff public defender positions.“
• At the Pentagon, “top uniformed and civilian officials in the Army, Navy and Air Force…propos[ed] a new tenant bill of rights for military families, which would include the ability to withhold payment for housing th
• In The Lawyers’ Daily, the founding chair of the elder law section of the Ontario Bar Association argued for a right to legal help in case of separation or divorce.
• Many developments in British Columbia:
  • The BC Attorney General released an external report containing recommendations to improve legal aid service, which states that “[y]ears of underfunding and shifting political priorities have taken their toll on the range and quality of legal aid services, and especially on the people who need them.”
    • Meanwhile, “lawyers’ groups said…the 25 recommendations are impossible to evaluate because there are no cost estimates attached [and] the Association of Legal Aid Laywers[] maintained the report did not resolve the current crisis.“
  • “A British Columbia-based women’s advocacy group says the provincial government and…the legal aid provider in the province [] are failing to provide adequate legal aid for family law cases involving domestic violence, especially where women and children are concerned.“
  • “The members of the Association of Legal Aid Lawyers (A.L.L.) have voted to withdraw their services beginning April 1st. An overwhelming 97% of those members who case votes March 11-13 did so in favor of the job action [saying] the B.C. government’s shrinking legal aid budget doesn’t come close to meeting the needs of vulnerable people in British Columbia.“
  • The Law Society of B.C. “sent back for further study a seven-year-old proposal to allow licensed paralegals to offer cheaper legal services and rejected a suggestion to give nominal educational credit to lawyers for doing charity work.“
    • For further reading, see the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice‘s article arguing that “Ontario introduced paralegal regulation over ten years ago with the promise that it would increase access to justice. Evidence suggests it has done so….[;] Law societies’ continued resistance to the regulation of paralegals is contrary to the public interest.“

Access to Justice – Criminal

• Law360.com reviewed “[c]ases…pending in Nevada, Idaho, Missouri, California, Pennsylvania and Washington, inspired by an ACLU-led lawsuit in New York that boosted state public defense funding there.“
• In Bexar County, TX the county “commissioned a formal student of its indigent defense system [in which r]esearchers will analyze three years of data, interview defendants and attorneys, and compare Bexar County with its peers.“
• In Travis County, TX the drama surrounding Austin’s ongoing efforts to create a “traditional public defender office” continued, as the Austin Monitor reported that the troubled county commission looking to create such an office received a “verbal commitment by [Texas Indigent Defense Council” Executive Director Geoff Burkhart to request waiving the [March 11th letter of intent deadline] in this case to buy the county some time.“
• In New Jersey, counties are reaching different conclusions about “municipal courts’ public defender ‘user fees,'” with Bayonne and Secaucus councils poised to raise fees from $50 to $200 while Jersey City “is planning to eliminate its user fee.”

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Madison County, MN, the county Public Defender and County State’s Attorney both argued “against expanding the use of ankle bracelets to monitor prisoners as an option to reduce jail population numbers.”

The Organization

Texas Defender Service (TDS) is a non-profit organization established in 1995 by experienced Texas death penalty attorneys.Our mission is to establish a fair and just criminal justice system in Texas.

TDS aims to improve the quality of representation afforded to those facing a death sentence and to expose and eradicate the systemic flaws plaguing the Texas death penalty.

The Position

TDS seeks summer law students for full-time internships in their Austin and Houston offices to assist in all aspects of TDS’s work.  Summer law interns must be capable of performing both high-level legal research and briefing along with ground-level intensive investigative work.  When possible, students will also attend local trainings, trials and oral arguments.  Students will receive training on how to conduct mitigation investigation in capital cases both in preparation for trial and post-conviction briefing.  They will receive regular feedback throughout the summer on both written and investigative work.

See the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/opportunitydetails?OppID=90068

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! It’s March now, but the last week of February certainly packed a punch. There are two items I want to highlight for you:

First, Brooklyn Defender Services’ Director of Policy took to Twitter yesterday to highlight a two-justice dissenting opinion questioning Gideon v. Wainright. (Link to the opinion available below.) Second, any of you heading to the ABA’s Equal Justice Conference in May may want to check out the Law School Pro Bono Advisor’s Pre-Conference event.

If that isn’t enough, there’s also a legal aid strike brewing in British Columbia, a new FTC task force to police the technology sector, a report from the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing tying housing to the access-to-justice gap, and allegations of infants under one-year-old detained by ICE. As always, details are in the links below.

See you around,
Sam

Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “a federal court found [that when] the U.S. Department of Education changed its interpretation of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness regulation, it did not adhere to notice standards mandated under the Administrative Procedure Act, and those changes were arbitrary and capricious.“
• According to the New York Federal Reserve Bank, “[o]utstanding student loan debt stood at 1.46 trillion in the fourth quarter [of 2018], up $15 billion[, with] 11.4% of aggregate student debt [] 90+ days delinquent or in default.“
  • Meanwhile, Philly.com reported that “[FedLoan’s] profits have plummed by 90 percent over the last four years [and] the agency could soon start to lose money[.]“
• In Washington DC, Senators Warren and Rubio “introduced a bill that would prevent states from suspending, revoking or denying professional licenses as punishment for falling behind on student loan payments.“
• In Oregon, the Bellingham Herald surveyed the efforts across multiple states–including Oregon–to pass protections for student borrowers similar to “Connecticut’s so-called Student Loan Bill of Rights.” (See this article for developments in New York State on this issue.)
• Guardian Life Insurance released “College Debt in America: The Case for Tuition & Loan Repayment Benefits,” a report which includes this chart comparing the rise in costs for health care and tuition, relative to the consumer price index (see page 3 of the report).
• Governing.com reviewed the history-to-date of “income share agreements” as an alternative to student loans, a strategy for which “[f]ederal legislation…enjoyed bipartisan support last Congress and is set for reintroduction this year as well.“
• The New York Times published a story about a teacher who, after having finished with his loans under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, nevertheless received “a deliquincey report [from FedLoan] to the scorekeepers at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion that effectively wrecked his credit.”
• The Washington Post reported that “[a] contractor for the Education Department is suing the federal agency, alleging that billions of dollars in defaulted student loans go uncollected because the government is not lining up new private debt collectors.”

Nonprofit Management

• According to Fox News Oklahoma City, “[a] study from the Fundraising Effectiveness Project shows about a four percent decrease in donations under $1,000 to nonprofits in 2018, and a slight increase in donations over $1,000.” The Hill has more on the subject.

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In a letter to Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and its Inspector General, the American Immigration Council, American Immigration Lawyers Council, and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network alleged that “there are at least nine infants under one year of age detained in the South Texas Family Residential Center (STFRC) in Dilley, Texas, at least one of whom has been detained for more than 20 days.” The letter calls for the release of the infants and their mothers, as well as a “review [of] any written decisions by the Department of Homeland Security to detain the infants,” along with other demands related to their medical care while in custody.
• In Texas, “[s]aying there is no evidence of widespread election fraud in Texas, a federal judge…blocked the removal of any registered voter after state Republican leaders loudly but wrongly questioned the U.S. citizenship of tens of thousands of people.“
• In Illinois, the state’s attorney general “joined an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s practice of denying people access to the asylum process at ports of entry on the southern border.“
  • Meanwhile, in Boston, WBUR published an account of recent events involving immigration attorneys’ difficulties crossing the southern border to provide assistance to migrant clients waiting in Mexico under the challenged policy.
• In Washington DC, UDC Law announced that “more than 40 clinical and experiemental programs across the country have requested the teacher’s guide to [the Legal Interviewing and Language Access Film Project], which coaches law students on client interviewing techniques in the immigration law context.” (UDC Law developed the project in collaboration with Tulane University Law School.)
• In New Haven CT, Yale’s “Rule of Law Clinic…in conjunction with over 60 former U.S. government officials, issued a joint statement challenging the validity of President Donald Trump’s Feb. 15 declaration of a national emergency at the southern border.”

Legal Technology

• In New York NY, Hotspot Law launched “a new legal technology platform that allows for real-time free phone consultation booking between consumers and attorneys….designed to provide free and simple access to justice for everyone.”
• In San Francisco CA, the city’s district attorney announced that his office used algorithms developed by Code for America “to erase 8,000 marijuana convictions and reduce felony convictions to misdemeanours.”
• In Palo Alto CA, Stanford News profiled the work of the law school’s “Administering by Algorithm” policy lab, which explores the question of what happens when government agencies can’t explain how the algorithms that they use to make decisions work.
• In Washington DC, “[t]he Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition announced the creation of a task force dedicated to monitoring competition in U.S. technology markets, investigating any potential anticompetitive conduct in those markets, and taking enforcement actions when warranted.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• At the 40th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing issued a report on Access to justice for the right to housing suggesting that “the global housing crisis is rooted in a crisis in access to justice because without access to justice, housing is not properly recognized, understood or addressed as a human right.”
• In Toronto ON, at the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers conference, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada re-iterated his position that “lawyers [] have a responsibility to help solve the access-to-justice problem” by taking on pro bono work.
• In Oregon, The Register Guard ran an opinion column calling attention to the law pay of civil legal aid attorneys in the state, as the newspaper and state legislators discuss the underpaid status of public defenders–who the letter-writer notes are still better compensated than legal aid attorneys.

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In British Columbia, “[legal services l]awyers say they will [strike] April 1, potentially leaving clients and criminal defendants without representation and the courts in chaos, if the government doesn’t dramatically increase legal-aid funding.” Against this backdrop, the Editorial Board of the Vancouver Sun argued, in a letter written by the director of the Association of Legal Aid Lawyers, that “B.C. has an access-to-justice and legal aid crisis [that] can be traced back to years of cuts and underfunding in the legal-aid system,” and suggested that “the legal profession in B.C. generates more-than-sufficient revenue directly from the tax on legal fees to fund a[n adequate] legal-aid system.“
• In Travis County TX, local news provided another account of the ongoing dispute among members of the commission charged with improving indigent defense in the county.
• In Bayonne City NJ, the city council introduced a bill proposing to quadruple their public defender “user fee”, “add[ing] Bayonne to a long list of municipalities that hav eraised their fees since 2015, when the state started allowing municipalities to do so.“
• In Michigan, “[t]here should be a public defender’s office…by late summer [as the board of commissioners] agreed to accept $2,217,515 from the state to fund a public defender’s office [for Van Buren and Allegan Counties].” Meanwhile, “[t]he newly created public defender’s office in Shiawassee County is up and running[.]“
• In dissent from the Supreme Court’s opinion in Garza v. Idaho, Justice Thomas, joined by Justice Gorsuch, argued that:

The right to counsel is not an assurance of an error-free trial or even a reliable result. It ensures fairness in a single respect: permitting the accused to employ the services of an attorney. The structural protections provided in the Sixth Amendment certainly seek to promote reliable criminal proceedings, but there is no substantive right to a particular level of reliability. In assuming otherwise, our ever-growing right-to-counsel precedents directly conflict with the government’s legitimate interest in the finality of criminal judgments.

Garza v. Idaho, No. 17-1026, slip op. at 17 (U.S. 2019)

The Organization:

Located in downtown Pittsburgh, Ruder Law represents parents and students throughout Western Pennsylvania.
Our firm helps families obtain needed educational services for students with disabilities in all school environments, from preschool, through elementary and secondary school, into college and vocational programs.

The Position

Ruder Law seeks an associate attorney for a full-time position. The attorney will represent parents and students in matters involving the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. The attorney will independently manage all aspects of a busy caseload, including interviewing clients, drafting memoranda and briefs, advocating in IEP meetings, filing complaints and litigating due process claims before the Office for Dispute Resolution.

The candidate should have at least 1-3 years of legal experience.

See the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/opportunitydetails?OppID=89601

Marissa LaVette, Assistant Staff Counsel | ABA Center for Pro Bono

Spring is around the corner! Spring’s return means the 2019 ABA/NLADA Equal Justice Conference (EJC) is almost here, and with it, the annual Law School Pro Bono Advisor’s Pre-Conference! The 2019 EJC is May 8-11, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky at the Louisville Downtown Marriott. The Law School Pro Bono Advisors Pre-Conference will take place on May 8, 2019 from 8am-5pm.

This year’s pre-conference will offer programming on a variety of topics relevant to law school pro bono advisors. We will open the pre-conference with an inspirational and interactive session exploring self-care for pro bono advisors to sustain themselves and their students in challenging times. Law school pro bono colleagues will then lead attendees in the annual Connecting with Colleagues session, which gives attendees a chance to network and connect with colleagues from across the country. Colleagues can explore common obstacles to completing their work and discuss what they find most fulfilling about their jobs.

Next, the entire group will participate in a Project Exchange session, which will allow colleagues to brainstorm and exchange ideas on different models of pro bono projects used by schools across the country. Attendees will be able to brainstorm with colleagues from similarly situated programs to discuss ideas for new pro bono projects and solutions to common obstacles faced in the law school pro bono realm.

After lunch, participants will head into breakout sessions that address the following topics:

• The basics of running a law school pro bono program for those newer to the field. Learn the basics of building and re-energizing a pro bono program, and how to tackle specific issues in your program such as recognition, tracking hours, and troubleshooting challenges.
• Strategies for schools in remote areas to serve clients through a pro bono program and ways for schools in more urban areas to tackle the rural pro bono needs.
• A session on doing more with less, to help pro bono coordinators strategize how to involve more students in pro bono, raise the profile of your pro bono program, and meet challenges you faxe as you gain a fresh start on your program.

Plan to come away from the pre-conference with an action plan that you can implement to reinvigorate your pro bono program. Following the pre-conference, an exciting EJC awaits! This year’s Conference will have 85 CLE accredited sessions, energizing speakers, and numerous networking opportunities. The Conference provides a wide range of learning and sharing experiences for all attendees. We hope to see you there! Please contact Marissa LaVette if you have additional questions!

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Major news this week includes investigative reporting from Bloomberg revealing a surge in student-loan delinquencies, British Columbia’s decision to provide amnesty for student loan interest, and a vigorous debate in Canada over recent comments by the Chief Justice indicating his interest in exploring mandatory pro bono strategies. Also, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously to curtail civil forfeiture practices by state governments. And lots more besides! To see what I mean, read below.

See you around,
Sam

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In Manitoba, the Winnipeg Free Press reported on how “[t]he influx of asylum seekers [has] disproportionately affected Manitoba [relative to other provinces]” in the past year.

Workplace Discrimination and Harassment

• In Oregon, “[t]wo law school Oregon [sic] legislative interns who worked in former Republican state Sen. Jeff Kruse’s office filed a lawsuit…detailing how they were sexually harassed in Kruse’s office. The lawsuit also claims legislative leaders knew of the harassment and failed to protect the interns.“

Nonprofit Management

• In Missouri, a state appeals court ruled that “[a] nonprofit organization’s sole employee in the state of Missouri is entitled to unemployment benefits…[a] ruling that departs from decades of state interpretation of the Missouri Employment Security Law.”
• In Nevada, “lawmakers [are considering a bill that] aims to authorize county commissioners to form a nonprofit corporation to “aid the county in providing certain governmental services.”
• Professors Kuehn & Joy of Washington University in St. Louis School of Law

Student Debt

• In British Columbia, “the provincial government has eliminated interest charges on all BC student loans effective immediately.”
• Using the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s quarterly household-debt report, Bloomberg News calculated that “[s]tudent-loan delinquencies surged last year, hitting consecutive records of $166.3 billion in the third quarter and $166.4 billion in the fourth.“
• In Colorado, the State Higher Education Executive Officers’ Association officially responded to “a letter [Sens. Jones, Warren, Harris, and Masto] produced regarding racial disparities in student debt and broader challenges faced by students of color in college and career training.“
• NonProfit Quarterly reacted to the recent audit released by the Department of Education’s Office of the Inspector General, which sharply criticized the Department’s oversight of student loan servicers.
• MarketWatch summarized “[w]here the 2020 [Presidential] candidates stand on student debt and college affordability.”
• In Pennsylvania, The Beaver County Times reported that U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, while speaking about a town hall “said the nation’s student debt is about the same as the tax breaks given to corporations and the wealthiest Americans last year by Republicans so it is a ‘solvable problem.’”

Electoral Reform

• In Connecticut, the Yale Law School Rule of Law Clinic and the NAACP survived a motion to dismiss in their ongoing lawsuit alleging that “Connecticut’s 2011 Redistricting Plan reflects neither electoral nor representational equality [because it] count[s] the bodies of incarcerated persons in a place they have not chosen to live, to the political benefit of the people who live near prisons.“

Legal Technology

• In an episode of the Lawyerist podcast, Judge Dillard of the Court of Appeals of Georgia discusses “how judges have mostly been inaccessible to the public and how quite a few judges are now going against the grain and taking residence on Twitter.“
• According to the Washington Post, “[t]he Federal Trade Commission and Facebook are negotiating over a multi-billion dollar fine that would settle the agency’s investigation into the social media giant’s privacy practices…the largest the agency has ever imposed on a technology company.“
• In Illinois, the National Law Review called attention to a recent State Supreme Court Decision (Rosenbach v. Six Flags Entertainment Corp.), establishing strict liability for violations of the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act, holding that “when a private entity fails to comply with one of [the] requirements, that violation constitutes an invasion…sufficient to support the individual’s or customer’s statutory cause of action.” The National Law Review believes that “the court’s reasoning…focused heavily on the nature of biometric information, which unlike a social security number or password can’t be changed.“

Environmental Justice

• In Toledo, Ohio, “[v]oters…will be asked this month to decide whether Lake Erie, which supports the economies of four states, one Canadian province and the cities of Toledo, Cleveland and Buffalo, has the legal right ‘to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve.’“

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Canada, Chief Justice Wagner recently predicted in an interview that “you will see more and more law societies who will require that part of being a lawyer is also give some pro bono work.” Since his remarks earlier this month, a number of attorneys have provided arguments against the idea of “mandatory pro bono,” including statements this week from the President of the Canadian Bar Association.
• In Alberta, Legal Aid Alberta released its three-year strategic plan.
• In Alaska, Gov. Dunleavy proposed a budget for the 2020 fiscal year that would eliminate funding for the Alaska Legal Services Corporation, a move the ALSC estimates will force them to “turn away an additional 1,363 applicants for legal help, impacting 2,809 Alaskans.”
• In New York, “[t]wo-thirds of legal service providers…that offer free counseling on foreclosure prevention for struggling homeowners could be forced to stop offering that aid in April,” following Govenor Cuomo’s failure to including such funding in his amended executive budget proposal.
• Also in New York, “Hofstra University has launced a program to help pro se litigants with civil issues at the Eastern District of New York’s Central Islip courthouse.”
• In Detroit, Michigan, the State Bar of Michigan, the ACLU of Michigan, several Michigan law schools, Ford Motor company, and other prominent institutions announced a “Detroit Eviction Right to Counsel Summit” [to] be held March 12 and include local and national experts along with tenants facing evictions.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Bonneville County, Idaho, Chief Public Defender Crane reacted to “legislation under consideration [that] would limit public defenders to 210 felony cases, requiring counties with higher caseload averages to hire more attorneys,” saying that “the county’s public defense office would have to see if the state would volunteer funds to help counties cover the cost of hiring additional attorneys.“
• In Wisconsin, “Republicans in [the] state Assembly are supporting raising the pay for attorneys who represent poor defendants as the state faces a class-action lawsuit over the issue.“
• In Saginaw County, Michigan, the county “is creating a public defender’s office to comply with new state mandates to provide legal counsel for indigent people[, composed of] a director and eight attorneys.“
• In Travis County, Texas, the county’s Indigent Legal Services work group “has composed a draft letter indicating their intent to apply for a Texas Indigent Defense Commission grant in May, but the Commissioners Court is concerned that moving too fast could be a mistake.” (Key members of the work group departed earlier this month, as previously mentioned in this digest.)
• In Coweta County, Georgia, new data related by the District Attorney’s Office indicated that “felony caseloads…have jumped nearly 40 percent since 2015.” District Attorney Cranford “recently proposed the possibility of a circuit split for the five-county Coweta Judicial Circuit.“

Criminal Justice Reform

• In Louisiana, State Public Defender Dixon explained to a legislative subcommittee that a significant amount of the Louisiana Public Defender Fund is “spent propping up local public defenders who otherwise rely on ‘unstable and inadequate’ local sources like traffic tickets”–a strategy that has become complicated as “police in many jurisdictions aren’t writing as many tickets as they used to.”
• Also in Louisiana, “Orleans Parish Public Defender Laura Bixby on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the city of New Orleans for refusing to turn over records showing the locations of hundreds of crime cameras it has installed since 2017.” (See Bixby v. New Orleans.)
• In Philadelphia, NPR interviewed reform-minded District Attorney Krasner.
• In Santa Clara County, California, the District Attorney’s Office released a “Race and Prosecutions” report. According to The Mercury News, “[b]esides chronicling an ongoing over-representation of Latino and black residents in felony and misdemeanor cases, the [report] highlights how prosecutors are paying close attention to the county’s most crime-affected neighborhoods, and are being tested with experimental “race-blind” case evaluations.”
• In New York, the state’s intermediary court (Appellate Division) “ruled [that] footage from police body cameras should be subject to New York’s public disclosure laws.” (See In re Patrolmen’s Benevolent Ass’n. of the City of New York v. De Blasio)
• In Washington DC, the Supreme Court unanimously “ruled that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporated the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause to the states.” (See Timbs v. Indiana)
  • In addition to the new precedent, court watchers remarked on how Justice Gorsuch agreed with Justice Thomas, who reached the same result as the majority but through the Privileges and Immunities Clause.
  • Others are circumspect of the ruling’s impact: “how much it will matter will depend on how the court applies it in the future. After all, the Eighth Amendment has applied to federal civil forfeitures for more than two decades and yet, during that period, ‘the federal government took in $36.6 billion in assets police seized from people on America’s roads and in its poorer neighborhoods, many of whom never were charged with a crime or shown to have drugs.“

The Organization

The International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) provides professional advice and technical assistance in promoting democracy and serves as an information clearinghouse on elections, rule of law, governance, and civil society.

IFES annually awards two to four Democracy Studies Fellowships to bring outstanding graduate students to Washington, D.C. to engage in democracy development research. Based at IFES’ Center for Applied Research and Learning, fellows have access to IFES experts and conduct independent research with IFES mentors for six to ten weeks. At the end of the program, fellows must complete a paper for presentation to the public or IFES colleagues.

The Position

Hosted by IFES, Manatt Fellows carry out research at the organization’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., for a period of four to six weeks. The Manatt Fellowship consists of a $5,000 stipend to subsidize fellows’ living expenses while in D.C.

The Manatt Fellowship is open to Ph.D., master’s and law students who are working toward a degree or concentration in international relations, political science, public administration, public interest law or a related area at a university in one of the following states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota or Wisconsin. Successful applicants will demonstrate how their research can directly benefit from IFES’ institutional expertise, as well as how their research could contribute to IFES’ technical leadership in the democracy and election assistance field.

See the full post on PSJD: https://www.psjd.org/opportunitydetails?OppID=88818

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Student debt new continues to dominate this week, as the Department of Education’s Inspector General released an audit highly critical of the DoE’s oversight of student loan servicers and Congress introduced bipartisan bills in both houses proposing to allow employers to contribute funds tax-free toward employees’ student loans. (Commentary below.) There are also stories on legislative developments at the state level, mostly concerning states deliberations about whether or not to regulate student loan servicers. There are also some major items in Criminal Justice Reform, where the ACLU released a new report on prosecutorial transparency and New York’s The Legal Aid Society coined the phrase “knock and spit” policing.

See you around,
Sam

Legal Recruiting

• In Boston, MA “the Boston University School of Law OutLaw chapter — the law school’s LGBTQ+ student organization — organized a protest against the school for allowing JAG to participate in a networking event for students interested in public service…The BU Law Student Veteran’s Association also issued a statement in opposition to the trans ban and in support of those who chose to protest JAG on campus.“
• In Quebec, “[t]he legal aide office in Kuujjuaq, the administrative capital of the Inuit region of Nunavik, Quebec, will be temporarily shut down in March after an inability to recruit staff for vacant positions.”

Immigration, Asylum, & Citizenship

• In Portland, ME the Innovation Law Lab , sued the Trump administration over its policy of “send[ing] asylum-seekers to Mexico while they await their immigration cases.“
• In Mission, TX “[t]he nonprofit National Butterfly Center has asked a federal judge to stop border wall activity on its property…say[ing] heavy machinery has been driving through their property for a week, including a road grader accompanied by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle. Wright alleged that someone had cut the lock on a center fence and replaced it with a lock belonging to CBP.“

Student Debt

• In Washington, DC, the Department of Education’s Inspector General released an audit “find[ing] that officials who oversee student loans haven’t properly tracked problems and rarely penalize servicers. The office that manages student loans says it disagrees with the finding but is implementing the audit’s recommendations.” (More on this story from NPR.)
• Also in Washington DC, “[b]ipartisan companion bills introduced in the Senate and House on Wednesday seek to allow employers to contribute up to $5,250 tax-free to their employees’ student loans[.]“
• In Washington State, the Washington Student Achievement Council created the position of “Student Loan Advocate” : “a new position stemming from state legislation, passed in 2018, to improve consumer protections for students.“
• In Virginia, “[s]tudent loan servicers in Virginia will still not be licensed after a House of Delegates committee killed a bill Tuesday to regulate the companies.“
• In New Mexico, “the [state] House Commerce and Economic Development Committee passed a bill to enact a ‘Student Loan Bill of Rights’ to protect student loan borrowers from exploitation.“
• In Connecticut, “lawmakers are looking at ways to help millennials with crucial student loan debt. Proposals being examined include free tuition and loan forgiveness programs.“
• In Colorado, a state lawmaker has introduced a bill “that would require student loan service providers [to] be licensed [and] would create an ombudsman in the Attorney General’s Office.“
• In Maine, legislators discussed their recently-filed bill that aims to introduce a referendum in an upcoming election asking voters,
  “Do you favor a $250,000,000 bond issue to provide funds for payment of student loan debt of individuals who agree to work and reside in Maine for five years and for reimbursement of employers that make student loan repayments on behalf of such individuals?”
• CNBC made a list of recent creative proposals for tackling student debt. Many of them have been mentioned in prior editions of this Digest, but SponsorChange.org and the Shared Harvest Fund were news to me.

Legal Technology

• In Washington, DC the Government Accountability Office published a report on internet privacy suggesting that “comprehensive Internet privacy legislation” is needed to protect consumers. (Commentary available from the Washington Post.)
• Also in Washington DC, “President Trump signed an executive order…direct[ing] the federal government to prioritize research and development of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, under coordination through the National Science and Technology Council Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence.” Legal technology experts are already speculating that this development “could signal technology becoming more prevalent in the legal industry.“
• In San Francisco, CA, The SF Chronicle discussed how California’s data privacy law “has strongly motivated members of Congress to create a federal privacy protection regime.“
• In Albany, NY Albany Law School students “released a web-platform…to help lawyers efficiently serve clients [] attempting to gain nonprofit status in New York State.“

Environmental Justice

• In Minnesota, “the state’s largest Indian tribe, the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, has passed a tribal law granting wild rice its own enforceable legal rights[,] includ[ing] the rights to ‘flourish, regenerate, and evolve.’ A similar law has been adopted by the 1855 Treaty Authority, a tribal group representing beneficiaries of an 1855 land pact the Chippewa tribes made with the U.S. government.“

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Washington, DC the LSC announced that it is “forming an Emerging Leaders Council to raise public awareness of the current crisis in legal aid and the importance of ensuring access to justice for all Americans.“
• The New York Times published an interview with Professor Rebecca Sandefur discussing her research on access to justice. Among other things, Professor Sandefur observes that “[a]cross a number of common justice problems….nonlawyer advocates and unrepresented lay people have been observed to perform as well or better than lawyers.” (For example, social workers have an excellent record in eviction cases in New York.)

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Wisconsin, WPR released an expose on “what’s behind the state’s low public defender pay rate, and how it’s impacting clients who can’t afford a lawyer.“
• In Travis County, TX, “the Austin Criminal Defense Lawyers Association’s board voted unanimously at a special meeting…to withdraw from [a work group hoping to create a public defenders office for the county].“
• In Utah, a report from the Utah Indigent Defense Commission concluded that “[a]n influx of state funding to bolster county public defenders” under a recently-developed statewide funding scheme (replacing Utah’s earlier system in which individual counties funded their own programs) has transformed public defenders’ work: “attorneys have more time to spend with clients and defendants aren’t rushed into taking plea deals as often.” (As described in the Daily Herald.)
• In Montana, “[l]eaders with Montana’s Office of the State Public Defender told lawmakers Friday that they’re expecting higher caseloads in the coming years – and that could lead to higher costs.“
• In Minnesota, the Public News Service previewed upcoming contract negotiations between Public Defenders and the Board of Public Defense: “the contract negotiations won’t be simply about pay but rather improving and preserving the constitutional rights of those that can’t afford an attorney. Rights are being violated when staffing is at a low level. The public defender’s office has 68% of the attorney staff and 57% of the support staff that state and national standards say they should have.“
• In Indiana, “[t]he Public Defender Commission is pushing for lawmakers to pass two bills that would help fund and staff public defender offices statewide.“
• In San Francisco, CA “[l]egislation that would ensure all youth in San Francisco have access to legal counsel and a parent or responsible adult prior to a police interrogation cleared a Board of Supervisors committee on Monday.“

Criminal Justice Reform

• The ACLU released “Unlocking the Black Box,” a report finding that “the ‘few public statistics on prosecutorial decision making often only collect information at the broadest level,’ which makes it ‘nearly impossible to uncover individual abuses, systemic discrimination, or patterns that do not align with office policies.’” (As glossed by Reason.com)
• In New York, NY Allison Lewis of the Legal Aid Society reported that “the same law enforcement playbook that brought you stop-and-frisk [provides] the latest form of racial profiling and policing: the knock-and-spit. We’ve learned that NYPD officers are willing to knock on doors to take New Yorkers’ DNA, whether by “consent” or at the precinct by offering people a cigarette or drink to collect their spit. And once again, as the city’s primary public defenders, we see this latest law enforcement sweep is happening mainly to New Yorkers of color.”
• In Tampa, FL, in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, the President of the ABA asserted that “[n]o one should be jailed just because they can’t afford bail, fines, or fees.”
• In Vermont, “representatives from Vermont Legal Aid and the Attorney General’s Office…proposed a package of reforms that would allow more Vermonters with criminal histories to clear their records.“
• In San Francisco, CA “[i]n a direct challenge to California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s position on the state’s new police transparency law,  a Bay Area-based First Amendment group sued the state Justice Department on Thursday over its refusal to release officer misconduct and use-of-force records.”
• In Honolulu, HI “[i]n an extraordinary move, the state attorney general on Tuesday filed a petition with the Hawaii Supreme Court calling for the ‘immediate suspension’ of Honolulu’s embattled city prosecutor [as his] refusal to step aside ― despite being the target of a federal public corruption investigation ― ‘has subjected every case being handled by the Honolulu Department of Prosecuting Attorney to potential ethical and legal challenges.”