Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public!

Hope you’re all hanging in there. It’s another blockbuster of a week, beginning with (in the US) newly-unearthed historical evidence that the basis for law enforcement’s doctrine of “qualified immunity” rests on a copying error from 1874. Florida is still digesting the consequences of Gov. DeSantis’ decision to remove a locally-elected state prosecutor who stated he would refuse to bring abortion-related cases, while journalists in San Francisco reported that newly-appointed DA Brooke Jenkins drew a six-figure salary from a group working to recall her predecessor that claimed she was an unpaid volunteer. Meanwhile, all eyes remain on the Biden Administration’s self-imposed deadline of August 31 as it continues to weigh its options for student loan reform.

In Canada, Crown prosecutors spoke in support of their criminal defender colleagues’ ongoing labor action against the Alberta government as they work to achieve better wages and working conditions and the Department of Justice released a report on the lack of access to legal aid in family law disputes.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choices

• In the Chronicle of Philanthropy, a letter to the editor responded to a recent article on how to “Humanize Your Hiring Process” by arguing that “[the article] left out a major dimension of the human experience: disability… One in four adults in the United States is disabled, and yet people with disabilities are significantly underrepresented in nonprofit and philanthropic organizations.”
• In the California Law Review, Professor Alex Reinert of Cardozo Law revealed that the basis for the “Qualified Immunity” doctrine apparently rests on a scrivener’s error: “Congress that passed Section 1983 meant to explicitly displace common-law protections. Most critically, scholars and courts have overlooked the originally-enacted version of Section 1983, which contained a provision that specifically disapproved of any state law limitations on the new cause of action. For unknown reasons, that provision was not included by the Reviser of the Federal Statutes in the first compilation of federal law in 1874. This Article is the first to unearth the lost text of Section 1983 and demonstrate its implications.”

Reproductive Justice

• In Tampa Bay FL, “the chief state prosecutor in the Tampa area says he will vigorously fight his removal from office by Governor Ron DeSantis. DeSantis says Hillsborough County state attorney Andrew Warren was neglecting his duty by failing to enforce Florida's laws that restrict abortion or prohibit gender-affirming care for minors.”
  • Relatedly, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor tweeted in response to the governor’s order that “[r]emoving a duly elected official should be based on egregious actions—not political statements. In a free state, voters should choose their elected officials.”
• In Iowa, “Republican Governor Kim Reynolds [] asked a state trial court [] to lift its injunction that bars enforcement of a 2018 state law that makes abortions illegal after a fetal heartbeat has been detected.”
• In Delaware, “[a]ttorneys from almost a dozen Delaware law firms have agreed to offer pro bono legal advice on abortion-related issues to those who contact a free and anonymous helpline set up by the attorney general’s office.”
• In Minnesota, “[a] jury found that a pharmacy did not discriminate against a woman when it refused to give her the morning-after pill. The pharmacist gave ‘belief’ as the reason for refusing to fill the prescription for emergency contraception. Although the jury decided that the woman’s rights had not been violated, it did say that the emotional damage caused by the decision amounted to $25,000.”

Immigration

• In New York NY, “migrants continued arriving in New York City [] a day after city officials took aim at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for busing migrants detained at the border to the city as part of his campaign to draw attention to the influx of migrant crossing from Mexico.”
• In Tennessee, “[a] judge [] shot down a bid by the federal government to force each of the 104 Grainger County slaughterhouse workers rounded up in a legally suspect raid to file suit against agents accused of targeting them solely based on their race or ethnicity…[Judge] McDonough ruled there is ample evidence showing federal agents targeted all Hispanic workers at the plant under a single plan to turn what was supposed to be a search for proof of tax evasion by the slaughterhouse owner into the largest immigration raid in recent Tennessee history.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he Pentagon rejected a request from the District of Columbia seeking National Guard assistance in what the mayor has called a ‘growing humanitarian crisis’ prompted by thousands of migrants being bused to the city from two southern states.”

Rule of Law

• In Hamilton County TN, “[a] newly elected district attorney in Tennessee said during her campaign she would consider prosecuting teachers and librarians who stock LGBTQ books in libraries, but ultimately called on school boards to ban books from schools.”
• The Editorial Advisory Board of Maryland’s Daily Record condemned US Supreme Court Justice Alito’s recent remarks at Notre Dame Law School’s religious liberty initiative in Rome, writing that “[h]is flippant comments further damage a court already damaged in the eyes of many by what appear to be decisions motivated by politics or religion. And more to the point, there are numerous abortion decisions pending, and no doubt yet to be brought, in the federal courts. Some think the Supreme Court is in a legitimacy crisis. Alito’s sometimes sarcastic remarks at this Rome event certainly did not help, and in the eyes of many hurt the court.”

Free & Fair Elections

• In Michigan, “Attorney General Dana Nessel is seeking an outside prosecutor to consider charges against a group of prominent individuals for having allegedly engaged in a ’conspiracy’ to unlawfully gain access to voting machines used in the 2020 presidential election.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “[w]ith just three weeks remaining until the federal pause on student loan payments ends, borrowers have been left in limbo while President Joe Biden stays mum on whether he will forgive student debt for millions of Americans, and whether payments will resume after the moratorium expires on Aug. 31. The White House has said Biden will make a decision by the end of August, after the president initially said in April he’d announce a decision within a ‘couple of weeks.’”
• Also in Washington DC, “White House officials [met] with student debt activists and advocacy groups ahead of President Joe Biden’s self-imposed deadline of Aug. 31 for deciding whether to approve broad-based debt relief for millions of Americans.”
• Forbes published a comparison of two major proposals on student loan forgiveness.
• In Boston MA, the Hildreth Institute published a report calling for “remov[ing] the interest obligation on students,” arguing that “[t]he government can offset the cost of waiving interest payments by investing the principal payments to generate revenue.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “[a] group of federal watchdogs is working to make the oversight community more diverse, inclusive, equitable and accessible through personnel practices as well as the work they do, which aligns with the Biden administration’s goals for the federal workforce at-large.”
• Also in Washington DC, the Federal News Network argued that “[a] new bill introduced in the House of Representatives, titled the Public Service Reform Act, is not about public service and is certainly not reform. Rather than addressing accountability or hiring and pay challenges, the bill would make all federal workers at-will employees. The result would be a civil service that is little more than two million political appointees.”
• In New York, “[t]he New York State Bar Association announced the creation of a 20-member task force [] designed to review legal ethics questions for attorneys who represent government entities.”
• In Augusta GA, “[a] public defender’s office argued to the Georgia Court of Appeals [] that it has governmental immunity from a former staffer’s claim she was wrongly fired for seeking accommodations for her breast cancer treatment.”
• In Delaware County PA, a recently-filed lawsuit alleged “[a] pattern of gender-based discrimination was uncovered last year following the unionization of the [county] public defender’s office[.]”
• In Chicago IL, “[a] U.S. appeals court in Chicago [] called for an end to federal court oversight of state hiring, freeing Gov. J.B. Pritzker and future governors from scrutiny that has endured through eight administrations over a half-century.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Canada, the Department of Justice “has recently released a commission report discussing the impact of the lack of access to legal aid in family law disputes in Canada.” (full report available here)
• In Akron OH, “[f]our months after an Eviction Summit— which was attended by hundreds— was held in Akron, a new report is listing several suggestions to prevent evictions.” (full report available here)
• In Chicago IL, Block Club Chicago reported on “legal deserts”: areas “where it’s not easy to access legal aid and representation [that] often disproportionately affect low-income Chicagoans, as well as Black and Latino residents, women, older people, immigrants, people with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community[.]”–and on the organizations working to address these shortages.

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Alberta, “[t]hree days after a meeting with [Justice Minister] Shandro and Legal Aid Alberta CEO John Panusa, [criminal defense lawyers’] associations said they would expand their partial work stoppage an additional two weeks. Members of the voluntary associations will no longer provide certain bail and duty counsel services through Sept. 2[:] ‘If minister Shandro and CEO Panusa continue to bury their heads in the sand, our members will continue to withdraw legal services[.]’”
  • Relatedly, “Crown prosecutors are coming to the defence of their courtroom opponents, the same day as dozens of criminal defence lawyers across the province walked off the job in support of calls for improved legal aid funding.”
• In Quebec’s northern Nunavik region, a new report argues that “[t]he justice system…should be better adapted to local culture and have a more permanent presence in the area[.]” (full report available here)
• In Pennsylvania, “[a] nonprofit law firm and youth basketball league have filed a lawsuit alleging Pennsylvania’s ChildLine Registry, which determines who ends up on its list of child abusers, is unconstitutional. The lawsuit [] claims parents and caregivers are placed on the child abuse registry without first having a chance to meaningfully challenge the evidence against them and with only a cursory investigation.”
• In Colorado, “[a] federal judge vented his frustration [] at Colorado's public defender office, repeatedly raising his voice and insisting the office violated a legal directive when it determined an indigent Larimer County couple did not qualify for appointed counsel in their pending criminal case.”
• In Montgomery County TX, “[i]n a continued effort to control costs associated with Montgomery County’s criminal and civil courts, commissioners were supportive of a new position they believe could save money in the long run. [The new position] would verify eligibility of defendants applying for court-appointed attorneys.”
• In Spokane County WA, the director of the Public Defender’s Office “is proposing to move two of the attorneys from his staff into a separate office to handle cases that would otherwise have to be sent outside the system.” He claims the county “could save $250,000 a year, or possibly more, by not sending ‘conflict cases’ out to private attorneys[.]”
• In Indiana, the state’s “Supreme Court has approved a proposed schedule of minimum fees for the state’s public defenders appointed in trial and appellate cases.”
• In Maine and New Hampshire, “courts are struggling to find enough lawyers to represent the state’s poor against criminal charges.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In San Francisco CA, “District Attorney Brooke Jenkins doesn’t appear to have broken any laws by netting more than $100,000 from a nonprofit closely tied to the recall effort against her former boss Chesa Boudin. But her previously undisclosed six-figure salary, accrued while the recall campaign touted Jenkins as an unpaid volunteer, could raise issues of public perception for the district attorney as her political viability is put to the test in November when Jenkins will run for election for the first time.”
• In Cook County IL, the county “public defender office raised important concerns about gun control laws. They’ve identified a pattern of racism in the enforcement of such laws in Chicago, but can’t determine how bad the problem is or how to solve it without more information.”
• In Hennepin County MN, “Mary Moriarty, former chief public defender in Hennepin County, [received] more than 36% of the votes [in the County Attorney primary race]. She will proceed to a run-off in November, when she will take on Martha Holton Dimick, who finished second[.]”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public!

Hope you’re all hanging in there as we round out the summer with a new federal public health emergency. Dramatic news continues this week, as a national prosecutor association condemns Florida Governor DeSantis’ move to suspend an elected state attorney for pledging not to prosecute people under the state’s new anti-abortion law. Relatedly, a local prosecutor in Minnesota clashed with the MN attorney general over whether to appeal a recent court ruling there finding a state constitutional protection for abortion rights. Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on the Biden administration from state Attorney Generals, Democratic members of Congress, and Republican opposition as they continue to defer their promised decision about student loan reform. In Canada, criminal defense attorneys in Alberta voted in favor of “escalating work stoppages” this week.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choices

• In the LA Times, Partners for Justice’s Regional Program Director for California argued that “[t]he appointment of Brooke Jenkins as San Francisco’s new district attorney culminates months of evidence that the criminal justice reform movement needs a new playbook…the route to safer communities cannot run solely through progressive prosecutors…A more sustainable tool for criminal justice reform — maybe our most powerful yet — is to invest in public defenders.”
• ProPublica has put out a call for public defenders and criminal defense attorneys to join their network of volunteer sources: “We may contact you with questions about your expertise and the intricacies of the criminal justice system. We will also share occasional updates about stories in the works [and] also welcome your suggestions for stories.”

Reproductive Justice

• In Tallahassee FL, “Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision [] to suspend elected Tampa-area state attorney Andrew Warren for pledging not to prosecute people under the state’s new anti-abortion law was called a ‘unprecedented and dangerous intrusion’ to prosecutor independence, according to a national prosecutor group.”
• In Washington DC, “[i]n a virtual meeting…with a team of lawyers, Mr. Garland said the effect of the high court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which sent the issue of abortion back to state legislatures, was ‘immediate, wide-ranging and devastating.’”
• Also in Washington DC, “President Joe Biden…signed another executive order aimed at protecting access to abortions, this time with the goal of helping patients travel to other states to access reproductive health care services.”
• In Boston MA, “President Joe Biden said…he is nominating Julie Rikelman, an attorney who represented the Mississippi abortion clinic at the center of the recent [SCOTUS] ruling overturning the constitutional right to abortion, to a vacancy on the First Circuit.”
• In Michigan, “[a] judge blocked enforcement of a 1931 Michigan ban on abortion…just hours after the state Court of Appeals said county prosecutors were not covered by a May order and could enforce the prohibition following the fall of Roe v. Wade.”
  • Meanwhile, “[MI] Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is again pressing the Michigan Supreme Court to consider whether the state constitution protects an individual’s right to abortion services.”
• In Wyoming, “[t]he abortion advocates suing Wyoming over its abortion ban asked a state court [] to block the ban throughout the court proceedings.”
• In Idaho, “[t]he [US] Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Idaho over the state’s law banning abortion after six weeks, saying that federal law requires doctors and hospitals to perform medically required abortions to preserve the pregnant person’s health.”
• In Traverse County MN, “County Attorney Matthew Franzese filed a motion [] to intervene to appeal a Ramsey County judge’s ruling that threw out many of Minnesota’s restrictions on abortion. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said last week he would not appeal the ruling by Ramsey County Judge Thomas Gilligan which said restrictions — including a mandatory 24-hour waiting period, a requirement that both parents be notified before a minor can get an abortion and the law dictating that only physicians can perform abortions — were not allowed given the Minnesota Constitution’s protection of the right to abortion.”

Immigration

• In Providence RI, “[a] new city program will provide immigration-focused legal services to foreign-born residents seeking U.S. citizenship or those who want renew [sic] their lawful immigration status.”

Rule of Law

• On the internet, LexisNexis’ Rule of Law Foundation launched its U.S. Voting Laws & Legislation Center–”[a] tool…to provide citizens with free access to the most comprehensive collection of US voting laws, legislative developments, and news.”
• In Washington DC, “Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks ordered the Defense Department to save data from mobile devices after reports information was deleted from former top officials’ phones, including text messages from Jan. 6, 2021. Hicks in an Aug. 3 memo calls records retention a “solemn responsibility and legal obligation for all federal employees, civilian and military” and states text messages that conduct public business qualify as records.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[a]mid ongoing issues with investigations into the attack on the U.S. Capitol, a Senate Democrat wants to shore up records access for watchdogs and information sharing with lawmakers. The Homeland Security inspector general has been under fire for his handling of investigations into missing text messages from Secret Service agents and top Trump Homeland Security officials in the lead up to the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. Now, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee's panel on Homeland Security, has introduced legislation aimed at fixing issues raised going forward with all IGs.”

Free & Fair Elections

• In Fulton County GA, “Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has added former President Donald Trump's first White House counsel, Donald McGahn, to his legal team [as] Graham continues to fight a subpoena ordering him to appear before a grand jury in Fulton County's criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state.”
• In Austin TX, “a federal judge [] ordered the Texas Secretary of State to release records about a state program that claims to identify non-U.S. citizens on the voter rolls.”

Human Rights

• In Los Angeles CA, “The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law has launched a database that will track and analyze efforts against critical race theory (CRT) that seek to limit the teaching of race and racism in U.S. schools.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• Across the United States, “20 state attorneys general — led by Illinois' Kwame Raoul and Massachusetts' Maura Healey — wrote a letter to President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona urging them to extend a temporary waiver for borrowers enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which is intended to forgive student debt for government and nonprofit workers after ten years of qualifying payments.”
• In Chicago IL, “[t]he Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) announced today the Department has issued a letter to all federal student loan servicers encouraging them to immediately implement best practices to help alert and educate eligible student loan holders about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. As the primary contact for many student loan borrowers, servicers are in the best position to increase awareness about PSLF and help borrowers take advantage of the program.”
• In Washington DC, “[m]ore than 100 congressional Democrats are urging the White House to extend the pause on student loan repayment beyond the Aug. 31 deadline.”
• Also in Washington DC, “members of the NAACP are demanding that the president eliminate a large portion of debt for Black borrowers.”
• Again also in Washington DC, “[a] new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office finds the U.S. Department of Education miscalculated the cost of the federal student loan program. From 1997 to 2021, the Education Department estimated that payments from federal direct student loans would generate $114 billion for the government. But the GAO found that, as of 2021, the program has actually cost the government an estimated $197 billion.”
  • Importantly, US Senators (led by Sen. Warren) have noted for years that “Congress did not create federal student loans to generate revenue for the federal government…Federal student loan programs were created by Congress to provide an opportunity for every young person who works hard and plays by the rules to pursue higher education.”
• Meanwhile, also again also in Washington DC, “Reps. Virginia Foxx, Elise Stefanik, and Jim Banks introduced the Responsible Education Assistance Through Loan, or REAL, Reforms Act, which is intended to act as an ’alternative’ to proposals the Education Department has put forth to reform student-loan programs.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “[a] group of five conservative Republicans has introduced legislation to make the federal government an at-will employer, eviscerating civil service protections, chilling whistleblower activity and abolishing the Merit Systems Protection Board.”
• Also in Washington DC, “Senate Democrats last week introduced the chamber's full slate of 12 bills to set line-by-line fiscal 2023 spending at every federal agency, though they remain significantly divided with Republicans over how to avoid a shutdown in just two months.”
• In Los Angeles CA, “[the] County Board of Supervisors approved a motion [] that will allow the county to hire non-U.S. citizens.”
• In New York NY, “Mayor Eric Adams and Comptroller Brad Lander joined other city officials in the Bronx to announce that since May 9 the city had advanced 2,600 contract actions worth more than $4.2 billion helping 451 non-profit organizations in the city.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In California, the “chief justice of the California Supreme Court[] said that the state legislature is responsible for stalling efforts to bring about regulatory reforms to address the state’s gap in access to justice[.]”
• Also in California, legal ethics professors from Stanford and UCLA argued that “[t]he justice gap has grown so large that we cannot just lawyer our way out of it. Creative solutions are also needed[, such as]…licens[ing] the legal equivalent of nurse practitioners to help people with routine legal problems [and] let[ting] lawyers partner with other professionals, such as business experts, technologists, and social service workers.”
• In Tampa FL, the city “announced plans to work with Bay Area Legal Services (BALS), which could potentially help renters looking for legal services.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Alberta, “100 criminal defence lawyers from Calgary’s Criminal Defence Lawyers Association, Edmonton’s Criminal Trial Lawyers Association and the Southern Alberta Defence Lawyers’ Association voted in favour of job action. ‘Through escalating work stoppages, our members will make clear to the government that Legal Aid Alberta’s budget needs to be increased now,’ a joint statement read[.]”
  • Relatedly, “[c]riminal lawyers in Alberta say the legal aid system is at a breaking point, and they are threatening legal action if the province ignores requests for detailed updates to the program.”
• In Chenango County NY, “officials reported they may no longer be able to hold court or provide defense lawyers outside of regular, weekday work hours.”
• In Boston MA, “[i]nmates with local ties who are being held in solitary confinement at MCI-Cedar Junction, in South Walpole, have filed a class action lawsuit against the state prison system, alleging inhumane treatment during their extended time in isolation. Boston College Law School Civil Rights Clinic and the law firm of Holland & Knight announced in a press release that they had filed the lawsuit recently against the Department of Correction.”
• In Oregon, the state’s “federal public defender has asked a judge to appoint a special investigator to look into allegations that guards at the federal prison in Sheridan are retaliating against inmates for speaking out about their conditions behind bars.”
• Also in Oregon, the state’s “Public Defense Services Commission approved a plan to pay a rate of $158 per hour for in-custody felony cases to lawyers who are not currently under contract through the end of this year. The current rate is $105.”
• In New York NY, “[a] judge has ordered the New York Police Department to release documents pertaining to its monitoring of Black Lives Matters protests during the summer of 2020, requiring it to release 2,700 emails and other documents to the public or state why it fall [sic] ‘and/or allege with specificity that each document falls within one of the enumerated exemptions of Public Officers Law.’ ”
• In San Francisco CA, “[t]he process Arizona has in place for defendants challenging convictions in non-capital cases as of right was upheld by the Ninth Circuit against a challenge by an indigent defendant who said it violated his constitutional right to appellate counsel.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In San Francisco CA, “District Attorney Brooke Jenkins on Wednesday announced tougher new policies to hold drug dealers accountable, but her new crackdown brought swift criticism from the Public Defender, who called her philosophy ‘regressive,’ and [argued it] will disproportionately harm communities of color.”
  • Relatedly, former San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin “announced [] that he would not run to wrest back the seat he lost in a June recall election, averting a second bruising clash over criminal justice.”
• In New Jersey, “[a]ccording to a lawsuit filed by the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender (OPD), [because a]ll babies born in the state of New Jersey are required to have a blood sample drawn within 48 hours as part of a mandatory testing program that screens them for 60 different disorders. [If] police are able to reliably obtain the samples through subpoena, then effectively, the disease screening process is entering all babies born in the state into a DNA database with no ability to opt out. According to the lawsuit, parents and the public at large are unaware that blood samples taken from their children could be used in this way.”
• In Bexar County TX, the district attorney’s office celebrated that “in three years police have issued more than 6,200 citations rather than arresting and jailing people for a variety of nonviolent, low-level crimes.”
• In Travis County TX, “[t]he Texas Department of Public Safety refused to publicly release official records related to the Robb Elementary School shooting at the request of the Uvalde County district attorney’s office[.]”
• In Kenly NC, “[t]he mass exodus of an entire police department after the hiring of a Black town manager…has opened a conversation about public safety and race relations in a small town of just over 1,500 residents.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public!

Life continues to be interesting. In Washington, the Biden Administration is strategizing with civil society lawyers on how to protect people seeking abortions post-Dobbs, while also delaying a promised decision on student loan forgiveness until the end of August. Meanwhile, new reporting suggests that Trump allies are planning changes to the federal civil service (if Trump is re-elected) that commenters are characterizing as a “purge”. Public defenders in New York State are on track for a pay increase that will see their spending power rise relative to inflation, while federal employees’ pay increase may not be sufficient to keep up with the times. And the nationwide struggle over the future of progressive prosecution continues. All these stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choices

• In Washington DC, “more than two dozen advocacy groups said in a letter sent to President Joe Biden” that “[p]an-coronavirus vaccine technology currently in development by the U.S. military must remain public and should be shared with the world[:] ‘Current production and distribution agreements have empowered corporations while limiting the promise of life-saving coronavirus vaccines,” said Timi Iwayemi, senior researcher for the Revolving Door Project. “Continuing down a path that restricts widespread manufacturing and distribution of COVID vaccines would lead to unnecessary deaths and easier opportunities for the virus to mutate.’”
• Also in Washington DC, “[f]ormer aides close to President Trump are working to revive and expand his signature proposal to upend the federal civil service, according to a new report, and are working in conjunction with the former commander in chief to quickly purge thousands of federal employees if he were to return to office.”

Reproductive Justice

• In Washington DC, “[t]he White House and Justice Department [] will host their first meeting with outside lawyers to discuss how to protect those who seek abortions from legal repercussions [thirteen weeks after receiving advance warning and five weeks after] after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.”
  • Relatedly, The Marshall Project explored how “[i]n rescinding the 49-year-old constitutional right to abortion care, the [Supreme C]ourt ‘suddenly dumped the abortion question back into the realm of criminal law.’”
• Also in Washington DC, “Democratic Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri plans to introduce legislation that would establish a new reproductive health office in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and provide grant money to reproductive care services.”
• Again also in Washington DC, “Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has backed out of teaching a seminar at George Washington University’s law school in the nation’s capital, following student protests and the university’s statement of support for the conservative justice’s role on campus.”
• In Cheyenne WY, “[a] lawsuit filed [] by a Casper women's health clinic and others seeks to block Wyoming's new abortion ban just before it's scheduled to take effect. The lawsuit claims the new law violates the state constitution with restrictions that will discourage potentially lifesaving pregnancy healthcare in Wyoming, forcing pregnant women to go to other states for necessary procedures.”

Climate Crisis

• In St. Paul MN, “Republican-endorsed attorney general candidate Jim Schultz is calling on Democratic incumbent Keith Ellison to reject activist requests to review criminal cases tied to oil pipeline protests as a special prosecutor.”
• In Austin TX, “Environmentalist groups and their allies held a press conference…to pressure Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton into litigating polluters.”
• In Massachusetts, “Biden announced millions of dollars in funding for climate change measures, including upgrading infrastructure, weatherizing buildings and installing cooling in homes[, but] did not declare a national climate emergency – a step that some Democratic officials and activists have urged after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin seemingly blocked legislative action and the Supreme Court limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.”

Rule of Law

• Also in Washington DC, “U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan warned Thursday that it would be dangerous if the Supreme Court loses touch with public sentiment or appears to be implementing political preferences.”
  • Meanwhile, in Rome Italy, Justice Alito, “[d]uring a surprise appearance as a keynote speaker at a religious freedom conference in Rome last week, sponsored by the University of Notre Dame,…made clear that he considered religious faith to be a natural yearning of all human beings. ‘Our hearts are restless until we rest in God,’ he said. “Justice Samuel Alito gave a talk [] sponsored by the University of Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Initiative. The conference that hosted Alito was organized by the Religious Liberty Institute at Notre Dame, which was founded in 2020. While the conference was announced and promoted to journalists in advance, Alito’s role was kept under wraps. The institute or its faculty members have filed amicus briefs in at least five Supreme Court cases on religious freedom issues.”
• In Uvalde TX, “[d]espite having in-house counsel, the city of Uvalde and its police department are working with a private firm to seal records of the horrific shooting at Robb Elementary School, records obtained by VICE show.”

Free & Fair Elections

• In Washington DC, “[l]egal experts [] warned lawmakers on the U.S. House Administration Committee that if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a North Carolina case that embraces a fringe election theory, it would undermine future elections across the country.”
• In Topeka KS, the state Court of Appeals ruled that “Kansas' top elections official violated the state's open records law when he had office computer software altered so that it could no longer produce data sought by a voting-rights advocate[.]”
• In Atlanta GA, Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled that “[t]he prosecutor who’s investigating whether former President Trump and his allies illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 election in Georgia cannot question a lawmaker who signed a certificate falsely stating that Trump won the state[.]”
• In Pennsylvania, “[m]ore than a dozen Pennsylvania Republicans are trying, for a second time, to throw out a mail voting law that many of them helped pass in the first place.”

Human Rights

• In Tampa, “a private school [] is taking on the Biden administration and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried in federal court, arguing it's being punished because its religious beliefs clash with new federal guidelines extending sex discrimination protections to LGBTQ individuals…An attorney for Grant Park Christian Academy said the school's failure to comply with the feds will force it to forfeit tens of thousands of dollars under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National School Lunch Program, which provides reduced-price or free meals to children from low-income families.”
• In New Haven CT, “a listserv used to organize several recent protests at Yale Law has been shut down. ‘If students want to “debate important questions,” the dean of Yale Law School Heather Gerken announced in an email on Wednesday, they can post on a physical bulletin board in the law school’s hallway.’”
• In Houston TX, “[t]he Justice Department opened an investigation against the city of Houston [] to determine whether complaints of illegal dumping — including dead bodies and animals — in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods amount to civil rights violations.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “Sens. Chuck Schumer, Bob Menendez, Cory Booker, and Elizabeth Warren, along with Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Lauren Underwood, and Tony Crdenas, led 100 of their Democratic colleagues in sending a letter to Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona pushing for an extension of the federal pause on student-loan payments. The pause, currently set to expire after August 31, is just over a month away, and millions of borrowers are still waiting for news on whether it might be extended again, along with Biden's decision on broad student-loan forgiveness.” (open letter available via Sen. Menendez’ office)
• Also in Washington DC, “[f]ederal student loan servicers have been told to hold off on sending out payment reminders to borrowers, according to two sources familiar with the matter.”
• Again also in Washington DC, “[t]the Supreme Court’s June ruling in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, which curbed the agency’s authority to set certain climate change regulations, could now add another factor to the Biden administration’s decision-making process.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In the United States, “public pension funds are on pace for their deepest financial setback since the Great Recession as turmoil in global markets this year threaten to leave taxpayers and government workers on the hook.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he odds that Congress would increase the average 4.6% pay raise planned for federal employees in 2023 got a little longer Thursday, after Senate appropriators revealed that they would effectively endorse President Biden’s pay increase proposal.”
  • Editor’s Note: According to the Department of Labor’s Inflation Calculator, the inflation rate between June 2021 and June 2022 was 9%. By my math, this means that the spending power of federal wages will decline by 4.4% if this pay raise is approved.
• Also in Washington DC, “[t]he official in charge of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility efforts at the State Department told lawmakers on Tuesday that ‘this time is different,’ while recapping their process and acknowledging the work ahead of them.”
• In Macomb County MI, “[t]he Michigan Supreme Court has sided with Macomb County Prosecutor in a spat [between the prosecutor’s office and the county executive] over four jobs that [Prosecutor] Pete Lucido wants posted.”
• In Canada, “the federal government released its proposed Regulations Amending Certain Regulations Made Under the Canada Labour Code (Medical Leave with Pay) (the "Proposed Regulations"), with respect to paid sick leave for federally regulated employees.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In New York NY, “[t]he number of evictions in New York City has increased every month from January to June, according to new city data. The state’s eviction moratorium expired on January 15 after officials extended it several times after it first took effect in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic. The data comes as more bad news for renters, who are facing record-high rents after prices fell early on in the pandemic.”
• Also in New York, “[a] judge overturned a law that allowed the state government to place even healthy citizens in quarantine camps for an indefinite time without review.”
• Again also in New York, “Attorney General Letitia James[] filed a lawsuit against the pharmacy conglomerate [CVS],” alleging they “diverted millions of dollars from underserved communities as part of an anticompetitive scheme involving Medicare 340B drug programs[.]”
• In Palo Alto CA, “Stanford Law School’s Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession and Legal Design Lab announced today a collaboration with court systems in six states – Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, Texas, and Virginia – to simplify filings in civil cases affecting millions of Americans.”
• In the United States, Truthout surveyed the nationwide “right-to-counsel in evictions” movement.
  • Relatedly, “[t]he North New Jersey Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) launched their right-to-counsel campaign to aid Jersey City tenants at [a] City Hall presser[.]”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In New York, “attorneys assigned to represent defendants who cannot afford to hire their own counsel are getting a raise for the first time in two decades. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lisa Headley’s decision and order directed New York state and New York City to pay assigned counsel a rate of $158 per hour, up from $90 per hour. The 75% pay increase is retroactive from February. Assigned counsel last received a pay increase in 2004.”
  • Editor’s Note: According to the Department of Labor’s Inflation Calculator, the inflation rate between June 2004 and June 2022 was 56%. By my math, this means that the spending power of New York defenders’ wages will rise by 19%.
• Also in New York, “[t]he controversial circumstances surrounding the case of New York bodega worker Jose Alba exposes a fundamental flaw in how the New York state criminal legal system operates. In the state system, unless you happen to work for the New York Police Department, prosecutors often charge first and investigate later.”
• In Eaton County MI, “officials say, because of some policy changes at the state level, they are able to help more people who can't afford to hire a lawyer of their own…[after] the American Bar Association took a look at how these cases were being handled and coordinated some changes at the state level to bring the quality of legal care up to the same standard as the prosecutor's offices.”
• In Portland OR, Governor Kate Brown has asked the court to dismiss “[a] lawsuit filed in May [] asking the court to dismiss charges against five individuals who continuously had their case rescheduled because the state of Oregon does not have enough public defenders.”
  • Meanwhile, “[a]ccording to a report filed[] by Oregon's Fiscal Legislative Staff, the state's Office of Public Defense only ‘minimally met’ reporting requirements that lawmakers had laid out for it to receive $100million in taxpayer dollars to address a public defender shortage.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Baltimore MD, “Marilyn Mosby, a high-profile prosecutor who aligned herself with criminal justice reformers but ended up with legal problems of her own, has lost the Democratic primary for Baltimore state’s attorney to Ivan Bates, a defense attorney…Mosby, who was a two-term incumbent, rose to national prominence in 2015 when she pursued criminal charges against six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, a Black man who suffered a spinal injury after police handcuffed, shackled and placed him headfirst into a van. His death triggered riots and protests. None of the officers was convicted.”
• In Chapel Hill NC, “[t]he Institute for Innovation in Protection launched a new project named “Protecting Workers: Wage Theft Enforcement for the Local Prosecutor,” designed to help prosecutors take on wage theft prosecutions.”
• In New York NY, “defense attorneys are asking judges to drop gun possession cases following this June’s Supreme Court decision striking down the state’s restrictive gun licensing regulations for violating a newly found Second Amendment right ‘to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense.’”
• Also in New York NY, “[t]he Bronx Defenders and The Bronx Community Foundation, along with U.S. senate majority leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer, State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33), and Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson, joined Bronx community leaders…to announce the launch of The Bronx Cannabis Hub…The Bronx Cannabis Hub is a new resource designed to give Bronx residents, who advocates say have been harmed by decades of cannabis prohibition, the means to participate in the new, legal cannabis industry.”
• In New York, gubernatorial candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin (Republican) stated that “the governor of the state of New York has the authority and I would argue the obligation to remove a district attorney who refuses to enforce the law. And Alvin Bragg, across the board since the first day he's been there, has refused to do his job. The first act will be notifying Alvin Bragg that he is being removed as a district attorney in Manhattan. We need to start securing our streets from day one, repealing cashless bail.”
  • Relatedly, “Rep. Lee Zeldin has been trying to make his scuffle with an attacker last week part of his case for undoing state bail reform laws…But the Republican nominee for governor is left clarifying some details in the incident’s aftermath. Why didn’t the prosecutor who once served as his gubernatorial campaign co-chair level a bail-eligible charge?” [emphasis added]
• In Cook County IL, “high turnover has left State’s Attorney Kim Foxx with a significant backlog. A former state prosecutor says it's her own fault.”
• In Maricopa County AZ, “[t]he office has dozens of unfilled prosecutor jobs, which has slowed the pursuit of justice and frustrated police.”
• In Hennepin County MN, district attorney candidate Martha Holton Dimick argued that “our more lenient approach to prosecution is good as long as we fulfill our core responsibilities as prosecutors and law enforcement. Over the last two years, we have not. Car thieves know they will be released on the same day without bail; juvenile carjackers have nowhere to be placed for short-term detention or treatment, and dozens of homicides in Minneapolis from 2021 remain unsolved. And our leaders stood on a stage and told the world that we would end policing in Minneapolis. Since the murder of George Floyd, many criminals have heard the message that we don't care about their actions, and they have acted accordingly. My first priority right now is to restore the effectiveness of the office by emphasizing our core responsibility: swift, effective and fair prosecution.”
• In Tennessee, “[n]ewly proposed rules covering juvenile detention centers in Tennessee are supposed to ban solitary confinement. But critics say they were written with the exclusive help of juvenile detention operators and would allow facilities to continue locking children in solitary confinement.”
• In Pennsylvania, “[a] former public defender turned Philadelphia County judge has been nominated by President Joe Biden to serve on the federal bench in Pennsylvania.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public!

Interesting times. Major stories centered around criminal justice this week. The ongoing effort to recall, impeach, or force the resignation of reformist prosecutors continues across the US (stories in California, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania this week), while Democrats, led by the President, join Republicans in bipartisan concern for “law & order” issues. Meanwhile, multiple states report caseload crises for public defenders–and the ACLU won class certification in Maine for a lawsuit alleging officials failed to create an effective public defender system.” The Biden administration promises a decision on student loan forgiveness will be forthcoming, and polls indicate public confidence in the Supreme Court has fallen precipitously since its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. All this and more are in the stories below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Reproductive Justice

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Veterans Affairs Department is ‘closely watching’ how access to abortions shakes out after the fall of Roe v. Wade, suggesting on Wednesday it could unilaterally decide to offer the service if its availability drops precipitously for veterans across the country.”
• In the United States, “pro-choice groups and abortion providers have seen a surge in membership, volunteers, and donations in recent weeks as advocates seek to protect and shore up abortion access.”

Rule of Law

• In Johnson County KS, “[t]he Johnson County Sheriff is now accusing the county attorney of breaking the law and providing a public document to reporters. The letter provided under the Kansas Open Records Act, or KORA, revealed the county attorney had concerns about the sheriff’s request to play a greater role in the upcoming election.”
• In Washington DC, public revelation of a memo in which “the [current] attorney general extended his predecessor’s requirement that investigations into presidential or vice-presidential candidates, as well as their senior staff and advisors, can’t begin without written notification to the department and his written approval [has sparked] debate since then as to whether [this deference] was justified.”
• In Milwaukee WI, “a new poll released [by Marquette Law School shows] just 38% of the country saying it approves of the nation’s highest court after it overturned Roe v. Wade–a dramatic shift in public opinion from one year ago.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “President Biden confirmed he will decide wide-scale student loan cancellation by August.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[a] pair of New Jersey lawmakers have introduced a new bill that would make it easier for some previously ineligible public workers to qualify for loan relief under a federal program. This is the latest attempt to make changes to the 15-year-old program as Americans await a decision on widespread student loan forgiveness by the Biden administration.”
• Again also in Washington DC, “[c]ongressional Republicans slammed President Biden‘s consideration of student loan forgiveness as a “giveaway” to highly educated Americans that ignores the underlying costs of college and inflation pressures for struggling Americans.”
• Latino USA noted that “[t]he call for abolition of all student debt has never been louder,” and “div[ed] into the history of the student loan system in the U.S., as well as the stories of Black and Latino organizers that have been at the forefront of the movement for student debt cancellation.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “Equal Justice Works, which helps law students and graduates pursue careers in public interest law, has chosen University of Cincinnati law Dean Verna Williams to replace outgoing executive director David Stern in September and to assume the new title of chief executive officer[.]”
• Also in Washington DC, “[o]fficials from the Biden administration on Thursday defended federal agencies’ approach to workplace flexibilities like telework and remote work from skeptical Republicans, who have grown more stridently against the concept of hybrid work environments in recent months.”
• In the United States, “Americans head into the 2022 midterm election season with record-setting doubts about the federal government’s faithful execution of the laws. Public demand for comprehensive government reform is at a 20-year high, while confidence in government has dropped to a historic low.”
• In California, “state employee unions representing scientists and attorneys are making the biggest demands for raises in contract negotiations this year. The attorneys want 30%.”
• In Nashville TN, “Vanderbilt Law School’s Social Justice Reporter, a new student-edited legal journal, will publish this fall and focus on social justice, civil rights and public interest lawyering by leading researchers, practitioners, policymakers and law students.”
• In New York NY, “[c]laiming that a vote in support for the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel by faculty at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law “makes clear that Israeli students and faculty members are not welcome to work with, attend or work for” the school, a complaint has been filed with the city and state.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In California, “[a] group of tenant advocates and attorneys today launched a tool they hope will change [outcomes in eviction proceedings.] More than 50 tenant advocates and attorneys from The Debt Collective, The LA Tenants Union, The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality & Democracy and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment worked on the “Tenant Power Toolkit” over the last two years — a mostly volunteer effort, explains Hannah Appel, an anthropology professor at UCLA who came up with the idea based on her work as a co-founder of the Debt Collective.”
• In Dallas County TX, “when lawyers from the [] Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center show up, [tenants] win 97% of the time. The pro bono team possesses no superpowers, but it’s [sic] susses out what juices the eviction process. The landlords’ longtime gamble — knowing that fewer than 3% of tenants show up with legal representation — is that the odds are in their favor to cut corners, fudge facts and pull off unlawful maneuvers.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Maine, “Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy granted the ACLU of Maine’s request for class certification [in] a lawsuit filed against Maine officials that alleges they failed to create an effective public defense system.”
• In New Hampshire, “[t]he state Supreme Court, New Hampshire Judicial Council, and New Hampshire Public Defender program say it’s critical the state increase the hourly rates and caps on payments and make permanent the temporary pay raises public defenders received.”
• In Wisconsin, “thousands of men and women across Wisconsin [wait months for representation] due to overworked and understaffed public defenders [in a] growing caseload crisis.”
• In Boundary County ID, “[p]ublic officials from both Bonner and Boundary counties met to discuss the first draft of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a potential joint public defenders office for the two counties.”
• In Helena MT, “[t]he Montana Supreme Court has vacated a District Court contempt order against the Office of State Public Defender and ruled that OPD met the standards of Montana law when assigning public defenders. In September, Billings Judge Donald Harris held OPD Director Rhonda Lindquist and her office in contempt after learning more than 600 defendants were without assigned legal representation in Yellowstone County.”
• In Santa Cruz CA, “New Santa Cruz County Public Defender Heather Rogers is aiming to offer a legal experience to the county’s least wealthy that allows them to experience the same “boutique” legal experience as those with ample financial means.”
• In New Orleans LA, “[a]fter almost 14 years of defending the poor in the state’s busiest courthouse…the city’s chief public defender, Derwyn Bunton, is stepping down.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In San Francisco CA, “[j]ust two weeks after replacing San Francisco’s progressive district attorney Chesa Boudin, DA Brooke Jenkins is taking heat for a mass firing which many attorneys say is throwing the office into chaos.”
  • Meanwhile, “[a]mid a hiring and firing spree, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced the appointment of several key leaders on Tuesday, including a new head of the bureau that investigates police shootings…replac[ing] Lateef Gray, who was fired by Jenkins. Gray was a longtime public defender and civil rights attorney known for suing police before [recalled DA] Boudin appointed him to the position.”
  • The San Francisco Chronicle evaluated DA Jenkins’ approach to her new role: “[a] week into her new job, Jenkins’ public engagements, political stance, and early personnel decisions offer a glimpse of that vision and the kind of district attorney she envisions being: Someone a loan to bring back cash bail, charge minors as adults, revoke plea deals that could prevent immigrants from being deported, and support the expansion of police surveillance, all to ensure that the San Franciscans feel sure. Jenkins likes to say she’s progressive, but is she?”
• In Los Angeles CA, Politico examined the effort to recall District Attorney Gascón: “Gascón moved quickly after he was sworn in. He ended cash bail for misdemeanors and non-violent felonies. He told his deputy district attorneys not to seek the death penalty anymore, to never try juveniles as adults, to stop prosecuting people for first-time non-violent misdemeanors, and to stop using so-called sentencing enhancements, which allow prosecutors to pile on jail time. And he did all of that on his first day in office. Then came the backlash.”
  • In Los Angeles CA, the “District Attorney is terminating a unit that notifies crime victims and their families when their assailant is up for parole hearings. This decision comes after the Los Angeles County clerk stated that it will need to fully verify signatures for the district attorney’s recall.”
• In Harrisburg PA, “Republicans and Democrats in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives announced a new committee this week devoted to examining rising crime rates in Philadelphia, hinting toward the recommended impeachment of District Attorney Larry Krasner (D-PA).”
• In Passaic County NJ, “[County P]rosecutor Camelia M. Valdes has run afoul of rank-and-file police officers, who are calling for her resignation after a new policy that requires cops to notify their departments anytime they’re involved in a motor vehicle accident in the county that causes injuries.”
• In Columbus OH, “[o]ne of the special prosecutors who had pursued criminal charges against three members of the Columbus Division of Police for their conduct in the 2020 racial justice protests has resigned, according to the Columbus City Attorney’s Office.”
• In New York, “the day that the Supreme Court struck down New York state’s strict gun control laws, a coalition of public defender organizations released a joint statement calling on the Legislature to craft new gun laws that would avoid the mistakes of the old…The Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul did respond with sweeping new gun control legislation that was signed into law. However, it wasn’t what some public defenders and others were hoping for, prompting private complaints that the new laws did not respond to old concerns and would fuel mass incarceration.”
• In Spokane County WA, “County Prosecutor Larry Haskell…is facing three challengers, including current and former employees who object to his leadership.”
• In Washington DC, “[p]resident Joe Biden plans to propose a steep funding increase for police, hoping to show that Democrats are serious about combating violent crime, despite the move potentially causing backlash from top members of his party’s left flank. But a scheduled trip to Pennsylvania to ask Congress to spend roughly $37 billion for fighting and preventing crime was canceled Thursday when Biden tested positive for COVID-19.”
  

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public!

Best wishes as we all arrive at the end of another week. The last seven days have seen more bombshell news related to reproductive justice, as well as multiple high-profile stories regarding government employee dissatisfaction at the federal, local, and state levels (in DC, NYC, and CA, respectively). Meanwhile, Congressional staffers took a public (but anonymous) stance against their own bosses. All this and (much) more in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice

• In Washington DC, “[i]n a rare move, more than 200 congressional staffers have sent a letter to Democratic leadership in the House and Senate, demanding they close the deal on a climate and clean energy package and warning that failure could doom younger generations. ‘We’ve crafted the legislation necessary to avert climate catastrophe. It’s time for you to pass it,’ the staffers wrote in a letter, sent to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday evening. …’Our country is nearing the end of a two-year window that represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to pass transformative climate policy[. …]The silence on expansive climate justice policy on Capitol Hill this year has been deafening. We write to distance ourselves from your dangerous inaction.’”
  

• Unrelatedly, but also in Washington DC, Reuters profiled the Weil Legal Innovators Program, “an unusual fellowship that targets students before they enter law school. Since the program launched in 2019, the firm has paid for an average of 10 ‘Zero L’ students to delay law school [for a year] in order to work at select public service organizations–not as lawyers of course, but to take on substantive projects nonetheless.”

Reproductive Justice

• In New Orleans LA, “leaders are attempting to position the city as a potential haven for abortion access through City Council resolutions and pledges of not enforcing the law[.]”
• In Indiana, the state’s “Attorney General said…that his office planned to investigate the Indiana doctor who helped a 10-year-old rape victim who crossed state lines to have an abortion.”
• In Washington DC, “President Joe Biden’s spokesperson…condemned Texas Republican lawmakers’ threat to penalize Sidley Austin and other Texas law firms that have pledged to pay for out-of-state abortions.”
• Also Washington DC, “[t]he Biden administration released updated guidance on Monday, reminding doctors around the country that they’re protected by federal law if they terminate a patient’s pregnancy as part of treatment in an emergency circumstance — and threatening to fine or strip the Medicare status from hospitals that fail to do so.”
• Again also in Washington DC, “guidance[] issued by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights…to clarify and enforce anti-discrimination provisions in the Affordable Care Act [dictated that p]harmacists cannot deny people prescribed medication–including hormonal birth control or emergency contraception–because those people are pregnant or might become pregnant.”
• In Michigan, “[a] proposed constitutional amendment there would override a 90-year-old state law that makes abortion a felony, even in the case of rape or incest….[O]rganizers [have] submitted more than 750,000 signatures…to state election officials in hopes of having the amendment appear on the November ballot. If just over half of those signatures are validated, Michigan voters will decide whether to amend the state’s constitution to guarantee broad, individual rights to ‘reproductive freedom,’ including abortion, contraception and fertilty [sic] treatments.”

Rule of Law

• In California, “Gov. Gavin Newsom [] signed legislation into law that would allow lawsuits against gun makers and distributors after gun violence. The genesis for the bill, AB 1594, was a decision by the Supreme Court not to block a Texas law allowing private citizens to sue people who provide or assist in abortions.”
• Also in California, “[t]he UCLA School of Law is launching the “Safeguarding Democracy Project”, led by elections expert Rick Hasen. It is aimed at promoting free and fair elections in the U.S.”

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In Texas, “[s]everal Border Patrol agents acted inappropriately and could face discipline following their harsh tactics as a group of mostly Haitian migrants crossed into the United States last year, though an internal investigation released Friday cleared the employees of physically striking any of the individuals.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Biden administration…unveiled a proposed regulation to no longer capitalize interest in certain situations, including when borrowers enter repayment or default on their loans.”
• Also in Washington DC, “California Gov. Gavin Newsom–who some observers suspect will make a run for the presidency in the near future–has distanced himself from progressive activists on…student debt relief. During a speech,…Newsom said he’s not for ‘waiving all debt.’…prefacing that comment by noting that it might ‘offend’ some people in his party.”
• In Connecticut, “[e]ducation officials announced [] that a new state-funded $7 million loan subsidy program is aimed at helping teachers refinance their loans.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “[a] bipartisan group of senators is looking to set new limitations on the entities with which federal agencies can contract, introducing legislation to ban the government from doing business with companies that work with certain other nations.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[a] good government group on Wednesday released its annual analysis of the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, finding that across government, employee engagement and satisfaction fell 4.5 points from 2020 to 2021.”
  • Meanwhile, in New York NY, “the largest municipal employer in the country[] is facing an exodus of city workers that has led to a surge in job vacancies and difficulties delivering basic municipal services[.]”
  • Meanwhile, in California, “state employee unions representing scientists and attorneys are making the biggest demands for raises in contract negotiations this year. The attorneys want 30%[; t]he proposed increases would be among the largest in the history of organized labor in California state government.”
• In Boston MA, “[a]n appeals court ruling [] that said Whole Foods and its parent Amazon.com Inc can’t be sued for disciplining workers who wore “Black Lives Matter” face masks…further restrict[ed] employees’ ability to change their working conditions at a time when U.S. workplaces have become a locus of divisive cultural battles and disagreements over some Americans’ basic rights.”
• In the United States, “[w]hile the number of private-sector jobs surpassed its pre-pandemic level, there are 664,000 fewer people employed in the public secor, according to the government jobs report released [last week].”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Washington DC, “[e]motion fueled a debate on the Senate floor [] as Republicans objected to taking up a Democratic bill that would guarantee a woman’s constitutional right to travel across state lines to receive abortion care.”
• In Miami-Dade County FL, “Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said that she will request that county commissioners budget funding for legal representation for [] tenants [facing eviction] in the next fiscal year.”
• In Chicago, the Legal Services Corporation held a Forum on Increasing Access to Justice (recording publicly available on their Facebook page).
• In the United States, “[m]ore than 100 legal technology companies have formed in the last 10 years to provide legal assistance to millions of Americans who can’t afford an attorney, helping to bridge a gap in access to justice, while less than a handful of states have taken action to expand the practice of law[, a]ccording to the Legal Services Corporation’s 2022 Justice Gap Study[.]”
• In Arizona, “Governor Doug Ducey signed [a] law this week making it illegal in Arizona for a person to videotape police officers, without the officer’s permission, if within 2.5 meters of the officer.”
• In Washington DC, “American University has cleared a law student of harassment charges for expressing pro-choice views in a private chat group…‘I’m glad that the school has cleared me, but this investigation should never have happened in the first place,’ [the student] said.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Massachusetts, Senator Ed Markey’s office released a letter from Amazon indicating that the company “has provided video footage from its Ring doorbell cameras to police without users’ consent 11 times this year[.]”
• In Oregon, “[a]s cases continue to drop and hundreds remain without counsel, the head of the Oregon Supreme Court is now calling for solutions to address the state’s ongoing public defender crisis.”
• In Santa Cruz CA, “[the c]ounty’s new Public Defender office began operations on July 1, and the department’s roughly 60 employees celebrated the occasion with a barbecue in the backyard of its May Street headquarters.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Massachusetts, President Joe Biden nominated “Ayer District Court Justice Margaret R. Guzman to the federal bench…Guzman is a long-time former public defender who served a stint in private practice before becoming a judge.”
• In Oregon, President Biden named Oregon Supreme Court Justice Adrienne Nelson as one of four new federal judicial nominees; the first Black judge on the state’s high court could soon become the first Black female federal judge in Oregon. (Not a direct quotation from the article, but a reworked paraphrase of its lede.)
• In Alabama, “[t]he Southern Poverty Law Center, in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama and the Glasscox Law Firm, warned Alabama Governor Kay Ivey…that a recent transfer of a judgeship from Jefferson County to Madison County violated the state constitution…The move comes directly after Democratic candidate Tiara Young Hudson, a public defender who previously served as a circuit court judge, won the nomination during the May primaries.”
• In Las Vegas, “[a ]police union is calling on a judge to resign for warning a defendant not to be around police officers because he might not survive–a piece of advice she said she follows herself.”
• In New York, “[p]ublic defenders, The Legal Aid Society, released a statement…in response to an announcement by New York State Court of Appeals chief judge, Janet DiFiore, that she will resign next month after seven years in the role. The public defenders are calling for a progressive-leaning judge to be appointed to the bench.”
  

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public!

It’s been awhile. I’ll level with you about why. This digest has always taken a substantial amount of time and effort to produce–and over the last year other responsibilities of mine have taken significantly more time and effort than they used to, as we’ve all had to adapt to drastic social changes. Additionally, public interest news continues to be densely-packed difficult to absorb and synthesize. Today, for example, I delayed this newsletter in order to get the text of President Biden’s Executive Order regarding abortion rights.

But I realize that the digest also gives us a jumping-off point for shared conversations as a community. So as we begin another academic year I am going to work to bring it back as a regular feature. Even if I get it out a bit late, and you end up reading it on Monday morning rather than Friday afternoon.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice

• In Washington DC, “[a]mid mounting pressure to take action in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday aimed at protecting access to abortions.” Among other mitigation efforts, “[t]he White House counsel and attorney general will…bring together a group of private attorneys to work on a pro bono basis for people providing or seeking an abortion who face legal battles.”

  The relevant portion of the executive order reads:

  “To promote access to reproductive healthcare services, the Attorney General and the Counsel to the President shall convene a meeting of private pro bono attorneys, bar associations, and public interest organizations in order to encourage lawyers to represent and assist patients, providers, and third parties lawfully seeking these services throughout the country.”

• Meanwhile, in Kentucky, rather than working to help people navigate new restrictions, “[a]ttorneys from around the state and outside of the commonwealth are working together to provide pro bono services to providers in case they do face criminal charges for operating a procedure which had been federally protected for nearly 50 years before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last week.”

Rule of Law

• In Washington DC, “a prominent Capitol Hill religious leader was caught on a hot mic making a bombshell claim: that she prays with sitting justices inside the high court. ‘We’re the only people who do that,’ Peggy Nienaber said. This disclosure was a serious matter on its own terms, but it also suggested a major conflict of interest. Nienaber’s ministry’s umbrella organization, Liberty Counsel, frequently brings lawsuits before the Supreme Court.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[t]he US Supreme Court since August has issued more emergency orders than opinions in cases that got fully briefed and argued despite several justices expressing misgivings about the practice. The most conservative justices signaled they wanted to use what’s known as the shadow docket even more aggressively.”
• In Pennsylvania, “[a] legal advocacy group formed in hopes of disbarring and disciplining lawyers who aided Donald Trump’s push to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election filed complaints…with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court against seven lawyers in the state for their involvement in the former president’s legal efforts.”

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In Texas, “[t]he Department of Justice is investigating alleged civil rights violations under Operation Lone Star, a multibillion-dollar border initiative announced last year by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, according to state records obtained by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.”
• Also in Texas, “Governor Greg Abbott…issued an executive order authorizing and empowering the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety to apprehend illegal immigrants who illegally cross the border between ports of entry and return them to the border.” The New York Times noted that the order “calls for state authorities to take on an immigration role that is typically the purview of the federal government.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, the Department of Education “unveiled a package of proposed regulations aimed at improving the process of applying for a range of programs to forgive debt from educational loans, including the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program[.]” (More coverage available from Inside HigherEd.)
  • Meanwhile, a recent survey by intelligent.com suggested that “Biden’s student loan pledge encouraged 86% of recent borrowers to take on debt[.]”
• In the United States, “[a] narrow majority of Americans, 55%, said they support forgiving up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt, according to a recent poll from NPR/Ipsos.”
• The Center for Responsible Lending released a report: “Stories of the Impact of COVID-19 on Women’s Finances and Their Capacity to Repay Student Loans”.
• A new Bankrate survey found that “[r]oughly 60 percent of U.S. adults who have held student loan debt have put off making important financial decisions due to that debt, according to a new Bankrate survey. For Gen Z and millennial borrowers alone, that number rises to 70 percent. Student loans have prevented these borrowers from saving for retirement or emergencies, buying a home, or paying off other debt, like credit cards.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In the United States, “[t]ens of thousands of federal employees could soon receive payments for damages suffered during the 2018 shutdown after a court heard arguments on Wednesday that the government violated federal law when it failed to deliver paychecks on time to its workers.”
• In Washington DC, “Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) introduced a bill yesterday to provide the District of Columbia Courts and the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia with the same authority that federal courts and federal agencies have to offer voluntary separation incentive payments, or buyouts, to their employees.”
• Also in Washington DC, “George Washington University rejected calls to remove Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from its law school faculty by students and others frustrated over the judge’s vote to overturn Roe v. Wade and his urging to reconsider other landmark civil rights cases.”
• In Montgomery AL, “[a]fter more than a year and a half of negotiations, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement with the SPLC staff.”
• The Brookings Institute released a report finding that “[n]onprofit organizations are indispensable partners for the public sector to maximize federal dollars and leverage funds for inclusive, systemic change. Yet, to make the most of today’s historic investment opportunities, cities and nonprofits must overcome two preexisting conditions that could hinder such an approach: functionality and equity.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Mississippi, “[a] judge has denied a motion from Mississippi’s only abortion clinic to allow it to remain open by blocking a law that would ban most abortions in the state. The Jackson Women’s Health Organization had sought a temporary restraining order that would allow it to remain open, at least while the lawsuit remains in court.”
• In the United States, the US Postal Service announced it “will not proactively help states enforce laws prohibiting the use of abortion pills in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, despite many legislatures vowing to crack down on the practice.”
• In Canada, “[t]he federal government says it is examining whether there is a legal risk to health-care workers who provide abortions in this country for visiting Americans.”
• In New York, “[a]n amendment to the New York State Human Rights Law is set to go into effect on July 14, 2022. The new law directs the New York State Division of Human Rights (Division) to operate a toll-free confidential hotline, during regular business hours, which will provide counsel and assistance to individuals with complaints of workplace sexual harassment.”
• In Oklahoma City OK, “[e]victions in Oklahoma City are rising as rent help is running out[.]”
• In Wisconsin, “voters will no longer be allowed to cast their absentee ballots via remote drop boxes, as the state’s highest judicial body ruled Friday they are not permitted under state law.”
• In New Mexico, “[a] lawyer overseeing a slew of damage claims from the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire said the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s aid process needs an overhaul.”
• In Illinois, “Governor J.B. Pritzker has signed into law the “Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair” Act, or CROWN Act, which prohibits hair discrimination.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In the United States, “[m]ost judges and lawyers seem to agree that they expect courts to continue to leverage remote technology in some capacity after the pandemic subsides. When it comes to criminal proceedings, however, that consensus starts to shatter.”
• In Oregon, “[t]he patience of Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Martha Walters seems to be growing thin as the state continues to violate the constitutional rights of criminal defendants charged with crimes who cannot afford an attorney. ‘Hundreds who are constitutionally entitled to counsel are being denied that right, and no end is in sight,’ Walters wrote in a letter sent July 1 to the eight commissioners who oversee the state’s public defense agency.”
• Also in Oregon, “Oregon’s federal public defender says dozens of people inside the state’s only federal prison have been on a hunger strike protesting conditions inside the facility.”
• In Santa Cruz County CA, “residents criminally charged and in need of a lawyer can now seek public defense services, as the county opened its first Public Defender’s Office[.]”
• In Branch County MI, “[t]wo new full-time positions in the Public Defenders Office which are being funded by the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission were brought forward by the Branch County Board of Commissioners[.]”
• In Baton Rouge LA, “the NAACP Baton Rouge chapter published a four-page letter speaking against East Baton Rouge Parish Chief Public Defender Lisa Parker…NAACP alleges that 30 employees have left the office since Parker was appointed in July 2021.” In response, “Parker’s spokesperson confirms that 17 attorneys have resigned since Parker took over. A statement from Parker’s office said those attorney positions have since been filled and since Parker took over no cases have been dropped, overlooked or neglected.”
• In Georgia, “Sen. Jon Ossoff is launching a new effort to strengthen public defender programs in state and local courts.”
• In the United States, “[s]hortly after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Shinn v. Ramirez, the ABA Death Penalty Representation Project put out a call for more pro bono attorneys to help represent people on death row.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In San Francisco CA, “San Francisco’s Mayor London Breed has made a controversial pick to replace former progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin, after a recall which garnered major national attention — prosecutor and critic Brooke Jenkins…those who opposed the recall of Boudin say this pick reflects a turn from progressive criminal justice policies for San Francisco. Jenkins, a Black Latina, described herself as a “progressive prosecutor” but criticized Boudin for his policies in the interest of criminal justice reform….Recall opponents like former police commissioner John Hamasaki called this ‘an unfortunate pick for San Francisco.’[:] ‘Ms. Jenkins is somebody who has consistently demonstrated poor judgment, a lack of ethics and a desire to return to unfortunately racist and tough on crime policies,’ he said in a phone interview. He said Jenkins was not Breed’s first pick but is supported by the police union and some backers of the recall.”
• In Los Angeles County CA, the “district attorney may face a vote in November — two years before his term ends — as the campaign to recall him said it submitted enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.”
• In Maricopa County AZ, “a prosecutor involved in charging 2020 protesters with gang charges, will appeal a June 28 decision by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to officially fire her[.]”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public! Big stories this week coming out of student debt land, with tension between leadership in the US Senate and the US House of Representatives over the desirability of student loan debt forgiveness and new efforts by the Department of Education to reach out to borrowers relying on the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Additionally, the Biden Administration announced plans to begin speeding up deportations for some migrant families crossing the US-Mexico border.

These stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Rule of Law

• In Salt Lake County UT, “[t]he district attorney…declined to file criminal charges against a Utah police officer who said, ‘You’re about to die, my friend,’ seconds before fatally shooting a man[, ] saying West Valley City Sgt. Tyler Longman acted within the confines of the law when he shot and killed Michael Chad Breinholt in August 2019. Gill said under the current state law, Longman’s use of force was justified, but he called video of the shooting ‘disturbing.’”

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Biden administration is planning to speed up deportations for some migrant families who cross the US-Mexico border, the Department of Homeland Security said[.]”
• In Essex County NY, “[i]n what many see as a retaliatory act [in response to protests by detainees and advocates against ICE’s use of Essex County Jail], ICE is transferring the people detained at Essex rather than releasing them.”
• In the United States, “[a] ProPublica survey of more than a dozen lawyers across the country…along with documents circulated by several local ICE offices, shows that implementation of [the Biden Administration’s immigration prosecution] guidance has been spotty, with many prosecutors proceeding with exactly the sorts of deportation cases the new rules are intended to prevent.”
• In Texas, “[although] resident Joe Biden promised, if elected, his government would withdraw the lawsuits aimed at taking land for border wall construction. Six months into his administration that hasn’t happened. In fact, dozens of lawsuits are still being litigated, according to the Department of Justice and the pro-bono attorneys representing some of the landowners.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi [] rejected efforts by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other progressives to persuade President Joe Biden to unilaterally cancel large amounts of student loan debt, exacerbating a growing rift in the Democratic Party over the issue.”
• Also in Washington DC, “the Education Department launched a public inquiry to fix the [Public Service Loan Forgiveness] program…Starting next week, anyone can submit comments to the department regarding PSLF, and the department specifically wants to know[.]”
• In the United States, “[s]everal collegiate institutions throughout the country are leading efforts to help eliminate student debt[.]”
• Forbes discussed “new research from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget [that asserts] both total student loan cancellation and partial student loan cancellation will have a minimal effect on the economy.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Office of Personnel Management issued new guidance [] about telework and other considerations as federal agencies work to implement their office reentry and post reentry plans that were due earlier this week.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Minnesota, “a first-of-its-kind fleet of mobile legal clinics have found their way across [the state] with a launch from the State Capitol.”
• In Arkansas, “[t]hanks to a lawsuit by Legal Aid of Arkansas, Pulaski Circuit Judge Herb Wright has issued an injunction to force the governor and the Division of Workforce Services to resume participation in two pandemic unemployment programs, one paying an extra $300 a week. Hutchinson ordered the payments to stop at the end of June, 10 weeks early, claiming it would force people to go back to work.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Knox County IN, “[m]embers of the Public Defender Board later this year will submit to county officials its leanest annual budget yet.”
• In Washington County AR, “justices of the peace [] heard a request to increase the pay for public defenders to the same level as those in the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Chicago IL, “[c]ommunity groups [] urged the city of Chicago to end its use of the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system when the contract expires next month.”
• In Yolo County CA, “Yolo County was recently selected to be one of nine counties to receive funding for the California County Resentencing Pilot Project.”
• In Oakland CA, “Los Angeles progressive District Attorney George Gascón, and Christine Soto Deberry, the founder and Executive Director of the Prosecutor’s Alliance—an organization for reform-oriented prosecutors and other law enforcement—met on a panel sponsored by Impact Justice to discuss how progressive prosecutors navigate the pushback they face from police unions who try to stifle reform.”
  

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public! Big stories this week include further coverage of the fallout from FedLoan’s decision to withdraw from the business of collecting on student debt–and the news that another loan servicer has also decided to pull up stakes. Meanwhile, in Washington DC the House of Representatives is working to increase funding for the Legal Services Corporation and to reinstate the Dept. of Justice’s Office for Access to Justice while in California, groups are pressuring the state Supreme Court to consider expanding the right to counsel to include adults entangled in probate conservatorships. And the July 31st end of the federal eviction moratorium is slouching over the horizon.

These stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Rule of Law

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Justice Department has declined to prosecute former Trump administration officials, including former Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross, after an inspector general confirmed they provided false testimony regarding the origins of the proposed citizenship question on the 2020 census.”

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In Houston TX, “[a] federal judge [] ruled that an Obama administration program protecting undocumented immigrants who were brought into the United States as children is illegal and halted accepting any new applications for the program.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• The College Investor speculated that “a few factors [] point towards [] a strong possibility…there might be a fourth [student loan] payment pause and interest waiver extension.”
• In South Carolina, “[l]eaders at South Carolina State University [] announced it would be forgiving $9.8 million in student debts using $4 million in CARES Act funding and $5.8 million it received from the American Rescue Plan. Most of those students, the university said, were continuing students who had not re-enrolled or had dropped out entirely due to debt.”
• In New York, “a federal appeals court has ruled [that p]rivately issued student loans may be discharged in bankruptcy[.]”
• In Pennsylvania, “FedLoan[‘s …decision] that it won’t seek an extension of a 12-year government contract to collect payments for millions of borrowers on a portfolio of federal education loans…has led to…concerns over what happens this fall when the huge federal loan-servicing apparatus starts collecting loan payments again.”
  • Meanwhile, “[l]ess than two weeks after a major student loan servicing shakeup, yet another U.S. Department of Education student loan servicer [Granite State Management and Resources] is calling it quits.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Washington DC, “[a] House panel on Tuesday voted 24-16 along party lines to advance legislation that would provide federal employees with up to 12 weeks of paid family leave each year, over objections from Republicans about a last-minute report from the Congressional Budget Office.”
• Also in Washington DC, “the Supreme Court said [that] ‘[i]n light of the potential for actual or apparent conflicts of interest, Jessica Garland will not serve as a law clerk for Justice Kagan while Attorney General Garland remains in office.’”
  • For more on the controversy, see The Volokh Conspiracy.

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Washington DC, “[t]he Legal Services Corporation could get an additional $135 million in its pockets, the largest single increase in the legal aid organization’s history, following an approval of funding legislation by the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations. The committee on Thursday approved funding legislation that includes $600 million for LSC in 2022 – a 29% increase from its current appropriation.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[a] powerful, bipartisan group in Congress is reviving a proposal to permanently restore the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Access To Justice, in a bid to codify the unit dedicated to legal representation for the poor that was shuttered by the Trump administration.”
• In California, “[t]he California Supreme Court was asked today to convene a blue-ribbon panel to review deficiencies in legal defense services provided to adults who become entangled in probate conservatorship proceedings. The request was submitted by Spectrum Institute and a variety of organizations involved in disability rights, elder care, and mental health services, along with a national coalition advancing the right to counsel.”
• In Milwaukee WI, “Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley signed the ‘Right to Counsel’ ordinance into law [] outside the County Courthouse, in an effort to assist local residents facing eviction or foreclosure.”
• In Texas, “[a] state eviction diversion program launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been extended, according to a new emergency order from the Texas Supreme Court[.] The diversion program was set to expire on July 27. The new order extends it until Oct. 1.”
• Across the United States, “[l]egal aid, housing advocacy groups and tenants — especially tenants — are bracing for the inevitable wave of eviction filings that will crash on the shores of courthouses throughout the U.S. at the end of the month, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s national eviction moratorium expires at midnight on July 31.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Illinois, “[a] two-year study commissioned by the Illinois Supreme Court has found that people in many Illinois counties are being routinely processed through the criminal courts without the advice of an attorney.”
• In Utah, “[a] Salt Lake City Justice Court judge kayaks down the river with a flotilla of prosecutors, defense attorneys and judicial assistants. Social workers on bicycles are up ahead meeting people who are camped out along the banks…The social workers and public defense attorneys make contact with people experiencing homelessness, asking if they want help. Then they tell them the judge is right up the river, willing to take care of their legal troubles. They’ve got tablet computers and can pull up a name, check for warrants and other charges and resolve it right on the river.”
• In Harrison County WV, “[t]he staffing situation with the Harrison County Public Defender Corporation continues to percolate at problematic levels.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Pennsylvania, “Gov. Tom Wolf joined lawmakers and law enforcement officials Friday to mark the launch of a police hiring database of misconduct records. The database was approved by the General Assembly in the wake of the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd.”
• In Maine, the state recently “bec[a]me the fourth state to abolish civil forfeiture.”
• In New York NY, “[t]wo watchdog groups sued the New York Police Department over the agency’s refusal to disclose public records about its acquisition of facial recognition technology and other surveillance tools.”
  

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public! Big stories this week include a piece on how the federal hiring process may hamstring the Biden Administration’s effort to rebuild the ranks of the EPA, a new development in an ongoing class action lawsuit by hundreds of current and former Black federal employees, and an analysis of the state of the law concerning the dischargeability of student loans in bankruptcy,

These stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice

• In Harlingen TX, an attorney with the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) spoke frankly with local news about the mental health challenges of her position.

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• The Brennan Center published an essay detailing “the dehumanizing work of immigration law[.]”
• Writing in Government Executive, Professors Daniel Braaten and Claire Nolasco Braaten described their research into the decisions of immigration judges, which “shows that…[p]olitical factors such as ideology, political party of the president who appointed them and who was president at the time they decided the case significantly influenced whether these children were allowed to stay in the country.”
• In the United States, “[i]mmigrant advocates, including Catholic organizations, launched a campaign [] to provide legal aid those who may need it, in case Congress, under the Biden administration, approves some type of reform. ‘Ready to Stay,’ the name of campaign by the national coalition of over 18 organizations, unveiled www.readytostay.org.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “[s]everal prominent Democratic lawmakers are asking the Education Department (ED) about student debt collection practices in the face of a potential wave of student loan defaults when the pandemic payment pause expires[.]”
• Forbes published a piece examining how “FedLoan Servicing’s abrupt departure from the Department of Education’s sprawling federal student loan system will likely be disruptive to millions of student loan borrowers…[especially as] FedLoan Servicing has been the primary servicer tasked with administering the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.”
• In Massachusetts, “[a] a new team within Attorney General Maura Healey’s office is preparing for any confusion and questions borrowers might face after the [student debt] relief program ends.”
• In New York, “[a]n appeals court ruled that private student loans can be discharged through bankruptcy like other consumer debts, opening the door for more borrowers to obtain relief from educational debt.”
• In California, “a [new] law that went into effect this year [] gained teeth this month, with a new ombudsman’s office empowered to review complaints about student loan providers.”
• In Boston MA, WBUR “took a look at how [tension over the policy called ‘summer contribution’] has unfolded for some area law school students.”
• Law360 published an analysis of where legal authority stands after the US Supreme Court’s recent decision to deny certiorari in a case concerning whether student loans are dischargeable during bankruptcy.
• Business Insider published a profile of Astra Taylor, co-founder of the Debt Collective.

Pandemic in the Legal System

• In New York NY, “[t]he Association of Legal Aid Attorneys condemned the Office of Court Administration and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services for unsanitary and unhealthy conditions that they say are rife throughout city courthouses.”
• In Albuquerque NM, “[t]he district attorney’s office said fewer cases are making it to trial, partly because grand juries were suspended.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that “new estimates from the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies…found that since June 2020, nearly 60 percent of nonprofit jobs that were eliminated due to the health and economic crisis have been restored.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he legal team representing hundreds of current and former Black federal employees now part of a proposed multi-million-dollar class-action lawsuit against the federal government has filed a motion in federal court for the government to implement a $100-million mental health fund to address mental injuries and ongoing challenges faced by Black public service workers.”
• Also in Washington DC, “President Biden and congressional Democrats are…seek[ing] to reduce the number of law enforcement jobs at Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where Trump had sought to add thousands of officers and agents. Instead, the fiscal 2022 DHS spending bill—approved by the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday—would augment the rolls at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Secret Service and other components.”
• Also also in Washington DC, “[t]he EPA has hired 500 new employees since President Joe Biden took office, helping to replenish its battered ranks, which stand at a 34-year low, the agency tells Bloomberg Law. Recruiting hundreds more, however, may not be as easy.”
• In New York NY, “[a] Legal Aid Society public defender who spoke out against city schools’ “anti-bias” training has sued her employer, saying her colleagues have unfairly labeled her a racist.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In Kansas, “[t]he Kansas Bar Foundation is awarding grants to organizations that assist low-income individuals that are at risk of losing their homes, as well as non-profits that support legal education and access to justice for those struggling financially. Applications for 2022 are now open for two of their annual programs.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he Legal Services Corporation (LSC) launched the LSC Eviction Laws Database today in partnership with the Center for Public Health Law Research. The database is a new online tool that will aid users in better understanding the significant variation in eviction laws across the country and the effect these differences have on eviction outcomes.”
• In Alaska, the Executive Director of the Alaska Legal Services Corporation revealed that “[t]he governor’s veto of $400,000, 62% of our state appropriation, slashed it to its lowest point since 2010. This means that we will now turn away an additional 818 Alaskans who need our help.”
• In Minnesota, “, tenants, landlords, attorneys and judges are getting briefed on details of the new law [] that spells out rules for lease terminations and eviction court cases over the next 10 ½ months.”
• In Cleveland OH, “Right to Counsel shows promising early results for tenants, and some landlords[.]”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Maine, “[t]he number of lawyers taking cases under Maine’s system for providing legal defense to low-income people accused of crimes has plunged in recent months, leading some to worry that cases may not be covered if the trend continues.”
  • Meanwhile, “[a] prominent defense lawyer in Maine has asked to withdraw from nearly 200 court-appointed cases after the state’s public defense agency opened an investigation into her firm.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Tuscon AZ, “Arizona residents can now file to have marijuana convictions removed from their records.”
• In Washington State, Crosscut explored “[t]he strange, failed fight to rein in civil forfeiture in Washington[.]”
• Also in Washington State, “[m]ore state and county prosecutors are reaching the [conclusion] that they need the power to request resentencing from judges to correct past injustices, end mass incarceration, give people second chances and divert money spent on incarceration to more effective crime prevention methods.”
• In Washington DC, “[f]ederal regulators are giving state prisons across the country more technological options to combat contraband cellphones, which prison officials have long said represent the greatest security threat behind bars.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[a] ​​Senate panel [] advanced President Joe Biden’s nominees to the Second and Tenth circuits and Washington state’s federal bench as Republicans questioned the philosophy and experience that public defenders would bring to appellate courts.”
• In Fairfax County VA, the county’s “top prosecutor will begin publishing data on prosecutions in an effort to identify and root out any racial and socioeconomic disparities in the local criminal justice system[.]”
  

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public! At the end of another week, a few key stories for you: Big student loan news this week in the United States, as the Biden Administration hired an outspoken proponent of student debt cancellation while a major student loan servicer announced its plans to shutter its business at the end of 2021. Meanwhile, Department of Treasury data shows almost none of the emergency rental aid funds allocated by Congress have been spent. In Canada, members of parliament called for a special prosecutor to address crimes against Indigenous people.

These stories and more are in the links below.

Take care of one another,

Sam

Editor’s Choice

• In Canada, “Nunavut’s member of Parliament [called] on the federal government to appoint a special prosecutor to delve into crimes committed against Indigenous people. Mumilaaq Qaqqaq sa[id] perpetrators of abuse at institutions such as residential schools and tuberculosis sanatoria need to be brought to justice:

  Indigenous people need truth and justice, not only about individual abusers…but about the hellhole of all genocidal residential school systems. We need a full and independent investigation that has the power to shine a light on every facet of this national crime and has the power to bring perpetrators to justice.”

  • Relatedly, “[a]t least three First Nations in Canada recently uncovered hundreds of unmarked graves of Indigenous children on the grounds of former ‘residential schools’ – government-founded, assimilation institutions that were run by various churches for more than 100 years.”

Free & Fair Elections; Rule of Law

• In Atlanta GA, “[a] federal judge declined to temporarily halt a new Georgia voting law that is being challenged in the courts, ruling that doing so would risk disrupting an upcoming runoff election.”
• In Boise ID, “[t]he Idaho Supreme Court heard arguments [] over a lawsuit by the nonprofit Reclaim Idaho against a new law that creates stricter rules for passing ballot initiatives.”
• In Washington DC, “[a] panel of former judges and legal scholars convened last year by the group Project on Government Oversight (POGO) released a report on Thursday detailing recommendations for how to restore public trust in the [U.S. Supreme] court, which has been shaped by partisan battles over confirmations in recent decades as conservatives solidified a 6-3 majority.” [Report available from the Project on Government Oversight.]

Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Issues

• In Washington DC, “the Biden administration announced Friday that it barred Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from detaining pregnant or nursing women, absent ‘exceptional circumstances.’”
• Also in Washington DC, “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced the Interagency Strategy for Promoting Naturalization on Friday, following an executive order President Biden signed in February to strengthen the legal immigration system. The strategy was developed by eight federal departments and will launch new memoranda of understanding between USCIS and other agencies to promote outreach, education and awareness of pathways to citizenship.”
• In Syracuse NY, a report “from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University [ranked] North Carolina [] last in in the country for the likelihood of having legal representation in immigration cases[.]”
• In Fort Collins CO, “[t]he Fort Collins City Council passed ordinance No. 64 on second reading with a vote of 5-2 during a meeting on July 6, appropriating $150,000 from reserved funds to finance a pilot program for immigration legal defense.”

Student Loans & Student Debt

• In Washington DC, “Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Patty Murray and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer led 20 of their Democratic colleagues in a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, urging him to prioritize reforms to the student-debt system in his regulatory agenda.” [Letter available on the Senate website.]
  • Forbes reported specifically on the “5 main proposals” present in the Congressional letter.
• Also in Washington, “[t]he Biden administration has hired a vocal proponent of canceling student debt for a key post in the Education Department. The Education Department hired Toby Merrill to serve as deputy general counsel in the Office of the General Counsel, the agency said in a statement. Merrill founded and directed the Project on Predatory Student Lending at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School.”
• Also also in Washington, “[w]orking through a backlog of student debt relief claims, the Education Department said Friday it will cancel the loans of more than 1,800 people defrauded by defunct for-profit chains Westwood College, Marinello Schools of Beauty and the Court Reporting Institute.”
• In the United States, “[a] major student loan servicing shakeup is in the works as one of the Department of Education’s primary student loan services seeks to exit the business. The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Authority (PHEAA), which operates FedLoan Servicing, has informed its employees that it plans to end its federal student loan servicing activities when its contract with the Department ends this December.”
• The Center for Law and Social Policy argued that “[w]hile Black borrowers overall are burdened with high rates of student loan debt, Black women, in particular, see high rates of outstanding debt. A recent report identified that Black women carry about 20 percent more debt than white women [; and p]ursuing graduate studies deepens these disparities…Research indicates that cancelling even $50,000 in student debt would alleviate the debt burden for nearly 93 percent of the lowest-income Black households and also increase wealth by a third.”

Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring

• In Ohio, “[i]n a collaborative survey with the Ohio Supreme Court, the Ohio Access to Justice Foundation reports that 3,735 Ohio lawyers replied with information about their pro bono practices during 2020. Of the respondents, 2,102, or 56%, indicated they represented clients without receiving compensation…The 2020 survey shows 98,783 pro bono hours reported. Since the 2019 report, the average number of hours reported per attorney has increased by 24%.”
• Federal Computer Week reported that after “[t]he pandemic pushed over half of the federal workforce into telework. Disability rights advocates say maintaining more access to telework could make the federal workspace more accessible.”
• In Madison WI, “[t]he University of Wisconsin Law School may pare back some of its yearlong clinics in a change the school argues could increase student participation but some students fear would threaten the quality of their education and the work they do for clients.”
• Also in Madison, “[t]he Climate Defense Project, a nonprofit legal group, recently lodged a complaint with the state Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) on behalf of nearly 200 [University of Wisconsin] students, faculty, alumni and community members.” The complaint “argue[s] that the university foundation’s investments in fossil fuel companies are [in violation of] a 2009 state law that stipulated nonprofit entities have a duty to invest in line with their charitable missions.”
• In Washington DC, “[t]he Office of Management and Budget has told the chief government watchdog it will not comply with several of its recommendations aimed at improving the performance and oversight of government, arguing the changes are unnecessary or that it had already addressed the concerns.”
• Also in Washington DC, “[t]he Environmental Protection Agency is reminding employees not to engage with members of the media, sending a memorandum this week instructing them to deflect any press inquiries. The guidance came after EPA Administrator Michael Regan earlier this year sent employees a memo of his own pledging to bring transparency to the agency and reinstate a ‘fishbowl’ environment.”

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• In the United States, “[o]f the $25 billion [in emergency rental aid that the US Congress] appropriated in December, only $1.5 billion had been spent nationwide on rent, utilities and arrears between January and the end of May, according to figures released last week by the Treasury Department.” [Figures available from the US Dept. of the Treasury.]
• In Ohio, “[a]fter a lengthy interruption of the operations of its “Do It Yourself” (DIY) legal clinics, Southeastern Ohio Legal Services (SEOLS) will resume the monthly DIY presentation with the help of its long-time partner, Ironton-Lawrence Community Action Agency.”
• In Missouri, “[t]he Missouri Department of Labor is implementing a process for people who were overpaid federal unemployment benefits last year to apply to keep the money. During the height of the pandemic, the department mistakenly overpaid about 47,000 Missourians more than $150 million in mostly federal unemployment benefits. The move to offer waivers for about $108 million of federal money comes after months of pressure from lawmakers.”
• In Portland ME, “[a] Superior Court justice has upheld Portland’s new rent control ordinance despite a lawsuit brought by local landlords. The ordinance limits most rent increases to the rate of inflation, increases the amount of notice a landlord must provide when not renewing an at-will tenancy, and creates a Rent Board to enforce the ordinance and award additional rent increases when appropriate.”
• In Ontario, “[t]he Aboriginal Justice Strategy at Legal Aid Ontario has released the first part of its consultation report on its effectiveness in delivering legal aid services and initiatives to Indigenous clients in the province, including by offering 20 recommendations.”
• Also in Ontario, “Tribunals Ontario has launched an online tool to help empower users with “tailored information about their rights and responsibilities and the rules and processes at the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB).””
• In British Columia, “Legal Aid BC…expanded its partnership with Tyler [Technologies, Inc.]…expanding [its Family Resolution Centre] to cover child support issues, providing full support to separated parents through [Tyler’s] Modria [online dispute resolution] solution.”
• In New York NY, “[a] lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court [] alleges…Mayor de Blasio broke the law by rushing homeless, disabled New Yorkers out of hotel rooms for shelters without notice[.]”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Madison County IL, “[Madison County State’s Attorney] Haine asked [the County Board Judiciary Committee] for nine new attorneys while [Public Defender] Copeland requested three.”
• In Cole County MO, “the Public Defender’s Office…[has] new defenders [] coming thanks to state lawmakers earmarking $1 million to hire 15 new public defenders to eliminate some waiting lists for public defender services across the state.”
• In Alpena County MI, “A new law office[,…t]the Northeast Michigan Regional Defenders Office[,] has been busy preparing to help people in the region. The practice is led by former Presque Isle Prosecutor Rick Stieger as Chief Public Defender and Alpena native Julie Miller as Chief Deputy Defender.”
• In Camden NJ, “[t]he newly launched New Jersey Innocence Project, based at Rutgers University-Camden, will help exonerate wrongly convicted people.”
• The Ottawa Citizen published a column criticizing the Canadian Judicial Council’s decision last May to publish the Criminal Law Handbook for Self-represented Accused. The columnist, a Toronto defence lawyer, argued that “[a] growing number of accused want a lawyer but cannot afford one and do not qualify for legal aid. That is a serious problem that has to be rectified. I do not think the way to do so is by publishing a user manual that suggests an unrepresented accused can do an OK job playing lawyer.”

Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform

• In Ontario, a new report from the Law Commission of Ontario found that “[s]tatutory changes, prosecutorial guidelines and training programs are among the “urgently needed reforms” necessary to regulate the use of artificial-intelligence-driven DNA-analysis technology in the criminal justice system[.]”
• In Gwinnett County GA, “[a] recent partnership between the Gwinnett County district attorney and a restorative justice program aims to save taxpayer money and help reduce the impact of the criminal justice system on some first-time offenders…The DA’s office said the program will grant ‘second chances’ by enhancing the social, financial and civic knowledge of offenders.”
• In Maricopa County AZ, “[t]he American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint against the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, alleging that prosecutors are misusing a pre-trial court process to get thousands to plead guilty without hearings or further evidence being disclosed.”
• In Charlottesville VA, “[t]he University of Virginia School of Law is launching an ambitious new project focused on criminal justice reform that will expand the scope of the school’s Center for Criminal Justice and build upon lessons learned from the Innocence Project at UVA Law.”