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Environmentalists Say Trump Pollution Policy
Risks Long-Term Health Consequences
A group of environmentalists is suing the Trump administration over what they say is a violation of the Clean Air Act that favors industrial polluters.
The lawsuit filed last month in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., is one of several disputes playing out in the courts and in Congress over recent changes in federal environmental policy.
Earthjustice and fellow plaintiffs sued to block a two-year extension granted to dozens of corporations to comply with federal pollution standards. The corporations consist largely of chemical manufacturers, oil refineries, coal plants and medical device sterilizers.
The Trump administration is giving “facilities in states from Louisiana to Michigan a free pass to continue to pollute and put communities at risk for an additional two years,” the lawsuit says. One of the pollutants is ethylene oxide, which has been linked to cancer.
A White House statement said the organizations still need to comply with Clean Air Act standards but they are merely being given “more time.”
The lawsuit is running headlong into a Trump administration plan to relax some pollution standards to spur economic growth.
A similar issue was discussed during a recent Senate hearing, where chemical industry experts warned lawmakers to be careful as they try to balance safety against economic development with a planned rewrite of a federal law on potentially harmful substances.
The chemical industry complains that prolonged regulatory approvals are making the United States fall behind other countries in a field where Americans traditionally have been world leaders.
Environmentalists say health problems such as cancer and autism are rising from exposure to toxins. They blame microplastics, asbestos and the PFAS “forever” chemicals as some of the culprits.
Setting the right priorities is “an issue that lies at the intersection of innovation, safety and U.S. competitiveness," said Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, chairman of the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Chemical Safety.
Senate Told Prompt Action Needed
Against Rising Political Violence
A Senate panel heard frightening testimony last week about growing rates of political violence in the United States.
Expert witnesses and lawmakers at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing urged quick action as statistics show the violence is rising. American University’s Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab reports that domestic terrorism incidents are up by 67 percent in the past year.
About 55 percent of them succeed in hitting their targets with violence, the lab reported.
Most of the proposals pending in Congress envision a bigger police presence for monitoring risks of political violence along with tougher law enforcement against the perpetrators.
One proposal, called the EAGLES Act, would expand the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center with a broader focus on “targeted violence,” such as school shootings and other public threats.
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Latest News
Major Corporations Face Nov. 7 Deadline
To Explain White House Ballroom Donations
Friday is the deadline for major corporations to respond to a congressional inquiry about possible conflicts of interest in their donations to a controversial addition to the White House.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., sent letters late last month to corporate donors demanding more information about their motives for contributing millions of dollars to the huge ballroom being built to replace the East Wing of the White House.
The donor list includes some of the nation's most profitable firms, such as Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is making the biggest contribution at $22 million but it is part of a settlement. President Donald Trump had sued the company after Google subsidiary YouTube suspended his account.
Defense contractor Lockheed Martin is contributing more than $10 million. Construction company Boxabl is contributing another $10 million.
Power the Civil Rights Work of Our Time
Each day members of our community are experiencing wage theft, the effects of gentrification, discriminatory policing, collateral consequences, marginalization in schools, and barriers to public accommodations.
We fight alongside people facing the effects of gentrification like Amira Moore. Our work empowers the people and communities who need it most, “We can do more than we think. There’s a path to equity, we just have to step to it.” –Ms. Moore
For more than 50 years, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee has been on the frontlines of the fight for civil rights in our community. We deploy the best legal talent, we tackle the tough cases, we fight, and we win.
Our work is as important today as it has ever been. Through your support, you can play a role in creating justice for thousands of marginalized members of our community. Together, we will dismantle injustice and pursue lasting change.
Join us! Donate & subscribe: https://www.washlaw.org/support-us
Volunteer with us: https://www.washlaw.org/get-involved/
For more information, contact Gregg Kelley at Gregg_Kelley@washlaw.org
About Us
The Legal Forum is a nonprofit news service for the Washington area's legal community that also offers attorney job listings as well as amicus briefs and grant information for charitable organizations. If you have questions, please Contact Us
Letters to the Editor
D.C. in Brief
Proposal for Non-Lawyers in D.C. Courts
Moves to Rule-Making by Judges
The next step in deciding whether non-lawyers are allowed to represent low-income residents in District of Columbia courts is now in the hands of local judges.
The public comment period ended Oct. 31.
In August, a task force of judges and lawyers recommended in a report that social workers should be trained to help people who cannot afford attorneys handle their civil matters before the courts. Typically, they would include estates, small claims, rent disputes and requests for restraining orders.
The first recommendation of the District of Columbia Courts Civil Legal Regulatory Reform Task Force says, “The task force unanimously recommends that the Courts establish a framework for Community Justice Worker (CJW) programs.”
The trained non-lawyers would need to be affiliated with approved nonprofit legal service organizations and work under the supervision of attorneys. Although government grants might be available for the nonprofits, the clients would be represented for free by the “community justice workers.”
Judges from the D.C. Court of Appeals and Superior Court are putting together a final rule to implement the program. It is expected to start late next year.
The task force envisions drawing community justice workers from a variety of other professions, such as nurses, public health workers, librarians, teachers, clergy members and law students.
“In Washington D.C., anywhere between 75 [percent] and 97 percent of high-volume, high- stakes civil cases in our local courts involve at least one unrepresented party,” the task force’s report says. “Despite the substantial pro bono efforts of D.C. Bar members and the outstanding work of legal-services providers, the access-to-justice crisis has persisted for decades.”
Washington, D.C., Bar Criticizes
Law Firm Settlements with Trump
The District of Columbia Bar has put its lawyers on a potential collision course with the Trump administration over a new ethics opinion that criticizes recent settlements with major law firms.
The D.C. Bar sets the standards for thousands of Washington, D.C., lawyers and their firms. A violation of its rules could result in fines or disbarment.
In its opinion released last week, the D.C. Bar referred to its “Rules of Professional Conduct” that would call into question the propriety of settlements that nine major firms reached with President Donald Trump to avoid sanctions.
The opinion did not specifically mention Trump or the firms that settled with him but left no doubt it referred to them. The D.C. Bar said it was responding to “inquiries from bar members related to prospective agreements between a government and lawyers or law firms with conditions that may limit or shape their law practices.”
Trump threatened to end government contracts with the firms and to bar their lawyers from federal courthouses unless they agreed to provide pro bono work for conservative causes that he chose.
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Legal Briefs
We Could Use Your Help
Thousands of DC residents need a lawyer, but can’t afford one. They could be illegally evicted from their homes, lose custody of their children, experience domestic violence, and more, all because they lack legal representation.
You could make a difference. By making a donation to the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, you will provide free, high-quality, zealous legal representation to low-income DC residents.
Your support could prevent homelessness, domestic violence, hunger, or family separation. In fact, if just 10 people who see this ad give $28 to Legal Aid, it will be enough to staff an experienced attorney at the courthouse for a day.
That way, DC residents like Keith King (pictured above) can get the legal representation they need to win their cases. As Mr. King put it, if it wasn’t for his Legal Aid lawyer, “I would have been homeless again.”
Here is the link to the Legal Aid website for donations: https://www.legalaiddc.org/donate-to-legal-aid/
For more information, contact Rob Pergament at Legal Aid at rpergament@legalaiddc.org