Just a day before a key hearing in which a United States District judge in Oakland could have decided the fates of hundreds of students nationwide whose visas had been terminated, students, attorneys and universities across the country began reporting unexpected reinstatements of their status — even for individuals who had not filed a lawsuit. […]
Category: Law & Justice
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, City Hall, Homelessness, Law & Justice, Public Safety, Social Services
Visible Progress or Political Theater? Factions Disagree on How to Clean Up Street Conditions
In February, the San Francisco Police Department converted a Sixth Street parking lot in South of Market to what it called a triage center — a fenced-off area where police could connect people to social services or put them in a van bound for jail.
According to a city staff report, in the first month of the triage center’s operation, police made 350 arrests, three-quarters of them drug related. Triage personnel connected 275 people to shelter and 408 people to health care.
Advocates for people struggling with homelessness or substance use disorder say the city’s approach is unnecessarily punitive, but some business owners and community members say they approve of what the mayor and Police Department are doing.
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Homelessness, Housing, Immigration, Law & Justice
‘They’ll All Be Homeless’
San Francisco should brace for a surge in homelessness.
That was the assessment of local housing advocates following a Department of Housing and Urban Development announcement that it would “take steps” to ensure no funding would be used to “support sanctuary policies of states or local governments that actively prevent federal authorities from deporting” undocumented residents.
On Friday, HUD Secretary Scott Turner issued a letter informing the department’s grantees and stakeholders of his plans to comply with an executive order titled “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders,” signed by President Trump Feb. 19.
San Francisco adopted its sanctuary city policy in 1989. It prohibits city staff and police from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement unless required to do so by federal or state law.
Posted inBay Area, California, Government & Politics, Immigration, Law & Justice
San Francisco’s Sanctuary City Legacy
San Francisco has a long history of providing refuge to people in marginalized communities.
Posted inCalifornia, Government & Politics, Law & Justice
California Supreme Court to Hear Court Reporter Shortage Case
In a move hailed by legal advocates of low-income litigants, the California Supreme Court last week agreed to hear a case on whether to allow electronic recording in family court hearings.
“We are incredibly grateful the Supreme Court has agreed to consider our case addressing trial courts’ inability to provide a verbatim record of what happens in thousands of court hearings every day, resulting in devastating effects to low-income litigants, including survivors of domestic abuse,” Jennafer Wagner, director of programs at the Family Violence Appellate Project, wrote in an email to the San Francisco Public Press.
Posted inImmigration, Law & Justice
Public Defender Alleges Local-Federal Law Enforcement Partnership Defies SF Sanctuary Laws
San Francisco’s top prosecutor, police chief and public defender gathered on the steps outside City Hall’s main entrance in a rare display of unity as they committed to uphold sanctuary laws that protect undocumented immigrants from the Trump administration’s threatened mass deportation. But the agencies diverge on whom to shield from federal action.
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Law & Justice, Public Safety
Trial Courts Sued, Accused of Hampering Domestic Violence Survivors’ Ability to Appeal Rulings
Groups that advocate for survivors of domestic violence have sued California trial courts to force them to address the statewide court reporter shortage, which they say is impairing “equal access to justice.”
Posted inHealth, Law & Justice, Overdose Crisis, Public Safety, Social Services
Proveedores de Servicios Exigen Acceso a Reclusos Latinos
La falta de programación en español es un problema crecientemente grave ya que el encarcelamiento de latinos ha aumentado desde el lanzamiento el junio pasado de una ofensiva policial contra las drogas en los vecindarios de Tenderloin y sur de Market. • Read in English: https://www.sfpublicpress.org/service-providers-demand-access-to-latinx-jail-inmates
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Elections, Law & Justice
Election Money Pours in for San Francisco Judges’ Seats That Used to Go Uncontested
In California, the governor appoints superior court judges to fill seats across 58 counties. Terms are typically six years, and judges keep their positions unless they’re recalled, which happens rarely, or someone decides to run against them in a local election. Usually, judges don’t face challengers.
But a pair of San Francisco judges are running to stay on the bench in the upcoming March 5 election. The last time sitting judges faced such challenges here was in the June 2018 primary election, and the challengers lost.
Voters might be wondering why they’re being asked to make this decision.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Elections, Government & Politics, Health, Law & Justice, Overdose Crisis, Social Services
Drug Policy, Addictions Specialists Oppose Prop F Tying Welfare to Drug Tests
Numerous drug policy experts and addictions specialists from across the country — as close as UCSF and as far away as Rhode Island — publicly oppose a San Francisco ballot measure that would compel adult welfare recipients to undergo drug screening before collecting cash benefits.
And efforts to publicize the measure have brought practitioners who don’t always agree about addiction treatment practices to the same side of the debate.