Category: US Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department announced today it will hold Tribal consultations around its consideration of legislative proposals to address the balance of jurisdiction in Indian country that was upended by the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta.

Indian country is a legal term that generally describes Tribal reservations, lands, communities, and allotments that fall under the jurisdiction of the United States.

Until two years ago, there was a long-held understanding, shared by the federal government and Tribes, that a law passed by Congress, the General Crimes Act, limited a state’s authority to prosecute some crimes committed in Indian country, namely those crimes committed by non-Indian defendants against Indian victims. Those crimes could be prosecuted only by federal or Tribal authorities. In Castro-Huerta, the Supreme Court rejected that understanding.

Instead, the Supreme Court ruled that the General Crimes Act does not limit a state’s inherent jurisdiction to prosecute non-Indian defendants who commit crimes against Indian victims in Indian country. In other words, based on the Supreme Court’s decision, the federal government, states, and Tribes now have concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute these types of crimes throughout the United States.

Because the Supreme Court’s decision was based on the language in a statute, Congress, exercising its constitutional plenary power over Indian affairs, could pass legislation restoring the previous balance of jurisdiction in Indian country.

“The Department of Justice is committed to working with Native communities to advance our shared goal of Tribal safety while respecting and uplifting Tribal sovereignty,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “These upcoming consultations are consistent with the Department’s longstanding practice of working collaboratively with our Tribal partners to promote safe communities throughout Indian country.”

The Justice Department and the Department of the Interior (DOI) held joint listening sessions on Sept. 26-27, 2022, to discuss with Tribal representatives the implications of the Castro-Huerta decision and the impact on Tribal communities. More than 500 Tribal leaders and other Tribal representatives participated in these discussions. Several clear themes emerged, including a view from Tribes that the Castro-Huerta decision diminished Tribal sovereignty, injected confusion into a complex legal and operational landscape, and presented long-term implications for state interference in Tribal affairs. A common view emerged that legislation and clarifying federal guidance were in order.

Several Tribes also reported that Castro-Huerta has negatively impacted their cross-deputization, cross-jurisdictional, and other cooperative law enforcement agreements with states, which prior to Castro-Huerta were an important part of successful law enforcement and criminal justice schemes on many reservations.

Based on those listening sessions, other feedback, and experience over the past two years, the Justice Department is now considering whether to support a legislative proposal to restore the previous balance of jurisdiction in Indian country and, if so, what form that legislation should take. Two draft proposals are presented for Tribal review and consideration.

Both proposals make clear that states lack jurisdiction over crimes within Indian country committed by or against Indians, unless expressly authorized by federal statute. Both proposals also state that unless otherwise authorized by federal statute, states must, before exercising such jurisdiction, (1) ensure compliance with the procedures for obtaining Tribal consent of the impacted Indian Tribe, and (2) where applicable, comply with a procedure to amend the state constitution or laws

The Department is releasing a framing paper, which will be available on the Department’s Tribal Justice and Safety website and includes additional background and the two legislative proposals.  The Justice Department plans to hold consultations in January 2025.

Source: United States Department of Justice 2

The Justice Department sued the State of South Carolina today for unnecessarily segregating adults with mental illness in adult care homes, in violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Supreme Court’s decision in Olmstead v. L.C. The department previously notified South Carolina of its findings of civil rights violations in a July 2023 letter, which identified steps that the state should take to remedy the violations.

“People with disabilities in South Carolina can and must be able to receive services in their own homes, rather than being isolated in institutions,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Civil Rights Division will continue to ensure that people with disabilities can receive the services necessary to enable and empower them to leave institutions, and participate fully in community life.”

“The ADA requires public entities to administer services, programs and activities in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of qualified individuals with disabilities,” said U.S. Attorney Adair F. Boroughs for the District of South Carolina. “South Carolina must remedy the alleged violations identified by the Justice Department so that these individuals can obtain services in their own communities, as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

The ADA and Olmstead decision require state and local governments to ensure that the services for adults with mental illness are provided in the most integrated setting appropriate. Community-based services, such as Assertive Community Treatment and supportive housing, are effective in supporting people in their own homes and communities rather than institutional settings. Absent these services, many South Carolinians with mental illness who could live in the community remain in, and continue to enter, adult care homes.

The lawsuit alleges that South Carolina violates the ADA by failing to provide community-based services to prevent the unnecessary segregation of adults with mental illness in adult care homes. As a result, over a thousand adults with mental illness are segregated in adult care homes for years, and more continue to enter these facilities each month.

The Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section investigated this case with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina. Individuals with information relevant to this matter can contact the department by emailing Community.SouthCarolina@usdoj.gov.                                                          

For more information on the ADA, please call the department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 1-800-514-0301 (TDD 800-514-0383) or visit www.ada.gov/topics/community-integration/.

For more information on the Civil Rights Division, please visit www.justice.gov/crt.

Source: United States Department of Justice 2

The Justice Department announced today it will hold Tribal consultations around its consideration of legislative proposals to address the balance of jurisdiction in Indian country that was upended by the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta.

Indian country is a legal term that generally describes Tribal reservations, lands, communities, and allotments that fall under the jurisdiction of the United States.

Until two years ago, there was a long-held understanding, shared by the federal government and Tribes, that a law passed by Congress, the General Crimes Act, limited a state’s authority to prosecute some crimes committed in Indian country, namely those crimes committed by non-Indian defendants against Indian victims. Those crimes could be prosecuted only by federal or Tribal authorities. In Castro-Huerta, the Supreme Court rejected that understanding.

Instead, the Supreme Court ruled that the General Crimes Act does not limit a state’s inherent jurisdiction to prosecute non-Indian defendants who commit crimes against Indian victims in Indian country. In other words, based on the Supreme Court’s decision, the federal government, states, and Tribes now have concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute these types of crimes throughout the United States.

Because the Supreme Court’s decision was based on the language in a statute, Congress, exercising its constitutional plenary power over Indian affairs, could pass legislation restoring the previous balance of jurisdiction in Indian country.

“The Department of Justice is committed to working with Native communities to advance our shared goal of Tribal safety while respecting and uplifting Tribal sovereignty,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “These upcoming consultations are consistent with the Department’s longstanding practice of working collaboratively with our Tribal partners to promote safe communities throughout Indian country.”

The Justice Department and the Department of the Interior (DOI) held joint listening sessions on Sept. 26-27, 2022, to discuss with Tribal representatives the implications of the Castro-Huerta decision and the impact on Tribal communities. More than 500 Tribal leaders and other Tribal representatives participated in these discussions. Several clear themes emerged, including a view from Tribes that the Castro-Huerta decision diminished Tribal sovereignty, injected confusion into a complex legal and operational landscape, and presented long-term implications for state interference in Tribal affairs. A common view emerged that legislation and clarifying federal guidance were in order.

Several Tribes also reported that Castro-Huerta has negatively impacted their cross-deputization, cross-jurisdictional, and other cooperative law enforcement agreements with states, which prior to Castro-Huerta were an important part of successful law enforcement and criminal justice schemes on many reservations.

Based on those listening sessions, other feedback, and experience over the past two years, the Justice Department is now considering whether to support a legislative proposal to restore the previous balance of jurisdiction in Indian country and, if so, what form that legislation should take. Two draft proposals are presented for Tribal review and consideration.

Both proposals make clear that states lack jurisdiction over crimes within Indian country committed by or against Indians, unless expressly authorized by federal statute. Both proposals also state that unless otherwise authorized by federal statute, states must, before exercising such jurisdiction, (1) ensure compliance with the procedures for obtaining Tribal consent of the impacted Indian Tribe, and (2) where applicable, comply with a procedure to amend the state constitution or laws

The Department is releasing a framing paper, which will be available on the Department’s Tribal Justice and Safety website and includes additional background and the two legislative proposals.  The Justice Department plans to hold consultations in January 2025.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Thank you, Attorney General Garland and White House Counsel Siskel, for convening us today. And thank you to all of the Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable members for working to realize the mission of this body.

I also want to recognize and give thanks to Rachel Rossi, Director of the Justice Department’s Office for Access to Justice; to Allie Yang-Green, LAIR’s Executive Director; to Kristen Clarke, the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division; and to all the staff of the Office for Access to Justice (ATJ) who work behind the scenes helping to operationalize LAIR’s work. Their collective work and collaboration with LAIR partners and other stakeholders have been remarkable.

In the United States, access to justice remains out of reach for far too many people. Legal help for essential needs like housing, education, employment, and safety from violence are often elusive. Thanks to the collaboration of the 28 federal agencies that make up LAIR, our nation is actively addressing this challenge by strengthening federal programs to address basic human needs.

From its origin in 2012 through today, LAIR’s mission has remained critical for us all. Through interagency collaboration and stakeholder engagement, the 28 individual LAIR partner agencies — each with diverse missions, mandates, expertise, and tools — develop policy recommendations, advance evidence-based research, collect and analyze data, and promulgate best practices.

Over the past few years, LAIR’s work has promoted innovative efforts to expand access to legal assistance, from both lawyers and nonlawyers. Those efforts include promoting people-centered strategies for simplifying and reducing burdens to accessing federal administrative processes and government services; and creating tools, like the Federal Funding Opportunities online hub, that are working to ensure funding can better reach legal service providers to close justice gaps.

This year, LAIR took on the critical issue of data collection and research as a means for advancing equal access to justice. Every day, millions of Americans face legal problems. Using data to understand and illuminate the barriers Americans face in accessing justice is essential. This year’s report details member agencies’ use of data and research in developing, implementing, evaluating, and improving federal policies and programs that serve the public and help them resolve their justice problems.

LAIR’s work has also revealed the power of collaboration and the urgent need for this body to continue to advance our collective work to close the justice gap. Together, LAIR’s partner agencies can advance innovative strategies with comprehensive approaches that utilize their diverse and expansive expertise.

I’ve seen firsthand how LAIR’s work is valued and even replicated throughout the world. This past summer, I delivered remarks at the United Nations’ 2024 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, where I reaffirmed our country’s commitment to implementing U.N. Sustainable Development Goal 16 — to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels. I also represented the United States at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Access to Justice Roundtable held in Canada in October. In both forums, I recognized the leadership role of the United States in advancing access to justice, as well as how much we can learn from other governments and partners. I also highlighted the work of LAIR.  And it became clear to me — through meetings, conversations, and bilateral dialogues — how much stakeholders around the world look to what is happening here in the United States to set an example. I am proud that ATJ will continue to use Sustainable Development Goal 16 as an important tool to close the justice gap in the United States.

Today, as we highlight LAIR’s body of work in 2024, and celebrate the innovation this interagency partnership has advanced since its origins in 2012, we also join in renewed commitment to this work going forward. Your participation in LAIR’s work and your presence at this convening stands as a reaffirmation of this commitment to work collaboratively to mobilize resources and develop access to justice solutions.  

Thank you again to all of you. Your work on these issues is so vital and so energizing. With that, I’ll turn things over to Director Rossi. Thank you.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Remarks as Delivered

Thank you, Rachel. I am so grateful for your leadership.

And I am grateful to all the extraordinary public servants of the Department’s Office for Access to Justice for everything that they’ve done as part of LAIR and of really building an office basically from nothing into an enormous institution of incredible vigor and effectiveness in providing access to justice.

For the nearly four years that I have had the honor of serving as Attorney General, I start every single morning by walking through a rotunda, which is right outside my office, in which these words are inscribed: “The United States wins its point whenever justice is done its citizens in [the] courts.”

This message reflects that the Department is responsible not only for enforcing the law, and not only for defending the federal government and its interests, but also for upholding the Rule of Law.

I speak often about the importance of building and maintaining public trust for what we do — and in the Rule of Law itself.

Public faith in the rule of law depends in no small part on faith that our system will ensure equal justice under law.

And fulfilling the promise of equal justice demands that we work to ensure equal access to justice. For without equal access to justice, the promise of equal justice just rings hollow.

The White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable (LAIR) seeks to fulfill that promise.

Together, we — the Roundtable’s 28 federal agencies — are charged with “increase[ing] the availability of meaningful access to justice for individuals and families, regardless of wealth or status.”

Since its formation in 2012, the Roundtable has brought its resources and expertise to bear on a range of essential topics related to that critical mission.

I’ll give just a few highlights of what we have done over the last few years:

In 2021, the Roundtable’s work examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to justice in both the civil and criminal justice systems.

In 2022, we focused on reducing justice gaps by simplifying federal government forms, processes, and language, and emphasizing the importance of getting feedback from the communities we serve.

This work was based on a simple idea: you should not need legal training to access government programs — nor to understand what the government is asking of you.

Last year, we focused on applying those simplification tools to expand access to justice within federal administrative proceedings.

And this year, as Ed and the Second Gentleman said, we turned our focus to a cross-cutting topic that underlies and enables many of these important efforts: the role of data and research in expanding access to justice.

This year’s report explores how agencies can use data and research in developing, implementing, evaluating, and improving federal programs that serve the public.

And it studies the way in which data and research can help us to enable the public to understand and navigate and resolve their justice problems.

This year’s report also highlights the ways that the 28 members of the Roundtable have harnessed data to expand access to justice, including by:

• Gathering data to inform efforts to improve access to federal programs;
• Evaluating those efforts over time; and
• Sharing data to help outside researchers, legal aid organizations, and the general public derive further insight into access to justice issues and solutions.

We will hear more about some of these efforts today, and we are grateful to those in this room who have championed them.

I want to provide just a few updates on what the Justice Department has been doing:

The Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics — which is the federal government’s criminal justice statistics bureau — has collaborated with our Access to Justice Office, to develop the Access to Justice Design and Testing Program.

This new program is aimed at identifying and filling gaps in our data about access to justice for civil legal needs. We are developing and piloting a household-based civil legal needs survey. And we are evaluating additional data collection related to access to justice for civil legal needs.

The Justice Department has also partnered with the U.S. Census Bureau to link individual-level data from a variety of programs with federal and state datasets in order to give us critical insights into how federal programs are working.

We are also committed to ensuring that the public has access to critical data. This includes, for the first time, releasing national-level data regarding deaths of individuals in state and local custody through the Bureau of Justice Assistance. This data is critical to informing the efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement officials to prevent deaths in custody.

It also includes data ranging from nationwide crime and victimization rates, to maps of treatment courts that enable judicially supervised treatment and alternatives to incarceration.

We will soon hear from several representatives of members’ agencies and offices about some of the key initiatives that their agencies have undertaken to make equal access to justice a reality. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn from you.

But first, again, I want to thank all of you for recognizing the importance of this work and for carrying it through to the work that you do on behalf of the American people every day.

I know I speak for all of us in recognizing that this work could not happen without the dedication, expertise, and passion of the Roundtable’s staff and the Office for Access to Justice under the leadership of Rachel Rossi.

I am particularly grateful to the Roundtable’s Executive Director Allie Yang-Green. Thank you for the work you have done and that you will do to carry this progress forward.

I also want to acknowledge Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Ben Mizer — that’s a big mouthful but really he’s the Acting Associate Attorney General — and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke. Thank you for being here today and for your partnership and support for all of this work.

Serving as a co-chair of the Roundtable has been an enormous honor.

And I am grateful to have been able to serve alongside White House Counsel Ed Siskel, and under Stuart Delery and Dana Remus before him. You and your staff have been excellent partners, and I am grateful. I want to thank the Second Gentleman for your commitment to this. That kind of commitment is what shows everyone in the government that you really care about this.

Ensuring equal access to justice is an ambitious task that requires a true government-wide effort. But it could not be more important. Thank you all.