Recently, President Biden planned to take action to ensure better access to legal services for minorities, low-income people and others who lack legal resources. This is the latest move by Biden to reverse Trump-era legal policies, reform the U.S. justice system and advance racial equality.
On Tuesday, May 18, Biden signed a memo directing the Justice Department to restore the Trump-era Office of Access to Justice and re-establish the White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable).
The presidential memo, which was shared with The Associated Press for the first time, sets out a specific plan of action, according to the AP. The White House said Biden is directing the Roundtable to study the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on civil and criminal access to justice. In the memo, he wrote that the epidemic “has further exposed and exacerbated inequities in our justice system as legal services have been cut. These problems have touched the lives of many people, particularly low-income people and people of color.”
The announcement comes as the Biden administration’s Justice Department has been refocusing its efforts around civil rights, with policing reform and combating racial discrimination among its priorities.
In the past few weeks, the Justice Department has launched investigations into police officers in Louisville and Minneapolis, Kentucky. Federal prosecutors have charged four former Minneapolis police officers with civil rights violations in the death of Floyd and three other men with hate crimes in the death of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia.
Nearly a year after Floyd’s death sparked massive protests and calls for action, Biden sought to address what Democrats call “structural racism” by reforming the justice system and advancing racial equality. The memo requires Attorney General Merrick Garland to submit a plan within 120 days to expand the scope of the justice system’s work.
Biden signed several executive orders on his first day in office, one of which was to establish a priority for “principles of fairness” in government operations. His proposed budget is $1.5 billion to strengthen state and local criminal justice systems, including public defenders.
Since Biden took office, civil rights groups and their leaders have been pressuring the Biden administration to reestablish the Office of Access to Justice. The office was started in 2010 by then-Attorney General Eric Holder, and by 2016, it was officially established under former President Barack Obama. Its work included criminal defense for the indigent, delivery of fines, assistance for people with language barriers who go to court, and civil legal aid.In 2018, this office was closed by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
The Interagency Roundtable on Legal Assistance was first established in 2012 and launched in 2015 as a White House initiative to identify opportunities for improvement and help people find legal representation, as well as provide a variety of legal services.
To date, many Trump-era policies have been reversed, including the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy and a memo restricting the use of full investigations of police departments.
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