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Eliminating Fee Helps Open Courts to Poor Philadelphians

By Meghna Philip – 03/08/12

Last week, Philadelphia courts took some steps towards increasing access to justice for low-income people who are looking to dispute the bail forfeitures — money owed for violating the conditions of bail by failing to appear in court — which the city has levied against them. Courts have, until further notice, eliminated the filing fee for bail petitions. They have also streamlined the procedure for bail forfeiture hearings.

Philadelphia courts have imposed an aggressive criminal justice debt collections policy on thousands of city residents over the last two years, often without valid records to substantiate the debts being pursued. Bail forfeitures represent a significant portion of the alleged debts the city is after. 

Filing for indigence to waive court fees is not permitted for petitions for bail hearings in Philadelphia. Until now, former defendants who wanted to dispute their bail forfeitures needed to pay $12.50 per case to file a petition. This amount may not seem large, but many low-income people have been affected by the collection of forfeited bail; and for those living on public benefits, or those with multiple bail judgments to contest, the filing fee is a significant barrier to going to court. Community Legal Services, a group working specifically with low-income clients, has seen many individuals saddled with debts that are not actually owed, for example due to cases of mistaken identity by courts, or collection of debts that have been previously waived. Thus, it is especially important that poor people in Philadelphia have access to hearings to seek remission or reduction of the bail judgments against them.

In addition to the elimination of the filing fee, Philadelphia courts have taken steps to streamline the procedure for bail remissions and reductions. Once petitions are filed, they will be reviewed on paper and the court will issue an order without a hearing. Former defendants wishing to challenge the order can then request a hearing. While this process may expedite the courts’ review of petitions, it creates a risky situation for people whose court files and prison documents have been lost by the city. Evelyn Piner, a 53-year-old woman on public assistance, cannot prove she was incarcerated during an alleged missed court appearance because the city prison system’s documents for that period were destroyed by water damage. An expedited “on paper” review might disadvantage such folks.

To prevent people from being unfairly punished for the city’s faulty bookkeeping, this new streamlined bail petition procedure should result in an automatic erasure of bail judgments in any case where the city cannot produce court files to back up its charges. Also, people like Ms. Piner whose cases date before 1991, but who say they were incarcerated at the time, should have their bail vacated. If these people have no opportunity to access the prison records that could reduce their bail, they should not be summarily saddled with hundreds of dollars in debt.

Tags: Justice, Civil Justice

Latest News from the Brennan Center

By Erik Opsal – 03/06/12

All of these stories can be seen in full on the Brennan Center website. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter. And be sure to read and sign up for our new voting newsletter.

• Latest News
• Brennan Center Blog
• Events
• In the News

New Florida Voting Law Is ‘A Mess’

That’s what Lee Rowland, Brennan Center counsel, argued in federal district court in Tallahassee last week. Seeking to block a state law restricting voter registration drives, Rowland represents the Florida League of Women Voters, Rock the Vote and the Florida PIRG. “It's devastating the work of my clients," Rowland told the court Thursday. Although lawyers for the state maintained the new law is merely designed to make voter registration more orderly, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle was skeptical. “The state doesn't have an interest in making it hard to vote,” Hinkle said. “That's not a permissible goal.” The Justice Department also announced it would oppose Florida's law regulating voter registration and early voting.

Read more about the case here. For updates on the suit, sign up for our new voting newsletter. And for a comprehensive, in-depth look at voting law changes nationwide, read this study.

Citizens United Redux?

As the presidential election unfolds, the Supreme Court could revisit Citizens United later this year, and the Brennan Center is taking a lead role in the case. Last month, the Court froze a Montana Court decision upholding the state’s century-old law barring corporate campaign spending. Already, Justices Ginsburg and Breyer urged the Court to take the case, saying that “in light of the huge sums currently deployed to buy candidates’ allegiance,” it is “difficult to maintain that independent expenditures by corporations ‘do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.’”

At a time when billionaires are sponsoring presidential candidates like racehorses, the Center will urge the court to overturn, or at least narrow, Citizens United. Read our statement from Senior Counsel Adam Skaggs and this insightful article on how the case could unfold.

Who Will Watch the Watchman?

Most Justice Department Inspectors General toil in obscurity, rarely making waves. Not so for Glenn Fine (right). In his time as DOJ’s internal watchdog, Fine conducted an audit of the expanded surveillance powers granted the FBI in the wake of 9/11 and the Bureau’s widespread misuse of “national security letters,” a form of subpoena that requires entities such as phone companies to disclose personal records. This Thursday, March 8, 2012, Fine will appear at a Brennan Center and New York City Bar Association event discussing oversight of domestic counterterrorism operations. To learn about more about the discussion, click here.

New Voting Newsletter

With the election only eight months away, the voting rules in many states are in turmoil. The best way to keep up with these critical developments is to subscribe to the Brennan Center’s new voting newsletter. Appearing bi-weekly, the newsletter gives you the most up-to-date news about voting law changes nationwide. These laws govern how our democracy works. Sign up to receive these timely updates. Read our comprehensive study detailing restrictive voting laws, which could make it harder for up to 5 million Americans to vote.

Federal Agencies Can Reform Money in Politics

Last year, the Brennan Center discussed ways to push regulatory agencies, like the FEC, to increase accountability in elections. Now, in the age of super PACs, reformers are heeding our call, bombarding federal agencies “with letters from lawmakers, lobbyists and activists” urging disclosure, Roll Call reports. Read our recent comments to several federal agencies supporting more transparency in political spending.

Brennan Center Blog

Shareholder Protection in the Age of Super PACs – Jonathan Backer

• Neither our economy nor our democracy will function in the interest of all Americans if corporate political activity occurs in secret, with shareholders — and voters — kept in the dark.

Wisconsin’s Unjustified Toll on Student Registration – Elisabeth Genn

• As Wisconsinites went to the polls for the first election under the state's new voter ID law, the state Senate passed a bill making it harder for students to register to vote.

Ash Wednesday: Restoring the Right to Vote – Myrna Pérez

• As we begin this Holy Season, we must consider restoring the right to vote for people with past criminal convictions.

Foreclosure Dispatches: Views from Around the Country – Nabanita Pal

• Advocates from Queens Legal Services discuss New York's foreclosure crisis. See previous Q&A’s here, here, and here.  

“Robo-signing” Criminal Justice Debt in Philadelphia – Meghna Philip

• Philadelphia launched an aggressive drive to collect criminal justice debt from its residents, including from some who may not owe anything.

What We’re Reading

• See what the Brennan Center’s reading in this daily round-up of quick hits, clips, and opinion pieces touching on key issues of democracy, justice, liberty and national security. Includes stories on Florida’s restrictive voting law, NYPD surveillance, and the ongoing foreclosure crisis.

Read more blog posts here. To have the blog in your RSS feed, click here.

• March 8 – The Brennan Center hosts former Inspector General Glenn Fine, who will discuss his experience overseeing the FBI and lessons learned about oversight of intelligence operations.
• March 20 – The Brennan Center and the Government Accountability Project present a discussion on national security whistleblowers at NYU School of Law. Features former National Security Agency official Thomas Drake and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barton Gellman.
• March 22 – Counsel Roopal Patel is a panelist at a Fordham Law School discussion on career options after law school.
• March 29 – The Brennan Center hosts a discussion on the benefits of public financing in New York State. Panelists include Michael Malbin, executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute and a professor of political science at SUNY Albany, and Leo Hindery, managing partner of InterMedia Partners, LP, a private equity investment fund, political donor, and campaign finance reform advocate.

• Eliza Newlin Carney wrote a CQ Weekly cover story on the wave of restrictive voting laws, quoting the Brennan Center’s Lawrence Norden.
• The Brennan Center’s Lee Rowland challenged Florida’s restrictive voting law at a hearing last week. Read coverage by the Associated Press, Tampa Bay Times, and Florida Independent.
• The New York Times’ Andrew Rosenthal also wrote about the Florida case on his Loyal Opposition blog. Read more about challenges to Florida’s law at TPM.
• Ms. Magazine wrote a cover story on efforts to block the vote, specifically in Florida, and cited extensively from Brennan Center research.
• In an editorial, the Los Angeles Times applauded the Brennan Center’s proposal to modernize voting.
• Other editorials citing Brennan Center voting research appeared in the Boston Globe and Baltimore Sun.
• The NYPD’s surveillance of Muslims continues to make news. Faiza Patel spoke to ProPublica and Al Jazeera about the story. See more from the Associated Press and The Record.
• Mark Ladov wrote an op-ed for the New York Law Journal on how lawyers can help alleviate the foreclosure problem.
• Bertina Jones, one of the subject’s in the Fighting Foreclosure video series, has won her fight to keep her home, the Huffington Post reports.
• USA Today detailed voter ID laws — and the lawsuits challenging them.
• New American Media covered a recent event on restrictive voting laws, quoting the Center’s Nicole Austin-Hillery.
• On Democracy Now, former Sen. Russ Feingold mentioned the Brennan Center while discussing how to reform money in politics.
• At Sojourners, Myrna Pérez blogged about restoring the right to vote for those with past criminal convictions.
• Former Rep. Scott Murphy spoke to Capital Tonight about NY LEAD, a new coalition of business and civic leaders urging Gov. Andrew Cuomo to pass public financing in New York.
• Brennan Center Senior Fellow Eric Lane was named Interim Dean of Hofstra Law School.

To read more Brennan Center In The News, click here.

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Tags: Newsletter, Democracy, Justice, Liberty & National Security

Foreclosure Dispatches: Views From Around the Country

By Nabanita (Neeta) Pal – 02/27/12

Crossposted at Huffington Post.

Jessica Yager and Franklin Romeo know what it means for a neighborhood to be "hard hit" by predatory and discriminatory lending. As directors of the Foreclosure Prevention Project and Consumer Rights Project at Queens Legal Services, they have led a team of lawyers and advocates to assist more than 800 homeowners in the hardest hit borough in New York City, and to reach another 1,300 homeowners through extensive education and outreach efforts.

A recent report by the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (see a previous dispatch with them here) shows that Jessica and Franklin's work is far from over. In 2011, in Queens County alone, 36,590 households received "pre-foreclosure" notices. Take a close look at a map of where these defaulted loans are concentrated in New York, and the dark colors bleeding through Southeastern Queens make one thing clear: The same communities that were targeted through deceptive lending practices during the housing boom now suffer the damages wrought by distressed mortgages.

As our video series, Fighting Foreclosure (a joint project with the National Coalition for the Civil Right to Counsel produced by Sarah Reynolds) reminds us, these struggling homeowners need lawyers and counselors to navigate the foreclosure process and assert their rights. (The Brennan Center is hosting a panel discussion on these issues — and the impact of the "robo-signing" settlement and other developments — on the evening of Wednesday, February 29 in New York City. For more information visit www.brennancenter.org or email nabanita.pal@nyu.edu.)

Fighting Foreclosure: Why Legal Assistance Matters from TheBrennanCenter on Vimeo.

Dispatch #4: Jessica Yager and Franklin Romeo, Queens Legal Services, New York, N.Y.

What, in your view, is the main challenge facing homeowners in foreclosure?

A simple truth has emerged from the mortgage mess: having help makes a difference. The foreclosing bank always has a team of lawyers, loan servicers, and underwriters for every single foreclosure. It's David v. Goliath, every day, in courtrooms across the country. We support efforts to reform the foreclosure process and to protect homeowner rights, but these rights are meaningless if homeowners don't have access to high-quality legal and counseling services.

In New York, one of the most immediate challenges facing homeowners is the imminent defunding of one of the nation's most successful statewide networks of independent non-profit advocates (including QLS) who have been helping homeowners avoid foreclosure since this crisis began. The New York State Foreclosure Prevention Services Program has funded 120 organizations, both housing counselors and legal services offices, in every county in the state. The Program's advocates have assisted tens of thousands of families and have helped avert thousands of foreclosures.

As we look ahead to a new wave of foreclosures on the horizon, the imminent closure of this program is devastating. Not only will homeowners be left with drastically fewer places to turn for quality, free assistance, but a perfect opening will be left for mortgage fraud scammers to prey on homeowners who have nowhere else to turn. We hope New York's politicians will hear the call from homeowners and organizations like QLS and renew this program immediately!

What is one aspect of the foreclosure crisis that has been overlooked by the media?

Too many news stories still invoke the notion that irresponsible homeowners are to blame for the housing crisis, either by purchasing a home beyond their means or borrowing recklessly against their current home. This storyline is unfair to homeowners and distracts from the real cause of the crisis we now face: The mortgage system — chiefly banks, regulators, the credit rating industry — failed them. Banks were bent on originating (and then securitizing) as many mortgages as possible, and this business plan required borrowers. Through both subtle and outright predatory means, borrowers were systematically and aggressively induced to take on increasing amounts of debt without being provided with accurate information about affordability or risk. More coverage of these abuses would present a more nuanced and accurate picture of the housing crisis.

By some estimates, we are only halfway through our nation's foreclosure crisis. What is the biggest change we need to make in addressing this problem going forward?

Banks need to start forgiving principal in loan modifications. The lack of principal forgiveness means that many, many homeowners cannot afford to modify their loans, and it leaves homeowners saddled with mortgage debt that far exceeds the values of their homes. Many of our clients were victims of fraudulent appraisals, their homes were never worth the value of the loan. Others were victims of the greed and lack of regulation that resulted in subprime lending boom and subsequent over-inflation of the housing market. Leaving American homeowners to foot the full price of the bill — by making them wholly and singularly responsible for the fact that they owe far more than their homes are worth — is one of, if not the, most unfair and disastrous consequences of the foreclosure crisis.

The multistate attorneys general settlement is a hopeful step in the right direction. According to a summary of the settlement terms, 60 percent of the funds going to aid homeowners directly must be put toward principal reduction. We hope this will trigger an industry-wide change in practice.

Do you think homeowners in foreclosure proceedings should have a right to counsel?

When the homeowner lives in the home, absolutely. Foreclosure is a judicial process in New York, and any litigant is at a disadvantage if he or she is forced to appear in court without an attorney. Unlike some proceedings (like small claims court) that courts are able to make fairly accessible to unrepresented parties, foreclosure law is extremely complex. Many homeowners facing foreclosure have valid legal defenses. But these involve complex doctrines and technical procedures that even the savviest homeowner would struggle to present to the court without the assistance of an attorney. A foreclosure case threatens someone's home and their family's greatest asset. The stakes are high enough to justify the right to the assistance of counsel.

Tags: Justice, Civil Justice, Civil Legal Aid

“Robo-signing” Criminal Justice Debt in Philadelphia

By Meghna Philip – 02/24/12

Over the past two years, Philadelphia courts have initiated an unprecedented, aggressive drive to collect criminal justice debt from its residents. These efforts have targeted more than 320,000 people — roughly 1 in 5 Philadelphians — who allegedly owe over $1.5 billion in debt stemming from prior involvement in the criminal justice system. The debts the courts are pursuing date as far back as the 1970s. Documentation is sparse, and the city may be going after thousands of people who do not actually owe this debt.

A Philadelphia Daily News report introduced us to one of the victims of this process, Evelyn Piner, a 53-year-old Philly resident who received a notification demanding $900 in forfeited bail for skipping a court hearing in 1990. However, Piner was in prison serving a sentence at the time of the alleged hearing. Proving she was in prison has become near impossible, as the city prison system’s documents prior to 1991 were destroyed by water damage. Piner, on public assistance, is now saddled with hundreds of dollars in debt that she has little hope of paying.

Piner’s experience, ironically, represents the exact sort of systemic dysfunction that Philadelphia has been trying to correct through its Criminal Courts “Reform Initiative.” The courts launched this initiative in 2010 in response to a series of reports by the Philadelphia Inquirer criticizing them for being in “disarray.” The reports focused in part on the broken Office of the Clerk of Quarter Sessions, which, with a $4.5 million annual budget, was responsible for maintaining court records, staffing courtrooms, and collecting legal financial obligations from defendants. The Office was faulted by government auditors for its mishandling of millions of dollars in bail, fines, and court fees, and for its poor and inaccurate maintenance of records. In April 2010, the city dissolved the Office and took over its functions.

But things did not immediately improve. A July 2011 Interim Report on the Reform Initiative reveals some serious flaws in the city’s takeover of the Office. At that time, the courts planned to “update files” with more “accurate information” and “[establish] policies and procedures to ensure the accurate accounting of funds due to the court and to defendants.” The courts expected the review “to be completed within six to twelve months." Yet the report describes the “aggressive program” of collections that courts began in the summer of 2010, just after the city takeover.

The new collections effort thus used the same unreliable records and operated under the same lack of transparency and accountability as the system it sought to replace. It is no surprise, then, that courts are going after people whose debts either don’t exist, or have previously been waived. Courts have also sent notice letters to decades-old addresses, tacking on significant added collection fees when no one responds. In addition, due to mistaken identities, individuals have been charged with other people’s debt. Advocates have likened the corrupt process to the robo-signing of mortgages.

As the Brennan Center has emphasized, the collection of criminal justice debt must be reformed across the country. But reforms must be fiscally sensible and must focus on removing the barriers to re-entry that criminal justice debt can create. Philadelphia’s so-called “reforms” have merely transferred the costs of a broken system onto the backs of an overwhelmingly poor and vulnerable population. It is one of the most extreme examples of the disturbing trend of cash-strapped jurisdictions looking to criminal justice debt as a means to generate revenue.

The ACLU and Community Legal Services of Philadelphia have seen low-income clients suffer as a consequence of the new collections regime. Courts have the ability to garnish wages, and put liens on people’s homes. The government has kicked people who owe court costs off welfare. Collection agencies have inaccurately threatened people with jail for failing to pay.

Philadelphia is not the first city to try aggressively collecting from indigent defendants. After a Brennan Center report highlighted the fiscal insensibility of such tactics in Florida, Leon County closed its collections court and simultaneously cancelled approximately 8,000 writs of arrest for individuals owing fees. In Orange County, Florida outstanding writs issued over a 3-year period were canceled for individuals without verifiable or locatable permanent addresses. Advocates have called for Philadelphia courts to waive a large number of the debts for which they lack adequate records — perhaps everything owed before 2005. This is a necessary first step the Philadelphia courts should take to repair the damage dealt by its irresponsible “reforms.”

Tags: Justice, Criminal Justice, Fees & Fines

Foreclosure Dispatches: Views From Around the Country

By Nabanita (Neeta) Pal – 02/22/12

Crossposted at Huffington Post.

For our third dispatch this month (see previous posts here and here), I spoke with David McDowell, a senior organizer at the Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) in Chicago, IL. David, who has more than 20 years of community organizing experience, works with SWOP's members to build a broad movement among churches, mosques, synagogues, schools, and other institutions in Southwest Chicago on a issues including housing and immigration.

For those of us who do not live in the neighborhoods where David and other SWOP members fight to keep people in their homes, it may be difficult to fully fathom the poisonous effect of foreclosure on entire communities. Without homeowners raising legal defenses that could halt the foreclosure, too many homes end up as abandoned, bank-owned properties. Even before a foreclosure notice arrives in the mail, fear of losing a home can drive families, such as those featured in the Fighting Foreclosure video series, to give away the last of their dwindling resources to fraudulent "rescue" companies that promise to repair credit or refinance mortgages. Community-based organizations such as SWOP not only educate homeowners about how they can respond to foreclosure and avoid these predatory schemes, but they also advance the interests of embattled communities in negotiations with banks and mortgage servicers.

Dispatch #3: David McDowell, Senior Organizer, Southwest Organizing Project in Chicago, IL

How have SWOP and its members been implicated in Chicago's foreclosure crisis?

The Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) and our resident leaders have been fighting foreclosures in our southwest Chicago neighborhood for more than a decade. Initially the fight was over predatory lending practices. Since the 2007 economic meltdown, our leaders have also been fighting to keep families who have lost jobs from losing their homes. In the period between January 2008 and December 2011, our neighborhood has seen more than 12,000 residential foreclosures initiated. With numbers this high, foreclosures cease to be merely a problem for the homeowner and their neighbor -- they become a crisis that threatens the very fabric of our community, putting our faith institutions and our schools, our businesses and our tax base at huge risk.

From where you're sitting, what, in your view, is one of the main challenges facing homeowners in foreclosure?

The greatest challenge facing homeowners in foreclosure in our neighborhood has not changed since 2007. It continues to be the banks' and servicers' failure to make meaningful permanent loan modifications, including a reduction in the mortgage principal, on the homes in our neighborhood.

We have believed from the beginning of the crisis that the banks are the one entity that could turn around the foreclosure crisis, but they have been unwilling to do what is necessary to help keep the housing market viable. Over the last three years, SWOP has been in negotiation with local and national bank officials from Bank of American, JP Morgan Chase and Citibank, all of whom have refused to reduce principle for homeowners in our area. Instead they, as well as Fannie Mae, continue to stick with an outdated paradigm -- the failed Net Present Value (NPV) model -- that they claim tells them it makes better business sense to foreclose on a home than offer a reduction in principal.

However, 94.3 percent of the properties that complete foreclosure auction in our neighborhood do not get the minimum bid, which means that the banks take them over. They become vacant buildings subject to dramatic deterioration and further devaluation, ultimately being sold at a small fraction of the value of the original mortgage as nearly empty, stripped shells. According to United States Postal Service data, more than 12 percent of the homes in our neighborhood are currently vacant and they remain vacant on average for 533 days.

What is one aspect of the foreclosure crisis that has been overlooked by the media?

The media has focused almost exclusively on what the banks did, like the robo-signing controversy, rather than exploring what the banking industry needs to do to fix the mess they caused. There has also been little conversation around the larger responsibility of banks in their role as key financial institutions in creating healthy communities. Rather, banks are portrayed as an entity whose sole responsibility is toward their short-term shareholder accountability.

What is the biggest change we need to make in addressing foreclosure going forward?

Everyone involved in the foreclosure crisis -- banks and servicers, investors holding troubled mortgages, government regulators and local and national legislative bodies -- need to see low and middle-income families in neighborhoods like ours as a critical part of the larger economic system. They need to see -- and act accordingly -- that saving the housing market by keeping families in their homes on the southwest side of Chicago is critical for the long-term prosperity of the city, the region and ultimately, the country. What matters in the long run is not what was done in the past but rather how much is left standing when it is all over.

Tags: Justice, Civil Justice, Civil Legal Aid

Latest News from the Brennan Center

By Erik Opsal – 02/16/12

Look for updates on the latest Brennan Center work, publications, events, and more. Spread the word and encourage your friends to sign up.

New Study Shows Need for Modern Voting System

The Pew Center on the States released a report Tuesday showing that 1 in 8 voter registration records are flawed. "This report proves that our nation’s ramshackle voter registration system does not work for 21st century America," said Wendy Weiser. "It's a mess. It's expensive. There isn't central control over the process," Lawrence Norden told USA Today.

Read the Brennan Center’s proposal to modernize our voter registration system, which would add 65 million eligible Americans to the rolls. Also read our comprehensive study on new voting restrictions that could make it harder for 5 million people to vote and our report on voter registration around the world. Read more at The New York Times and Associated Press.

Business, Civic Leaders Urge Public Financing in New York

A new bipartisan group called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday to fulfill his promise to clean up Albany and overhaul the state’s campaign finance laws. Called New York Leadership for Accountable Government (NY LEAD) and led by Hudson River Ventures’ Sean Eldridge, former Congressman Scott Murphy, and other prominent business and civic leaders, the group urged public financing as the key to restore fairness and accountability to the Empire State’s political process. Read the New York Times story and editorial. See video of the press conference. Read the Brennan Center's report on New York City's successful public financing system, a model for the state.

Virginia Presses Restrictive Voting Measure

With Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R) breaking a tie vote, the Virginia state senate passed a voter ID bill, continuing the wave of restrictive voting laws that will make it harder for up to 5 million people to vote in 2012. Now the Senate bill must be reconciled with the House version. The Brennan Center’s Keesha Gaskins spoke to the Virginian-Pilot about the bill. Read the our comprehensive study, Voting Law Changes in 2012, which details how new voting restrictions fall most heavily on young, minority, and low-income voters.

A $26 Billion Mortgage Settlement, But for Whom?

Government authorities and five of the nation’s biggest banks reached a settlement that could assist nearly two million homeowners harmed by the real estate implosion. Yet, four million Americans have been foreclosed upon since 2007. Behind all the numbers are people. To hear their stories — and why they need legal help — watch the Brennan Center’s multimedia series, Fighting Foreclosure: Why Legal Assistance Matters. Read Neeta Pal’s interviews with advocates aiding homeowners. And watch Mark Ladov discuss the settlement on Capital Tonight.

House Democrats Revive Transparency Bill

House Democrats introduced a slimmed-down version of the DISCLOSE Act, which would increase transparency in elections by requiring outside groups to disclose their donors and list them in campaign ads. “Already in the 2012 cycle, corporations and individuals have donated unlimited sums to candidate-specific Super PACs, which have flooded the airwaves,” reads a letter urging members of Congress to support the bill. “The DISCLOSE 2012 Act is a crucial step to shine disinfecting sunlight on this secretive spending.” Read more at The Hill’s Congress Blog.

Ideas on Democracy, Justice, and the Rule of Law

Pew Report Shows Need for Modern Voting System – Wendy Weiser & Lianna Reagan

• A new study reveals our deeply flawed election administration system — and the urgent need to bring it up to date.

The Real Fraud Behind Photo ID – Lee Rowland

• Claims of widespread voter fraud collapse under close inspection.

Chile’s Voter Registration System: A Model for the U.S. – Lianna Reagan

• Chile modernized its voter registration system. But a first-rate democracy like the U.S. still lags behind.

Obama’s Super PAC Flip-Flop – Adam Skaggs

• The president's use of Super PAC support distracts us from the real questions about today’s campaign finance environment.

Iguanas and the Rule of Law at Guantánamo – Liza Goitein

• I traveled to the prison recently to observe the hearing of accused U.S.S. Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Brown and Warren Unilaterally Disarm Super PACs – Jonathan Backer

• Many candidates have piously condemned Super PAC spending, but two Massachusetts candidates backed up their talk with action.

Money and Politics in New York – Reform NY

• A roundup with the latest news highlighting the corrosive nature of money in New York State politics — and the need for public financing and robust campaign finance reform.

What We’re Reading

• See what the Brennan Center’s reading in this daily round-up of quick hits, clips, and opinion pieces touching on key issues of democracy, justice, liberty and national security. Includes stories the mortgage settlement, voter ID in Texas and South Carolina, and the DISCLOSE Act.

Read more blogs here.

• Feb. 17 – Nic Riley participates in a voting rights panel at the New Organizing Institute in Washington, D.C.
• Feb. 17 – Nicole Austin-Hillery speaks about the evolution of voting rights in America at a Congressional Black Caucus panel in Washington, D.C. Reps. Steny Hoyer, John Conyers, John Lewis, and Marcia Fudge will be in attendance.
• Feb. 29 – The Brennan Center hosts a roundtable discussion on the state of the foreclosure crisis in New York. Representatives from NYU’s Furman Center, the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, and New York legal services groups will speak on the panel.
• March 8 – The Brennan Center hosts former Inspector General Glenn Fine, who will discuss his experience overseeing the FBI and lessons learned about oversight of intelligence operations.

• Lawrence Norden spoke to USA Today and the Associated Press about a new report from the Pew Center on the States, which shows that 1 in 8 voter registration records are flawed. Read more at The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, International Business Times, and Time.
• South Carolina is trying to pass yet another restrictive voting bill. Writing in the Boston Review, Jonathan Brater said, “If the United States awarded medals for voter suppression, South Carolina would compete for the gold.”
• The New York Times covered the launch of New York Leadership for Accountable Government. Also read the Times editorial urging Gov. Cuomo to enact campaign reform.
• Michael Waldman appeared on Current TV’s The War Room with Jennifer Granholm to discuss restrictive voting laws. Also see him discuss the presidential race on CNN's OutFront with Erin Burnett.
• Mark Ladov appeared on Capital Tonight to discuss the recent mortgage settlement that will help millions of homeowners.
• Super PACs dominated the news these past few weeks. Read our experts’ comments in the Washington Post and The American Prospect.
• Read Adam Skaggs’ take on Super PAC disclosure in Salon and his views on Citizens United in Reuters. Also read his op-ed urging passage of the DISCLOSE Act.
• Nicole Austin-Hillery wrote an op-ed for Roll Call on why Congress should make more efforts toward cooperation.
• Rep. Charles Gonzalez cited our voting research in an op-ed on voter ID.
• At the Huffington Post, Neeta Pal conducted two Q&As with advocates aiding homeowners going through foreclosure.
• NPR detailed why millions of Americans don’t have government ID.
• The Virginia Senate passed a voter ID bill. Keesha Gaskins spoke to a Virginian-Pilot columnist about the bill. Also read the Washington Post’s editorial opposing the measure.
• Gaskins also spoke to the Minneapolis Star Tribune about Minnesota’s proposed voter ID measures.
• Other experts discussing voting laws: Lawrence Norden on The Takeaway and Wisconsin Public Radio, Mimi Marziani on CBC’s The Current, and Keesha Gaskins on Al Jazeera.
• The Brennan Center continued its call for an inspector general for the NYPD.
• Adam Skaggs spoke on a panel on judicial ethics rules at the ABA convention in New Orleans.
• Keesha Gaskins explained redistricting to PBS Newshour’s Extra, an online program put together by students.

Stay Connected

• Subscribe to other Brennan Center Newsletters
• Subscribe to the Brennan Center Blog
• Follow the Brennan Center:

Tags: Newsletter, Democracy, Campaign Finance Reform, NY Reform, Voting Rights & Elections, Justice, Civil Justice

Foreclosure Dispatches: Views From Around the Country

By Nabanita (Neeta) Pal – 02/14/12

Crossposted at Huffington Post.

The long-anticipated foreclosure settlement announced last week by President Obama and the state attorneys general includes $5 billion that will flow to the states to support foreclosure prevention efforts, including the work of legal services and housing counseling providers. Given questions about whether the settlement will do enough for homeowners who are at risk of foreclosure, this funding for counseling and legal assistance is critical.

The track record of the five big banks at the heart of the settlement (Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial) suggests they are unlikely to implement an effective and ambitious loan modification program without outside pressure and oversight. These loan servicers collect monthly mortgage payments when a loan is going well, and manage foreclosure proceedings and loan modification negotiations when a homeowner is struggling. But homeowners consistently complain that servicers lose documents, evade phone calls, and charge unwarranted fees. The shortcomings of the Obama Administration's HAMP program illustrate the dangers of relying on the banks' voluntary efforts to solve our foreclosure crisis.

Although the deal appoints an independent monitor to oversee implementation of the settlement, we need multiple watch dogs and facilitators. Legal advocates and counselors who meet with homeowners every day are well positioned to make sure people receive the relief they've been promised. The $5 billion allocated to the states should go to these programs and not be diverted.

For a second dispatch (see the first here), I spoke with Vicki Taitano of the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau. Vicki appears in the multimedia series, Fighting Foreclosure: Why Legal Assistance Matters, a joint project of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and the National Coalition for the Civil Right to Counsel, produced by Sarah Reynolds.

The series focuses on the perspectives of people who have experienced firsthand what happens when homeowners go up against banks and mortgage servicers without an advocate at their side. Now more than ever, these homeowners' stories are instructive: Whether this ambitious legal settlement is a substantial step toward solving our foreclosure crisis, or another missed opportunity, will depend in large part on whether struggling families have access to skilled legal assistance.

Dispatch #2: Vicki Taitano, Director, Maryland Legal Aid Bureau Foreclosure Legal Assistance Project

Vicki and her colleagues have assisted nearly 500 homeowners over the past two years. Louise Golden, a homeowner featured in today's video, was able to avoid foreclosure after Vicki got involved in her case.

What is one aspect of the foreclosure crisis that has been overlooked by the media?

The number of people who are just barely hanging on because of underwater mortgages and the refusal of banks to allow homeowners to refinance out of them. Homeowners are stuck paying high monthly mortgages on homes that are worth far less than the amount owed on them.

Many homebuyers did not realize how high the payments on their adjustable rate mortgages would go, and they were told at the time of purchase that they would be able to refinance before payments got too high. So there is a double whammy of high mortgage debt on houses that are now underwater, and monthly payments beyond their means. Millions of homeowners are stuck with homes that suck up all of their income and bring them no long-term financial security. They are glorified renters, who are responsible for taxes and insurance and upkeep of properties that are no longer assets. If they walk away, they are stuck with massive deficiency debt for which they will need to file bankruptcy to ever hope to recover.

From where you're sitting, what, in your view, is one of the main challenges facing homeowners in foreclosure?

Servicers, who are the middlemen in a foreclosure situation, are motivated financially as part of their own systems, to foreclose, and the legal system is unable and/or unwilling to intervene.
Despite the fact that banks have been bailed out, the government has not required them to modify loans when a modification makes economic sense. It is counterintuitive to think that they would not do this, but the servicer as middleman often results in a foreclosure when a less than drastic modification would have been financially better for both the investor and the homeowner. Servicers are set up to get the foreclosure rolling and get it completed.

For example, homeowners have difficulty getting information from servicers about steps they could take to help their situation. Servicers tell homeowners that their income is insufficient for a modification that may allow them to avoid a foreclosure sale. However, homeowners are often able and willing to rent out a room or work another part time job to increase their income and become eligible for a modification.

By some estimates, we are only halfway through our nation's foreclosure crisis. What is the biggest change we need to make in addressing this problem going forward?

Banks need to agree to lower the principal balances on underwater mortgages to reflect market value of the property. We need lenders and investors to recognize that prices are not going to return to the artificial heights caused by the housing bubble and that the idea of "moral hazard" on the part of homeowners ignores the role of the banks in putting homeowners in the situation they are in. When banks refuse to lower principal and instead foreclose, they end up selling the property below market value and incurring costs of foreclosure. This only reduces property values further. It makes no economic sense and is only done for fear of admitting their role in the mess.

Tags: Justice, Civil Justice, Civil Legal Aid

Foreclosure Dispatches: Views From Around the Country

By Nabanita (Neeta) Pal – 02/07/12

Crossposted at Huffington Post.

Foreclosures aren't going away. By now, the abuses that brought us to this point and continue to sink us further into the crisis — predatory lending practices, hastily securitized loans and mortgage servicing errors — are well known. Accountability for these abuses, however, remains an open question.

As we await the outcomes of the 50-state attorneys general settlement and the Obama administration's new federal Financial Crimes Unit led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, we must not lose sight of the homeowners and communities who suffer the collateral damages of foreclosure.

The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law teamed up with the National Coalition for the Civil Right to Counsel and independent producer Sarah Reynolds to create a multimedia video series entitled Fighting Foreclosure: Why Legal Assistance Matters that tells the stories of homeowners around the country. The series focuses on the perspectives of people who have seen or experienced firsthand what happens when homeowners go up against banks and mortgage servicers without an advocate at their side. Time and again, with counseling and legal representation, homeowners are able to catch documentation fraud, lending violations and other unlawful practices, and negotiate a fair settlement to stay in their homes.

Community groups, legal aid lawyers, and housing counselors continue to act as first responders in a slow-moving foreclosure disaster that, according to the Center for Responsible Lending, is not even half-way over.

Dispatch #1: Sarah Ludwig and Josh Zinner, Co-Directors, Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP) in New York City

NEDAP — a financial justice resource and advocacy center based in New York City — recently released a report showing that 345,435 mortgages were at risk of foreclosure in New York State in 2011. NEDAP's analysis confirms that the state has a long way to go before the foreclosure crisis is over. The report shows that neighborhoods of color continue to be disproportionately affected.

From where you're sitting, what, in your view, is one of the main challenges facing homeowners in foreclosure?

Servicers, servicers, servicers. We are years into the foreclosure crisis, and banks, through their mortgage servicers, continue to present serious obstacles to homeowners, resulting in millions of foreclosures that could and should have been averted. The problem should perhaps come as no surprise, since servicers generally continue to make more money from foreclosing on homes than from modifying mortgages, and public policy response has been slow at best in terms of requiring meaningful accountability by the industry. People who seek to negotiate effective loan modifications with servicers continue to get the major runaround, experiencing maddening delays and unreasonable denials of their loan modification applications. Meanwhile, the financial industry has spent millions upon millions of dollars lobbying against even the most basic reforms — to the profound detriment of families, communities, and the country.

What is one aspect of the foreclosure crisis that has been overlooked by the media?

The media, in general, have failed to address the fact that so little has been done to hold banks accountable — notwithstanding general consensus that banks and Wall Street caused the foreclosure crisis (enabled in no small measure by their regulators), and notwithstanding what we now know was a multi-trillion dollar bank bailout. Similarly, most media have categorically avoided core questions regarding the restructuring of our financial system to ensure fairness and equity going forward. Another glaring gap is coverage of the millions of people who've unfairly lost their homes to foreclosure. What's happened to them? Where are they now? Where's the redress?

By some estimates, we are only halfway through our nation's foreclosure crisis. What is the biggest change we need to make in addressing this problem going forward?

Broadly speaking, we need to forge a coherent, comprehensive federal housing policy that is grounded in principles of fairness and equity, and that emphasizes non-speculative housing models, such as community land trusts, mutual housing, and limited equity cooperatives. It is also vital that we address pervasive unemployment, underemployment, and the lack of a living wage. In terms of the mortgage industry, servicers should be held to strict rules and legal standards, such as a fundamental duty to work in good faith with distressed homeowners. The rules should require servicers to reduce principal for people underwater on their loans, for example, and include meaningful enforcement mechanisms and strong penalties for non-compliance.

Tags: Justice, Civil Justice, Civil Legal Aid