That wraps up our main programming for the 2025 NLADA Annual Conference! We look forward to hosting partner meetings tomorrow morning. Happy Halloween! #NLADA25

Feinah notes that in his EOs and the amorphous crime bill in development, the President is trying to set the groundwork for deploying National Guard troops.

Reichlin-Melnick notes that Congress is considering measures to make immigration violations more criminal in nature. #NLADA25

A client member asks the panel about advocates like her being labeled as domestic terrorists.

Bhattacharya notes that the EO designating Antifa as a "domestic terrorist organization" - not a legal term of art - is words with no meaning or basis in law. These EOs don't create new crimes. #NLADA25

Feinah continues:

To combat tough-on-crime narratives, we've seen people like Brandon Johnson and Zohran Mamdani have success with serious-about-safety messaging that is community-based and community-led. #NLADA25

Feinah describes the importance of narrative and not falling into narrative traps on crime:

When you define what safety is and give voters an opportunity, you get people choosing overwhelmingly to support communities and get away from tough-on-crime narratives. #NLADA25

Bhattacharya: The Administrative Procedures Act also allows courts to stay an administrative action pending litigation or to vacate an administrative action for being arbitrary and capricious. #NLADA25

Bhattacharya continues:

SCOTUS identified class actions as a way to get injunctive relief, but class actions are only available to a smaller segment of plaintiffs and attorneys. #NLADA25

Bhattacharya discusses avenues for relief:

In the CASA case, SCOTUS severely limited but didn't completely ban nationwide injunctions. We have to think about how to challenge government actions other than getting the courts to stop them. #NLADA25

Trivedi: Justice Kavanaugh said any stop would be brief and then people would be released. Sec'y Noem told us that no U.S. citizens have been detained. Are you saying that's not the case?

Reichlin-Melnick: That's right.

Trivedi: That's weird for such important people to get that wrong. 🤔 #NLADA25

Reichlin-Melnick describes people being swiftly stripped of legal status:

People with legal status who are fixtures of communities have been told they can't work legally and have to leave. They're being forced into the shadows even though they had been told they would be protected. #NLADA25

Reichlin-Melnick discusses the chilling effect of immigration enforcement and intimidation:

Although the chances of arrest by ICE are very low, a single ICE arrest in a community can make people stay home and not go to school or work. #NLADA25

Our closing plenary panel discussion is "How Defending Democracy Is Integral to the Fight for Access to Equal Justice" with Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@immcouncil.org), Rupa Bhattacharya (@icapgeorgetown.bsky.social), Sam Feinah (@vera.org), and Somil Trivedi (@democracyforward.org). #NLADA25

That wraps our Awards Luncheon! We have one more set of breakout sessions before our Closing Plenary Panel on democracy and access to justice. #NLADA25

We remember the life and legacy of Alan Houseman, whose work impacted the legal aid community across a variety of roles and organizations including LSC, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), the National Equal Justice Library, and NLADA. #NLADA25

The Courageous Leader Award is presented to the late Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Horton, who was a legal aid lawyer before she took her support for families and low-income communities to the state legislature. #NLADA25

The Reginald Heber Smith Award is presented to Miriam Harmatz, Founder of @flhealthjustice.bsky.social. Her career took her from the EPA to legal services in Saipan and Miami before founding FHJP. She notes the legal aid community's support: "My personal superpower is asking for help." #NLADA25

The New Leaders in Advocacy Award goes to Katelyn Nicole Rowe, Senior Atty at @clasocal.bsky.social. She has represented DV survivors, fought for low-income litigants deprived of verbatim court records, and successfully challenged Huntington Beach's unlawful censorship in public libraries. #NLADA25

The Mary Ellen Hamilton Award, for an outstanding client/community advocate, is presented to Ginny Parham, Founder and Letter Writing Campaign Manager at Families Shoulder to Shoulder. She got her son's 96-year sentence reduced by >60 years and has helped hundreds of people since then. #NLADA25

The Charles Dorsey Award is presented to Marilyn Harp, Exec. Dir. (ret.) of Kansas Legal Services. She speaks about her efforts in sealing and expunging records:

My expungement clients' hard work redeems them from their past. #NLADA25