On behalf of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) we call upon the City of Aurora to rescind its Request for Proposals, R-2384, soliciting firms for bids to replace the city’s current public defense provider. The decision to replace the current public defense system with a flat fee contract will undercut public safety, undermine community confidence, and represents poor fiscal responsibility.

We write to voice our opposition to Senate Bill 8, a bill that would replace the multi-stakeholder Louisiana Public Defender Board with a state public defender selected by the Governor. If enacted, this legislation would significantly undermine the independence of the defense function in Louisiana, further eroding the community’s trust in our legal institutions and negatively impacting public safety, while wholly failing to address the core need of the state’s public defense system – a stable and robust stream of funding to insure the provision of constitutionally effective representation.

The undersigned organizations are deeply concerned about the hugely destructive impact of proposed cuts to the federal indigent defense system. To avert the crisis, we are asking that you ensure that the Defenders Services account is fully funded at the requested amount.

We write to ask that you rescind your support, as members of the Virginia Municipal League, for racial profiling practices by Virginia law enforcement—euphemistically known as “pretextual policing”—and to invite you to an informal presentation on this important criminal justice issue.

The undersigned groups urge you to oppose the Stopping Harmful Image Exploitation and Limiting Distribution (SHIELD) Act of 2023 (S. 412), which would create a new federal crime carrying a one-to-five-year prison sentence for sharing intimate photos of a person without that person’s consent. We recognize that this bill is well intentioned, but we are concerned that it will sweep in and criminalize innocent conduct and worsen the trial penalty that many criminal defendants—including many people who are actually innocent—face in our justice system.

We are deeply concerned about the devastating impact of proposed cuts to the federal indigent defense system. … Unless corrected, these cuts could cause the loss of 9-12% of current federal defender staff—even after defenders cut critical programming such as training and IT improvements. Such layoffs would almost certainly decimate the federal defender system, degrade the overall quality of federal indigent defense, and undermine the administration of justice for countless federal defendants. …

We are deeply concerned about the devastating impact of cuts proposed by the House Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government on the federal indigent defense system. The House subcommittee’s mark is $122 million less than requested and could cause the loss of 9% of current federal defender staff. Such layoffs would almost certainly decimate the federal defender system, degrade the overall quality of federal indigent defense, and undermine the administration of justice.

We urge you to vote “no” on S. 1080, the Cooper Davis Act. The bill purports to address the sale of methamphetamine, fentanyl, and “counterfeit substances” by coopting online services to report the alleged or suspected creation, manufacture, or distribution of these substances … Rather than meaningfully addressing the public health crisis caused by such substances, this bill would … undermin[e] the Fourth Amendment and the Stored Communications Act, likely with disproportionate effects on people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and other marginalized communities.

The 126 undersigned organizations representing a broad, diverse group of stakeholders write today to endorse the Reentry Act. This critical legislation would allow incarcerated individuals to receive medical services supported by Medicaid thirty days prior to the individual’s release.

We, the undersigned organizations, write in opposition to S. 686, the “Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act,” or the “RESTRICT Act.” The RESTRICT Act aims at information and communications (ICTs) technologies like TikTok that are considered a threat to the United States. 

The undersigned national, state, and local public health and criminal justice reform organizations write today to urge you to reject and vote NO on the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl (HALT) Act (H.R. 467). This bill permanently schedules fentanyl-related substances (FRS) on schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) based on a 2 flawed class definition, imposes mandatory minimums, and fails to provide an offramp for removing inert or harmless substances from the drug schedule.

We write to express our opposition to efforts to obstruct the District of Columbia’s Revised Criminal Code Act, including any resolution of disapproval or budget rider. The Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022 (RCCA) is the product of 16 years of research, an expert commission, 51 public meetings, extensive public feedback, and robust negotiation. ... We urge you to oppose these attacks on the RCCA and vote against any resolution of disapproval.

On behalf NACDL, I write to express support for House Bill 2317/Senate Bill 789, which would increase the daily compensation rate for jurors in Virginia from its current rate of $30 to $50. This is a critical step needed to increase the diversity of juries in the Commonwealth.

New York’s Clean Slate Act will help address the systemic barriers to jobs, housing and education posed by old conviction records. Under the current system, people who have successfully served their time are subjected to perpetual punishment long after their sentence is served. Doors that were once open – to jobs, a place to live, an education – can remain closed for a lifetime, and this impact reverberates across children, families, and whole communities, disproportionately impacting Black and brown New Yorkers and deepening already-existing inequalities in civic life.

We write to express our opposition to efforts to obstruct the District of Columbia’s Revised Criminal Code Act, including any resolution of disapproval or budget rider. The Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022 (RCCA) is the product of 16 years of research, an expert commission, 51 public meetings, extensive public feedback, and robust negotiation. … We urge you to oppose these attacks on the RCCA and vote against any resolution of disapproval.