Anti-terrorism and the preservation of civil liberties, criminal justice system improvements and protection of rights, and health care law are among the legislative priorities recently approved by the American Bar Association.
The ABA Board of Governors voted Feb. 5 on the list of legislative priorities for this calendar year as the association’s Midyear Meeting began in Orlando, Fla.
The legislative priorities on which the association’s governmental affairs office will focus most of its advocacy efforts on this calendar year include:
1. Access to legal services
2. Anti-terrorism and preservation of civil liberties
3. Criminal justice system improvements and protection of rights
4. Health care law
5. Immigration
6. Independence of the judiciary
7. Independence of the legal profession
8. Legal remedies to eliminate discrimination
9. Promoting the international rule of law, and
10. Responding to the economic crisis: flexibility in repayment of law student loans and related emergency programs.
Advocacy on each priority will focus on specific, timely legislative issues.
“I am pleased to see the Board of Governors approve an ambitious legislative agenda — issues of such import to both society as a whole and to the profession,” stated ABA President Carolyn B. Lamm. “In these challenging economic times, it is especially critical for Americans to have access to legal services to help them with such pressing problems as foreclosure, restructuring a business and domestic violence needs.”
At the same time, she said, “individuals who want to serve society by becoming lawyers and yet are unable to find employment during the economic crisis, should have viable options for temporarily suspending payments of their law school debt, which is often $60,000 or more.”
The ABA had several recommendations that were scheduled to be put before its policymaking House of Delegates this week.
If adopted, those measures would expand the ABA’s ability to lobby the legislative and executive branches on those issues.
These include several recommendations relating to reform of the immigration adjudication removal system and the criminal justice system — including limiting the collateral consequences of juvenile arrests.
In addition, the proposals promote the use of civil remedies rather than criminal penalties in certain circumstances and encourage communication between parents in correctional custody and their children in the free community.
The international rule of law priority encompasses support for funding domestic and international agencies that promote the rule of law, advocating for passage of the International Violence Against Women Act. At the same time, it urges adoption by the U.S. of several international treaties such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
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