The Legal Forum welcomes letters to the editor at tramstack@gmail.com, which will be published here.
Maryland General Assembly Bill
Would Limit Juvenile Trials as Adults
Democrats in the Maryland General Assembly are trying to change a practice that has made their state one of the most aggressive in charging children offenders as adults.
They introduced a bill that would send all except the most violent criminal prosecutions through the juvenile justice system.
Maryland ranks second, behind Alabama, for the most juvenile offenders tried as adults, according to the nonprofit Human Rights for Kids. It ranks fourth for the greatest number of offenders incarcerated for crimes they committed as children.
A bill introduced by state Sen. William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery) would reduce the number of juvenile crimes that could be tried in adult court from 33 to about a dozen. In general, they would be murder, rape, carjacking and violent gun crimes.
Youth advocates first introduced a bill that would require juvenile justice for all juveniles in 2012. It failed to win General Assembly approval after public opinion polls showed most Marylanders wanted adult trials for violent juveniles.
Smith said at a Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee hearing last month that his pending bill is a compromise that reduces the number of crimes by juveniles that could lead to them being tried as adults.
“I view this as a step that is truly necessary to correct past injustice but also to unlock future potential for folks enmeshed in the criminal justice system at an early age,” Smith said.
At the same hearing, prosecutors testified the bill was too lenient. Defense attorneys said it did not go far enough in protecting juveniles.
Part of the evidence used to support the bill came from the General Assembly’s nonpartisan Department of Legislative Services. It reported that the bill’s proposed changes would save the Department of Juvenile Services about $17 million a year and the Office of the Public Defender $1.85 million.
Smith said the savings could be reinvested into juvenile reform programs.
Trump Administration Takes Control
Of Access to White House Press Pool
A failed legal effort by the Associated Press is leading the White House to take over control of the press pool that reports on the president and his administration.
The press pool refers to a small number of journalists from some of the largest media organizations, known as legacy outlets, who have access to the White House press office and sometimes travel on Air Force One.
Traditionally they have been granted access with permission of the White House Correspondents’ Association, an independent group of journalists.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said now the press pool would be determined by the Trump administration. “It’s beyond time the White House press pool reflects the media habits of the American people in 2025,” Leavitt said during a media briefing.
Leavitt’s announcement resulted from a dispute with The Associated Press after it refused to change its references to the Gulf of Mexico in its news stories and stylebook to the Gulf of America.
Continue Reading
Latest News
Confusion Reigns for Federal Workers
After Ultimatum from Elon Musk
Federal workers who failed to respond to Elon Musk's email requiring them to justify their job performance remain confused this week about the status of their careers.
They also are pressing forward with a lawsuit that challenges the authority of Musk to influence their jobs.
Musk sent federal employees an email telling them to list their accomplishments of the past week or lose their federal employment.
He and the Department of Government Efficiency are using artificial intelligence to analyze whether the workers are doing their jobs properly.
President Donald Trump supported Musk’s ultimatum despite conflicting information from several government agencies.
Power the Civil Rights Work of Our Time
Each day members of our community are experiencing wage theft, the effects of gentrification, discriminatory policing, collateral consequences, marginalization in schools, and barriers to public accommodations.
We fight alongside people facing the effects of gentrification like Amira Moore. Our work empowers the people and communities who need it most, “We can do more than we think. There’s a path to equity, we just have to step to it.” –Ms. Moore
For more than 50 years, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee has been on the frontlines of the fight for civil rights in our community. We deploy the best legal talent, we tackle the tough cases, we fight, and we win.
Our work is as important today as it has ever been. Through your support, you can play a role in creating justice for thousands of marginalized members of our community. Together, we will dismantle injustice and pursue lasting change.
Join us! Donate & subscribe: https://www.washlaw.org/support-us
Volunteer with us: https://www.washlaw.org/get-involved/
For more information, contact Gregg Kelley at Gregg_Kelley@washlaw.org
About Us
The Legal Forum is a nonprofit news service for the Washington area's legal community that also offers attorney job listings as well as amicus briefs and grant information for charitable organizations. If you have questions, please Contact Us
Letters to the Editor
D.C. in Brief
Lawsuit Says D.C. Psychiatric Institute
Commits Patients to Increase Profits
A lawsuit pending in U.S. District Court accuses a for-profit psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C., of trying to increase profits by committing patients unnecessarily.
The patient who sued says doctors at the Psychiatric Institute of Washington falsified her mental health records and denied her access to a telephone.
She was held at the psychiatric hospital for four days in what she says were unsanitary conditions.
The lawsuit, filed under the name Jane Doe, seeks class action status on behalf of thousands of patients of the hospital based in Tenleytown. It also seeks unspecified damages.
The lawsuit says the problems started a decade ago when the 130-bed Psychiatric Institute of Washington was acquired by corporate giant Universal Health Services. The hospital operates with multi-million dollar city contracts and often is reimbursed through Medicaid insurance.
“Universal Health Services has employed and continues to employ a brazen corporate strategy of involuntarily hospitalizing patients without cause or indication, prolonging patients’ involuntary hospitalizations unnecessarily, and withholding or otherwise failing to provide therapy and treatment to those who need it,” the lawsuit says. “These illegal actions have been and continue to be driven by a singular focus on profit, at the expense of patient care, safety, and treatment.”
The lawsuit extends complaints that were summarized last October in a report to city officials from the advocacy organization Disability Rights D.C.
The report alleged a sexual assault by a staff member of a 17-year-old, patient-on-patient violence and a lack of proper oversight by the hospital’s administration.
Lawyers Criticize Trump Retaliation
Against Attorneys of His Adversaries
The legal community is expressing outrage over President Donald Trump's order last week to cancel the security clearances and terminate government contracts with the Washington, D.C.-based law firm representing former special prosecutor Jack Smith.
The Justice Department assigned Smith to pursue potential criminal charges against Trump for election interference and mishandling classified documents.
The charges were dropped when Trump was reelected. It did not end Trump's pursuit of retaliation against Smith for what he calls the "weaponization" of the Justice Department against Biden administration adversaries.
Trump's directive against the law firm Covington & Burling is raising questions about whether he also is interfering with the Sixth Amendment right to representation by counsel by targeting lawyers for retaliation.
The New York Council of Defense Lawyers released a statement saying, "Unless there is broad-based condemnation of this and similar attacks, we face a significant risk that many individuals will become even more susceptible to vindictive, arbitrary and unjust political prosecutions without the ability to vigorously defend themselves."
Continue Reading
Legal Briefs
We Could Use Your Help
Thousands of DC residents need a lawyer, but can’t afford one. They could be illegally evicted from their homes, lose custody of their children, experience domestic violence, and more, all because they lack legal representation.
You could make a difference. By making a donation to the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, you will provide free, high-quality, zealous legal representation to low-income DC residents.
Your support could prevent homelessness, domestic violence, hunger, or family separation. In fact, if just 10 people who see this ad give $28 to Legal Aid, it will be enough to staff an experienced attorney at the courthouse for a day.
That way, DC residents like Keith King (pictured above) can get the legal representation they need to win their cases. As Mr. King put it, if it wasn’t for his Legal Aid lawyer, “I would have been homeless again.”
Here is the link to the Legal Aid website for donations: https://www.legalaiddc.org/donate-to-legal-aid/
For more information, contact Rob Pergament at Legal Aid at rpergament@legalaiddc.org