(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Joe Biden
WASHINGTON (77WABC) President Joe Biden is taking executive action to ensure minorities, low-income Americans and others groups have better access to quality legal representation. Biden on Tuesday will sign a memo directing the Department of Justice to expand access to justice and reestablish a White House roundtable on improving legal aid, reversing a Trump-era policy.
The White House told the Associated Press that Biden was directing the roundtable to examine the impact that the coronavirus pandemic has had on access to justice in both civil and criminal matters.
The pandemic “has further exposed and exacerbated inequities in our justice system” as legal services were curtailed, Biden wrote to the AP. He added that the problems “have touched the lives of many persons in this country, particularly low-income people and people of color.”
In a fact sheet released by the White House, The Biden-Harris Administration says it is going to re-establish the White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable, which was initially established in 2015 to raise federal agencies’ awareness of how civil legal aid could increase employment, family stability, housing security, consumer protection, and public safety.
“The federal government has a critical role to play in expanding access to the nation’s legal system and supporting the work of civil legal aid providers and public defenders,” the fact sheet stated. “President Biden’s executive action today will reinvigorate the federal government’s role in advancing access to justice, and help ensure that the Administration’s policies and recovery efforts can reach as many individuals as possible.”
The Access to Justice office was opened in 2010 by then-Attorney General Eric Holder and formally established in 2016 under President Barack Obama, working on matters including criminal indigent defense, fine enforcement, and civil legal aid. While not explicitly mentioning the reopening of the Access to Justice Office, the White House fact sheet says Biden is expecting Attorney General Merrick Garland to submit a report within 120 days that outlines the Department’s plan to expand justice work access.
