Family Law Prof Blog

Coronavirus and labor law: Know your rights, from paid sick leave to working from home

From Los Angeles Times 

As Lee Olesky heard the first reports of coronavirus in Sacramento County, where she is employed as a social worker, she began to panic.

Olesky, 41, visits the homes of sick and elderly people on a daily basis, and worried she could carry the new illness to her clients. At the office, she doesn’t have an assigned seat but works at “floating” cubicles used by countless other field workers.

The anxiety built until, last week, she casually asked her supervisor whether she could work from home for the rest of the month as a precaution. Her supervisor was skeptical, and “kind of made a face,” but approved her request. Still, Olesky is required to venture out into the world for field visits daily as part of her job. She’s not alone.

The novel coronavirus outbreak has sparked drastic measures to prevent its spread across California, the United States and the world, and on Wednesday was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.

Read more here

U.S. Supreme Court Lets Hardline Trump Immigration Policy Take Effect

From Reuters 

The U.S. Supreme Court gave the go-ahead on Monday for one of President Donald Trump's hardline immigration policies, allowing his administration to implement a rule denying legal permanent residency to certain immigrants deemed likely to require government assistance in the future.

The justices, on a 5-4 vote, granted the administration's request to lift a lower court's injunction that had blocked the so-called public charge policy while litigation over its legality continues. The rule has been criticized by immigrant rights advocates as a "wealth test" that would disproportionately keep out non-white immigrants.

Read more here 

Legislature Passes Family Leave Bill Opposed by GOP Governor

From U.S. News 

The Vermont Legislature has given final approval to a bill that would guarantee workers as many as 12 weeks of paid family leave, but its future is uncertain.

The Vermont House gave final approval to the billion Thursday after lawmakers in the chamber agreed to a version given final approval by the Senate this month.

Read more here 

Administration to Fast-Track Migrant Family Cases

From US News:

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rosita Lopez said armed gang members demanded money from her and her partner at their small grocery store on the Guatemalan coast and threatened to kill them when they couldn't pay. When her partner was shot soon afterward, they sold everything and fled north.

Lopez was eight months pregnant when the couple arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border last year with their 1-year-old daughter. Just over a year later, an immigration judge in Los Angeles heard her case, denied her asylum and ordered her deported.

Read more here.

Forced to choose between Family and Freedom!

From the Guardian:

A United Nations body has taken the “extraordinary” step of calling on Australia to review its domestic laws in a ruling that it had breached multiple international human rights laws.

The ruling coincides with the Australian government being taken to the UN over alleged breaches of international law by indefinitely separating more than 60 members of 14 refugee families on Nauru.

The working group on arbitrary detention, established by the UN Commission on Human Rights in 1991 to report to the Human Rights Council, had examined the case of Edris Cheragi, an Iranian man and Christian convert who sought asylum in Australia.

Read more here

Best Interest of Migrant Children

From CNN:

The Trump administration said Thursday it will seek to keep some undocumented immigrant children in detention for far longer than currently allowed, a move that would have sweeping implications for the families and for the immigration detention system.

The move comes on the heels of the administration's decision this spring to separate families at the border as part of its "zero tolerance" prosecution policy, which resulted in more than 2,500 children being separated from their parents for weeks to months at a time.

 

Read more here

Legal technicians provide family law assistance

From the News Tribune:

VANCOUVER, WASH. - Navigating the family law system can be an overwhelming and emotional process, especially for people who have no choice but to represent themselves in court.

The number of pro se litigants has steadily increased across the country, with between 60 to 90 percent of family law cases involving at least one party with no legal representation, according to information released by the American Bar Association in 2013.

"People are kind of in a society of do-it-yourself. Some people may be able to afford an attorney, but others can't. We are seeing more and more people representing themselves," Clark County Chief Deputy Clerk Baine Wilson said.

Local and state agencies recognize a strong need for assistance and have begun offering alternatives to help guide the public through the process, reported The Columbian.

Read more here.

Resource on Mortgages for Same-Sex Couples

• "Housing & Mortgages for Gay & Lesbian Couples"

Civil Rights & Family Rights Resources

• Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund
• Nat'l Organization for Women
• Family Research Counsel