New Jersey State Bar Association President Jeralyn L. Lawrence penned an urgent plea to the United States General Services Administration (GSA) to reduce the lengthy wait times that force people to stand in the freezing cold by opening up a second entrance to the Peter Rodino Federal Building in Newark. The building houses immigration offices as well as the Social Security office and is where non-detained foreign nationals must go to resolve immigration issues.
“For many years, the lines to enter the Peter Rodino Federal Building have been extremely lengthy, resulting in, at times, as much as a 60-minute wait time before entering,” said Lawrence in a letter to the GSA. “However, in the past few months, the line and wait times have gotten worse and are now completely untenable.”
An NJSBA member attorney witnessed that an hour after people began to line up outside the building, the check-in line remain unchanged and no one had begun to process foreign nationals for their matters.
The NJSBA pointed out that the line denies equal access to justice and poses a risk to the health and safety of these individuals. It urged the GSA to immediately open the second entrance to the building and “employ other reasonable solutions” such as a temporary outdoor structure to shelter people from the cold and elements, like what is done in New York City at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building.
“No person should have to wait in hour-long lines in the freezing temperatures to enter a building,” said Lawrence. “This dangerous and unjust practice, which has become the status quo at the Peter Rodino Federal Building, must end immediately.”
Password requirements are onerous, says NJSBA to Judiciary
The NJSBA urged the Judiciary to reconsider its recently announced expansion to the password requirements, which would force people to change the 14-character password every 90 days. The notice to the bar was issued on Nov. 28 and expands the password length from eight characters to 14.
“We appreciate the need to guard against unauthorized access to the Judiciary systems and to protect the systems against cyber-attack,” said Lawrence. “In our law firms and at the NJSBA, we remain vigilant against such intrusions. However, the new Judiciary protocols may actually cause more difficulties for users than provide additional protections.”
The NJSBA noted that protocols are already in place, including a multifactor authentication process. Calling the password change onerous and an unnecessary hurdle, the NJSBA urged consideration to bona fide users by reconsidering implementation of the new password requirements.
The Judiciary issued a weekly schedule in the month of December based on last names to change their eight-character passwords. For more information, visit njcourts.gov.
This is a status report provided by the New Jersey State Bar Association on recently passed and pending legislation, regulations, gubernatorial nominations and/or appointments of interest to lawyers, as well as the involvement of the NJSBA as amicus in appellate court matters. To learn more, visit njsba.com.