A program is looking for Montanans to represent people in courts on tribal reservations, who often lack access to legal assistance when they need it.

The Tribal Advocate Incubator Project wants to train lay advocates - that is, people who are not lawyers by profession - to represent folks in tribal courts across the state.

"Tribal lay advocates will represent tribal members in tribal court regarding civil legal matters," said Valerie Falls Down, tribal advocacy coordinator for the Montana Legal Services Association, "including divorce and custody, landlord-tenant disputes, wills and probate, real estate and land issues."

Montana's seven reservations are mostly rural, and a 2017 study found the poverty rate was 30% on the state's reservations. The Montana Legal Services Association is teaming up with the University of Montana law school and the Indian Law Section of the State Bar on this training program.

The Montana Legal Services Association provides free legal advice and services to low-income Montanans. Falls Down said cost often is a major barrier to representation in court.

"Someone who is low income would not otherwise be able to afford paying a lawyer, which is high priced," she said.

Because each tribal court system is different, she said lay advocates would have to be licensed in that system in order to represent clients.

"What we want to do with this program is, we want to train local people in each tribe," she said, "so that they can represent [clients] in their own community."

Falls Down said her organization is identifying candidates, and the program's first training will start in May.

The 95-year-old Texan known as the "grandmother of Juneteenth" will celebrate this weekend, as she has for the past nine decades, but with the added knowledge she was instrumental in securing the date as a federal holiday.

Opal Lee decided to walk from her home in Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., six years ago, to raise awareness about the significance of Juneteenth. Lee traveled about 2.5 miles each day to symbolize the two-and-a-half years Black Texans waited for their freedom after Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery in 1862.

Lee said she has heard the many stories about why it took so long for news of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach Texas, but she prefers to think about what it meant to her ancestors.

"And when the people came in from their labor, and somebody read that general order to them, we started celebrating," Lee remarked. "And we've been celebrating ever since."

In 2021, President Joe Biden signed a bill making Juneteenth a national holiday, which means federal and some local offices will be closed, as will banks and the U.S. Post Office.

Even as a child, Lee spent Juneteenth picnicking with her family in her predominantly white Fort Worth neighborhood. At age 12, she watched a mob of 500 white supremacists burn her family's house to the ground, with no arrests made. She said the experience led her to a life of teaching, activism and most recently, campaigning.

"If people have been taught to hate, they can be taught to love," Lee asserted. "I want them to know that freedom is for all of us. None of us are free until we're all free."

And Lee believes many more problems in America could be solved if everyone pulled together.

"We need to address joblessness and homelessness, and everybody needs a decent place to stay, and climate change" Lee outlined. "There are so many disparities that, if we work together, we can eradicate."

Juneteenth celebrations will include freedom tours, reenactments, parades, concerts and more.

Voting-rights groups in Michigan are working to increase awareness about and access to voting in jails.

In Michigan, anyone not serving a prison sentence is eligible to vote, although there are barriers often making it nearly impossible for those in jail pre- or mid-trial. They may not be fully aware of their voting rights, and lack internet access and the materials needed to learn about candidates and issues, or to register and cast a ballot.

Local groups are working to increase voter outreach in jails, and advocating for policies to make it easier.

Percy Glover, member of the Voting Access for All Coalition and a Genessee County Ambassador, explained part of the challenge of getting people in jail reconnected with voting.

"Being in jail and being in prison is very destructive on people. They doubt the system. They don't trust the system," Glover pointed out. "Some of them may have been also wrongfully arrested, wrongfully detained, so why would I be interested in voting?"

Glover urged educating eligible voters in jail, and building out jail-based voting systems across all county jails in Michigan. He also hopes Michigan will follow Maine, Vermont and Washington, D.C., in allowing people in prison to vote as well.

Amani Sawari, justice services director for Spread the Vote, which is partnering with Michigan to create a "vote-by-mail in jail program" program. They help with voter registration by paying for expenses required for jailed voters to obtain an ID, and providing stamps, envelopes, forms and voter guides.

"Our goal is to create if not an in-person program, at least a remote process for jailed voters," Sawari emphasized. "To not only register while incarcerated, but to also receive their absentee ballot to their place of incarceration, so that they can fully participate in voting."

Other states where Spread the Vote is working to facilitate jail-based voting include neighboring Wisconsin and Indiana. As Juneteenth approaches this Sunday, the Voting Access for All Coalition is spotlighting the ways social issues like poverty and race are intertwined in the criminal legal system as well as affecting voting rights.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Carnegie Corporation of New York.

A new report sounds the alarm about surveillance technology which could be used to target pregnant people if and when Roe v. Wade is overturned.

Since the leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court indicating at least five justices plan to overturn the landmark abortion decision, New York lawmakers have passed bills to protect abortion patients and providers, and to limit the power of other states to extradite people who seek abortions in New York.

Albert Fox Cahn, founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project and co-author of the report, said search-engine tools such as geofencing and keyword warrants are already used to track pregnant people, and could be scaled up without Roe.

"All of the apps on our phone that collect our data are one court order away from being turned into a policing tool," Fox Cahn asserted. "And while that's been the reality for countless Americans for years, that's going to be a life-changing threat for pregnant people in America."

The report pointed to a case in Mississippi where a woman's search history was used to charge her with second-degree murder after a miscarriage. Fox Cahn urged lawmakers to enact privacy protections to complement abortion protections. He noted a ban on geofence warrants is pending in the Legislature.

Fox Cahn emphasized even if the bill to stop extraditions of abortion patients in New York is approved, law enforcement agencies would still be able to share surveillance data with other jurisdictions.

"Just as we've seen for years that even when we claim to be a sanctuary city in New York City, our police data is still being used to target our undocumented neighbors," Fox Cahn pointed out.

A group of 42 lawmakers last month signed a letter to the CEO of Google, asking the company to stop collecting and retaining location data from its users.

Fox Cahn added it is just the latest warning since 9/11 of surveillance tools installed in the name of national security, which pose threats to personal privacy.

"I think that this is really going to be an inflection point in the history of surveillance in America," Fox Cahn contended. "Because I think we can't have denial any longer about just how dangerous these surveillance technologies are."