Latest news with #BostonUniversitySchoolofLaw
09-07-2025
- Politics
Defendants released in Massachusetts as pay dispute with public defenders remains unresolved
BOSTON -- Defendants are being released in Massachusetts in the wake of a prolonged dispute over pay for the state's public defenders, and one of those set free was charged with a serious crime. The first four defendants without legal representation were freed Monday by a Boston judge following a ruling last week by the state's highest court to implement a process that requires releasing defendants without attorneys after a week. Among them was a man accused of strangling his pregnant girlfriend. Under the so-called Lavallee protocol, more are expected to be released in the coming days unless lawmakers address demands from public defenders for a moderate pay increase. The state agency representing public defenders had proposed a pay increase from $65 an hour to $73 an hour over the next two fiscal years for lawyers in district court, an increase from $85 an hour to $105 an hour for lawyers in Superior Court and $120 an hour to $150 an hour for lawyers handling murder cases. But the 2026 fiscal year budget of $60.9 billion signed Friday by Democratic Gov. Maura Healey didn't include any increase. Public defenders mostly in district courts have refused to take on new cases since May, arguing they are New England's lowest-paid public defenders. 'While the court's decision last week to implement the Lavalle protocols is welcome news and a critical step in making sure that people are not held in custody without lawyers, it is far from a solution to the crisis the courts are in,' said Shira Diner, a lecturer at the Boston University School of Law and the immediate past president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. 'Every day that our courts are without bar advocates is another day the criminal legal system isn't running the way that it's supposed to,' she said. 'Without appropriately compensated lawyers in court, the system cannot function." Democratic legislative leaders would need to consider a supplemental budget to accommodate a pay raise, but there were no signs of one in the works. 'The right to legal representation is a crucial element of the Constitutional guarantee to a fair trial," a House spokesman said in an email statement. 'At the same time, the House has a responsibility to Massachusetts taxpayers to ensure that we budget in a fiscally responsible manner, especially during this period of significant economic uncertainty.' Republicans were quick to pounce and suggest Healey, who's up for reelection next year, was to blame. 'This situation is spiraling into a full-blown constitutional crisis and Governor Healey is nowhere to be found," said Paul Craney, executive director of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, which promotes fiscal responsibility. A Healey spokesperson, Karissa Hand, said bar advocates deserve a 'fair wage' but expressed concern about the work stoppage. 'Governor Healey is concerned about the negative public safety impacts of this work stoppage,' she said. "She urges all those impacted to work together to reach a resolution and ensure that all defendants receive the representation to which they are entitled.' State Sen. Michael Rodrigues, chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, said he was open to talks but urged public defenders to get back to work. 'We are ready and willing to work with them, but a pre-emptive work stoppage serves only to harm victims, defendants, and the overall justice system,' Rodriques said in a statement. The Committee for Public Counsel Services, or CPCS, which oversees public defenders, petitioned the Supreme Judicial Court to allow the Lavalle protocol to take effect because of the work stoppage. Along with releasing defendants after seven days, the protocol requires that charges be dropped for a defendant lacking legal representation after 45 days. The judge ruled to enact the protocol Thursday. 'Despite good faith efforts by CPCS and the local bar advocate organization(s), there is an ongoing systemic violation of indigent criminal defendants' constitutional rights to effective assistance of counsel due to CPCS's incapacity to provide such assistance," Associate Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt said in her order. As of June 29, the judge noted, there were 1,144 defendants in the district courts of Middlesex and Suffolk counties without attorneys. More than 60 were in custody. Massachusetts is just the latest state struggling to adequately fund its public defender system. In Wisconsin, a two-year state budget signed into law last week by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers would increase the pay of public defenders and district attorneys in each of the next two years. That comes after the Legislature in 2023 also increased the pay to address rising caseloads, high turnover and low salaries. Public defenders in Minnesota averted a walkout in 2022 that threatened to bring the court system to a standstill. A year later, the legislature came up with more funding for the state Board of Public Defense so it could meet what the American Bar Association recommends for manageable caseload standards. Oregon, meanwhile, has struggled for years with a critical shortage of court-provided attorneys for low-income defendants. As of Tuesday, nearly 3,500 defendants did not have a public defender, a dashboard from the Oregon Judicial Department showed. Of those, about 143 people were in custody, some for longer than seven days. Amid the state's public defense crisis, lawmakers last month approved over $2 million for defense attorneys to take more caseloads in the counties most impacted by the shortage and over $3 million for Oregon law schools to train and supervise law students to take on misdemeanor cases. 'Across the nation, we're seeing a concerning pattern: public defenders and appointed counsel, who are the bedrock of a just criminal legal system, are being financially squeezed," Lisa Wayne, executive director for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said in a statement. 'When their compensation stagnates, it's not just an insult to their dedication; it's a direct assault on the constitutional right to counsel.'
Boston Globe
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
‘A safer move': Massachusetts law schools see record applications amid economic uncertainty
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Getting a JD or a professional degree now feels like such a safer move,' said Lily Power, a political science undergraduate student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst graduating in May. She has shifted her longtime plans of pursuing a PhD in political science to applying to law schools next year. Advertisement 'After seeing funding being cut, academia doesn't feel like a good field to go into right now,' Power said. 'Part of me wants to still pursue it, but I have to think about my own stability too.' Many of Power's professors are promoting law school, she said, to avoid the uncertainty around higher education while still pursuing a related career that can make a difference. After seeing Trump administration attacks on immigration, Advertisement The last peak in law school applications came in 2021, when the COVID pandemic and lockdowns were ravaging the economy. Since then, applications nationwide ticked down, before this year's spike. This year's rise in applications means law school hopefuls are facing even stiffer competition. At Boston College Law School, applications reached an all-time high this year with 7,668 people vying for roughly 215 spots, a spokesperson said. The applicant pool size is a 20 percent increase compared with last year's. Boston University School of Law had an even larger jump, one of the largest in the state, with approximately 30 percent more applicants in 2025 than in 2024, a spokesperson said. Harvard Law School, meanwhile, saw a similar increase of roughly 20 percent after receiving more than 8,700 applications this year, a 20-percent bump, said Kristi Jobson, assistant dean for admissions and chief admissions officer, compared with 7,235 last year. At UMass Law, applications increased nearly 22 percent this year compared with last, said Sam Panarella, the law school's dean. Three main forces are likely driving the spike, in Panarella's view: an increase in perceived importance of the law amid news coverage of Trump-related constitutional issues; heightened feelings of uncertainty about jobs and the economy; and the recent removal of the much-dreaded 'logic games' section from the Law School Admission Test. Amid economic instability, he said, graduating students and career-switchers see law school as a 'professional school that has a job at the end of it that feels certain to some degree.' Advertisement Indeed, law school has traditionally represented a solid path to relatively high-paying employment. By last spring, nearly 86 percent of the prior year's law school graduates had full-time legal jobs, according to However, even before Trump took office, legal industry observers were predicting employment numbers beginning with the class of 2024 were likely to look less positive. Nikia Gray, executive director of the National Association for Law Placement, said in a last year that pandemic-era hiring booms at law firms were slowing, and 'there are suggestions in the data that the market is starting to contract and that future classes may not fare as well.' Across New England, students are reconsidering their plans and seeing law school as a smart career move. Applications in the region jumped 22 percent this year compared with the previous cycle. University of Vermont senior Lucas Martineau has been passionate about work that focuses on the intersection of public service and culture for years. A recent job posting for a program manager in Boston's Office Arts and Culture would be a 'dream job' a few years down the road, he said, but as he prepares to cross the graduation stage, banking on opportunities like that one still existing in the future feels like a larger gamble than before. The University of Vermont in Burlington, Vt., in 2020. Charles Krupa/Associated Press 'In a way, it feels like this administration had hit me directly,' said Martineau, who will graduate this May with a bachelor's degree in political science, art history, and psychology. 'Law school feels like the closest thing that's still safe.' Advertisement Amid the uncertainty and federal a job where he can make an impact on people's lives while still having relative job security. 'Having a pathway to be able to make actionable change, after graduating first in a pandemic and second in a potential recession, is really top of mind for me,' Martineau said. The decision to pivot to law school in the hopes of a secure career that is also fulfilling is a well-founded one, said Andrew Perlman, dean of Suffolk Law, which saw a 20-percent jump this year. 'For economic and job stability, legal careers have long been a great path,' Perlman said. 'It's a good investment.' Maren Halpin can be reached at
USA Today
05-04-2025
- USA Today
A cop dead in the snow, a girlfriend on trial. Why Karen Read is a true-crime obsession
A cop dead in the snow, a girlfriend on trial. Why Karen Read is a true-crime obsession How does the death of a cop in a small town become a true-crime sensation? Experts say many factors are fueling attention to the trial of Karen Read. Show Caption Hide Caption John O'Keefe's family files wrongful death lawsuit against Karen Read A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Boston police officer John O'Keefe accuses Karen Read of knowingly hitting O'Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die. Scripps News Former Boston police officer John O'Keefe was found dead in the snow in January 2022. His girlfriend, Karen Read, is accused of killing him by hitting him with her car and leaving him to die. Read's defense team maintains that she is innocent and that someone else killed O'Keefe. Read's retrial is underway, with jury selection beginning this week. The body laid in the snow outside for hours in the freezing cold. It had been a night of drinking, and a cop was dead. John O'Keefe was found laying on the lawn that morning in January 2022. An autopsy blamed blunt, impact injuries to his head and hypothermia. Authorities zeroed in on a suspect within days: His on-again-off-again girlfriend Karen Read was arrested, accused of backing into him with her SUV and then leaving him for dead. What ensued has been a closely watched spectacle far beyond the sleepy New England town where it unfolded, a true-crime sensation, attracting attention from YouTubers, TikTokers and internet sleuths and serving as fodder for podcasts, movies, televisions shows. Prosecutors say the couple got into an argument and Read, a 45-year-old former adjunct professor, was enraged and jealous. They cited as proof angry voicemail messages she left for him on the day he died accusing him of infidelity. The defense maintains someone else beat O'Keefe to death and Read was framed. The case hung one jury and is now heading for a second, as jury selection began this week for a retrial of Read in Dedham, Massachusetts, where a judge has barred supporters of either side from demonstrating within 200 feet of the courthouse or wearing clothes related to the case inside. Across the nation, supporters have been organizing standouts. How does a death in a small town capture the national imagination? Experts say a confluence of factors may be at play. The many twists in the case since the mistrial − from the firing of the lead investigator to charges of witness intimidation against a blogger − have also fueled ongoing media coverage. And allegations of a police cover-up and a trove of evidence stoked speculation in online communities where spectators can play detective and conspiracy theories can thrive. "It sort of has all these elements of what someone would want to watch on TV in a courtroom drama and for that reason, and people just have like these really strong opinions on it,' said Shira Diner, an instructor at Boston University School of Law. What happened to John O'Keefe? A heavy snowstorm walloped Canton, Massachusetts, on Jan. 28, 2022. O'Keefe, a Boston cop, went out anyway for a night of drinking with Read and some friends and coworkers. After midnight, the group headed to the home of now-former Boston Police Officer Brian Albert. Between 12:15 and 12:45, multiple witnesses said they saw a dark SUV parked outside the home but no one went inside. Prosecutors say Read rammed O'Keefe with the Lexus SUV and fled. They cited evidence, including a busted taillight where O'Keefe's DNA was found. Hours later, Read went with Albert's sister-in-law and another friend to search for him. He was found unresponsive in the snow around 6 a.m. According to Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally, first responders and witnesses at the scene heard Read repeatedly say "I hit him." She continued to incriminate herself that morning, Lally said, including saying, 'This is all my fault." Timeline: What happened in the Karen Read case? Here are the key moments in John O'Keefe murder trial The defense has disputed these claims, offering a different theory about what happened that night. Defense lawyer Alan Jackson contends Read dropped O'Keefe off and then a deadly fight broke out inside the Albert home. He says those involved covered it up, planted his body on the front lawn, and framed Read. The defense pointed to several potential suspects at the home at the time, including Albert, his nephew and their friend, an agent for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives who had been exchanging flirty text messages with Read. However, a judge has ruled that Read's defense team can only use a portion of this defense in her the retrial, citing insufficient evidence, WCVB reported. Read's attorneys argued O'Keefe's injuries showed signs of beating and an animal attack, suggesting the family dog, a German Shepherd named Chloe, had been involved. The defense pointed to a Google search Albert's sister-in-law allegedly made asking, "hos (sic) long to die in cold." The defense said the search was made at 2:27 a.m. long before authorities were notified of O'Keefe's death. But prosecutors say it happened around 6:23 a.m. after O'Keefe was found. Prosecutors have also said swabs taken from O'Keefe's clothing near his injuries did not contain canine DNA. An attorney for Albert, Gregory D. Henning, told USA TODAY he had "nothing to do with the death of John O'Keefe. There was no fight. John O'Keefe was never in their home." A lawyer for his sister-in-law did not return messages. 'Damsel in distress' or 'calculating killer?' Read supporters can frequently be seen outside the courthouse. They wave "Free Karen" signs and often wear pink. Other demonstrators are calling for "Justice for John." Daniel Medwed, a professor of law and criminal justice at Northeastern University, said part of the fascination with Read and others like Casey Anthony or Amanda Knox comes from the relative rarity of a woman facing murder charges. "I think America is often fascinated with the idea of women who kill," he said. "For some people, it is like damsel in distress, like this woman is being framed, like this poor woman, she lost her boyfriend and the police are just piling it on her and in part to cover up men who did something wrong. For other people, it's like, 'oh, come on she's a calculating killer,'" he added. Experts have said true-crime cases involving white women often garner disproportionate attention − particularly young, attractive blondes like Gabby Petito and Natalee Holloway. Wealth and class have played a role, too, according to Diner. Read was freed on $80,000 bail and has a high-profile defense team including Jackson, who has represented Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, among other big names. That has helped her share her side of the story in media interviews and garner support. 'I think the relative privilege that the defendant in this case has is a really important part of sort of analyzing and understanding what is happening and why it's happening,' Diner said. Accusations of a coverup fuel conspiracy theorists Medwed said police missteps in the investigation and suggestions of an elaborate cover-up make the case fertile ground for online conspiracy theorists. "Whenever you put a microscope to a case, you're going to see holes, but I don't think you need a microscope to see the holes in this one, right?" Medwed said. "They're just pretty darn glaring." Police used red Solo cups to scoop up bloody snow and put them in paper bags to take to the station, defense attorneys said. An audit found police also failed to properly photograph O'Keefe's body, record an interview and maintain a presence at the crime scene. The lead investigator in the case was fired last month. He had sent crude text messages about Read to friends and fellow state troopers during the investigation. Read's lawyers pointed to the messages as evidence police preemptively decided on her guilt. Massachusetts State Police said the investigator, Michael Proctor, was fired for unrelated charges. His attorney, Daniel J. Moynihan, did not respond to a message seeking comment from USA TODAY. WGBH reported Moynihan has pledged to appeal, saying Proctor was wrongfully terminated after Read's mistrial. A federal probe into the handling of the investigation ended without charges being filed. Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey called accusations of a coverup "baseless," and "conspiracy theories," in a 2023 statement. "The idea that multiple police departments, EMTs, fire personnel, the medical examiner, and the prosecuting agency are joined in, or taken in by, a vast conspiracy should be seen for what it is − completely contrary to the evidence and a desperate attempt to reassign guilt," he said. 'Justice for John' Despite the "Justice for John" campaign, the tragedy of what happened to the 46-year-old, devoted uncle is often lost in the fray, Medwed said, a common problem when the public fixates on a particular case. Some of Read's supporters hurled insults at O'Keefe's loved ones as they attended the first trial, a friend of the late officer wrote in a piece for Boston Magazine. One of Read's supporters, blogger Aidan "Turtleboy" Kearney, is facing charges of witness intimidation after confronting witnesses in the case on camera. He has denied all charges against him. "There is a sense that with all the gamesmanship, with all the kind of entrenched views about guilt or innocence and a lot of the vitriol and ad hominem attacks and very personal nature of the loss of John O'Keefe is sort of being lost a little bit," Medwed said. Contributing: Mary Walrath-Holdridge, Cybele Mayes-Osterman and Karissa Waddick, USA TODAY; Peter Bladino, Rin Velasco, Brad Petrishen, and Jessica Trufant, USA TODAY Network - New England (This story was updated to add information and correct a typo)
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Yahoo
A cop dead in the snow, a girlfriend on trial. Why Karen Read is a true-crime obsession
The body laid in the snow outside for hours in the freezing cold. It had been a night of drinking, and a cop was dead. John O'Keefe was found laying on the lawn that morning in January 2022. An autopsy blamed blunt, impact injuries to his head and hypothermia. Authorities zeroed in on a suspect within days: His on-again-off-again girlfriend Karen Read was arrested, accused of backing into him with her SUV and then leaving him for dead. What ensued has been a closely watched spectacle far beyond the sleepy New England town where it unfolded, a true-crime sensation, attracting attention from YouTubers, TikTokers and internet sleuths and serving as fodder for podcasts, movies, televisions shows. Prosecutors say the couple got into an argument and Read, a 45-year-old former adjunct professor, was enraged and jealous. They cited as proof angry voicemail messages she left for him on the day he died accusing him of infidelity. The defense maintains someone else beat O'Keefe to death and Read was framed. The case hung one jury and is now heading for a second, as jury selection began this week for a retrial of Read in Dedham, Massachusetts, where a judge has barred supporters of either side from demonstrating within 200 feet of the courthouse or wearing clothes related to the case inside. Across the nation, supporters have been organizing standouts. How does a death in a small town capture the national imagination? Experts say a confluence of factors may be at play. The many twists in the case since the mistrial − from the firing of the lead investigator to charges of witness intimidation against a blogger − have also fueled ongoing media coverage. And allegations of a police cover-up and a trove of evidence stoked speculation in online communities where spectators can play detective and conspiracy theories can thrive. "It sort of has all these elements of what someone would want to watch on TV in a courtroom drama and for that reason, and people just have like these really strong opinions on it,' said Shira Diner, an instructor at Boston University School of Law. A heavy snowstorm walloped Canton, Massachusetts, on Jan. 28, 2022. O'Keefe, a Boston cop, went out anyway for a night of drinking with Read and some friends and coworkers. After midnight, the group headed to the home of now-former Boston Police Officer Brian Albert. Between 12:15 and 12:45, multiple witnesses said they saw a dark SUV parked outside the home but no one went inside. Prosecutors say Read rammed O'Keefe with the Lexus SUV and fled. They cited evidence, including a busted taillight where O'Keefe's DNA was found. Hours later, Read went with Albert's sister-in-law and another friend to search for him. He was found unresponsive in the snow around 6 a.m. According to Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally, first responders and witnesses at the scene heard Read repeatedly say "I hit him." She continued to incriminate herself that morning, Lally said, including saying, 'This is all my fault." Timeline: What happened in the Karen Read case? Here are the key moments in John O'Keefe murder trial The defense has disputed these claims, offering a different theory about what happened that night. Defense lawyer Alan Jackson contends Read dropped O'Keefe off and then a deadly fight broke out inside the Albert home. He says those involved covered it up, planted his body on the front lawn, and framed Read. The defense pointed to several potential suspects at the home at the time, including Albert, his nephew and their friend, an agent for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives who had been exchanging flirty text messages with Read. However, a judge has ruled that Read's defense team can only use a portion of this defense in her the retrial, citing insufficient evidence, WCVB reported. Read's attorneys argued O'Keefe's injuries showed signs of beating and an animal attack, suggesting the family dog, a German Shepherd named Chloe, had been involved. The defense pointed to a Google search Albert's sister-in-law allegedly made asking, "hos (sic) long to die in cold." The defense said the search was made at 2:27 a.m. long before authorities were notified of O'Keefe's death. But prosecutors say it happened around 6:23 a.m. after O'Keefe was found. Prosecutors have also said swabs taken from O'Keefe's clothing near his injuries did not contain canine DNA. An attorney for Albert, Gregory D. Henning, told USA TODAY he had "nothing to do with the death of John O'Keefe. There was no fight. John O'Keefe was never in their home." A lawyer for his sister-in-law did not return messages. Read supporters can frequently be seen outside the courthouse. They wave "Free Karen" signs and often wear pink. Other demonstrators are calling for "Justice for John." Medwed said part of the fascination with Read and others like Casey Anthony or Amanda Knox comes from the relatively rarity of a woman facing murder charges. "I think America is often fascinated with the idea of women who kill," he said. "For some people, it is like damsel in distress, like this woman is being framed, like this poor woman, she lost her boyfriend and the police are just piling it on her and in part to cover up men who did something wrong. For other people, it's like, 'oh, come on she's a calculating killer,'" he added. Experts have said true-crime cases involving white women often garner disproportionate attention − particularly young, attractive blondes like Gabby Petito and Natalee Holloway. Wealth and class have played a role, too, according to Diner. Read was freed on $80,000 bail and has a high-profile defense team including Jackson, who has represented Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, among other big names. That has helped her share her side of the story in media interviews and garner support. 'I think the relative privilege that the defendant in this case has is a really important part of sort of analyzing and understanding what is happening and why it's happening,' Diner said. Medwed said police missteps in the investigation and suggestions of an elaborate cover-up make the case fertile ground for online conspiracy theorists. "Whenever you put a microscope to a case, you're going to see holes, but I don't think you need a microscope to see the holes in this one, right?" Medwed said. "They're just pretty darn glaring." Police used red Solo cups to scoop up bloody snow and put them in paper bags to take to the station, defense attorneys said. An audit found police also failed to properly photograph O'Keefe's body, record an interview and maintain a presence at the crime scene. The lead investigator in the case was fired last month. He had sent crude text messages about Read to friends and fellow state troopers during the investigation. Read's lawyers pointed to the messages as evidence police preemptively decided on her guilt. Massachusetts State Police said the investigator, Michael Proctor, was fired for unrelated charges. His attorney, Daniel J. Moynihan, did not respond to a message seeking comment from USA TODAY. WGBH reported Moynihan has pledged to appeal, saying Proctor was wrongfully terminated after Read's mistrial. A federal probe into the handling of the investigation ended without charges being filed. Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey called accusations of a coverup "baseless," and "conspiracy theories," in a 2023 statement. "The idea that multiple police departments, EMTs, fire personnel, the medical examiner, and the prosecuting agency are joined in, or taken in by, a vast conspiracy should be seen for what it is − completely contrary to the evidence and a desperate attempt to reassign guilt," he said. Despite the "Justice for John" campaign, the tragedy of what happened to the 46-year-old, devoted uncle is often lost in the fray, Medwed said, a common problem when the public fixates on a particular case. Some of Read's supporters hurled insults at O'Keefe's loved ones as they attended the first trial, a friend of the late officer wrote in a piece for Boston Magazine. One of Read's supporters, blogger Aidan "Turtleboy" Kearney, is facing charges of witness intimidation after confronting witnesses in the case on camera. He has denied all charges against him. "There is a sense that with all the gamesmanship, with all the kind of entrenched views about guilt or innocence and a lot of the vitriol and ad hominem attacks and very personal nature of the loss of John O'Keefe is sort of being lost a little bit," Medwed said. Contributing: Mary Walrath-Holdridge, Cybele Mayes-Osterman and Karissa Waddick, USA TODAY; Peter Bladino, Rin Velasco, Brad Petrishen, and Jessica Trufant, USA TODAY Network - New England This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Karen Read murder trial: How the case became a true-crime obsession
Boston Globe
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Trump wants transportation funding tied to marriage and birth rates. That's bad news for Massachusetts.
The undated memo, which says it is effective immediately, Advertisement Some have interpreted the memo as a ploy to divert federal funding away from blue states, like Massachusetts, and direct it to red states. New England states — all of which voted Democrat in the 2024 presidential election — have among the lowest Meanwhile, 17 of the 20 states with highest fertility rates voted Republican for president. Massachusetts also falls near the bottom of the rankings for two national agencies. Most of the states clumped at the lower end are blue states. The effort to steer transportation funding to areas with higher marriage and birth rates has elicited confusion, frustration, and worry among transportation advocates, politicians, and legal experts in Massachusetts. Several people questioned its legality and how such datapoints related to transportation goals, while others viewed the directive as a conservative plot to promote higher reproduction rates. 'I've really tried here but I do not see a connection,' said Governor Maura Healey on Monday. Speaking to reporters at the State House, she said the memo has raised concerns among 'governors around the country because people rely on transportation just like they rely on child care and infrastructure.' Advertisement 'I'm focused on fixing roads and bridges and building out the kind of transit system that we need, and we need a federal partner who's rowing in that direction,' said Healey , who added that the order threatens to 'undermine transportation funding' and the progress the state has made improving public transit. During the Biden administration, 'It is deeply concerning,' said Paulina Muratore, director of transportation justice and infrastructure at the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental policy and advocacy group , who noted that federal dollars meant for the electrification of school buses and public transit buses could also be at risk. 'There's no legal basis for this,' she said. Whether the memo could hold up to legal challenges is unclear, said Robert Tsai, a professor at Boston University School of Law who teaches courses in constitutional law and presidential leadership. 'It may be bad policy, like terrible policy,' he said. '[But] at least for me, it's not an obviously unconstitutional thing.' When asked about the connections between fertility and marriage rates to transportation funding, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation referred the Globe to a statement that read: 'As projects are evaluated, many factors will be considered, including areas with strong population growth.' The Massachusetts Department of Transportation deferred comment to Healey. At the moment, what comes next is conjecture — a memo is not the same as official policy. Still, even floating these ideas is raising anxiety, introducing a plan seemingly to focus transportation dollars toward infrastructure for cars over mass transit and away from urban areas with more racially diverse populations. Advertisement Across Massachusetts, the state continues to 'When I first saw the memo, I thought it was unorthodox,' said Kate Dineen, CEO and president of A Better City, a business group in Boston. Although there are always strings attached to federal funding, 'there is typically some nexus to the subject matter, like states need to have seat belt laws and speed limits,' she said. Every new administration sets their own priorities, 'but it's difficult to find that nexus between some of these ... and transportation funding.' The language used in the memo seems specific and intentional, Dineen said, such as saying 'birth rates' instead of 'areas of population growth,' word choices, she believes, designed to enflame certain groups and appeal to others. The general fertility rate fell to a historic low in 2023. 'This whole birth rate obsession is a real preoccupation, especially of white nationalist communities .. also religious conservatives, social conservatives,' said Tsai, who added that these groups are focused on 'outlandish ideas' to incentivize people to have more babies. Advertisement The memo appears to be part of that intellectual movement, he said. 'It's also about trying to give more economic power to those who are having babies ... and getting married,' Tsai added. Roseann Bongiovanni, executive director of GreenRoots, an environmental justice advocacy group, said the memo 'is just another way that the government is trying to control women's bodies.' 'If we're not funding our bridges, we're not funding public transportation, we're not funding highway projects because of birth rates and marriage rates, that's completely ridiculous,' she said. Shannon Larson can be reached at
