For nearly two decades Congress has deadlocked over our national program to provide legal assistance to low-income persons in civil matters. The Republican platform adopted last month in Philadelphia dropped its demand for elimination of the U.S. Legal Services Corp. The change may offer an opportunity to move forward once again to provide access to justice for all Americans.
American government is founded on the premise that all persons are equal before the law. The second purpose stated in the U.S. Constitution is to "establish justice." The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees "equal protection of the laws."
But reality falls far short of our ideals. Our system of justice relies heavily upon lawyers to understand legal rights and responsibilities and go to court when conflicts cannot be resolved. In many instances, persons without a lawyer are denied access to justice or suffer in conflicts against parties with lawyers. The Constitution requires states to provide a lawyer to indigent persons charged with a crime. This is not the case in most civil claims between individuals, businesses and government.
In 1965, the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity initiated a legal services program as a part of the "War on Poverty." OEO-funded attorneys around the country sought to enforce laws on behalf of the poor, including winning 73 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court between 1967 and 1972 for farm workers, tenants, welfare recipients and other groups. The OEO program quickly came under attack by some business and agricultural interests and government representatives.
The Legal Services Corporation Act of 1974 was the result of bipartisan efforts to resolve the OEO conflict while insulating legal services from political pressures. The LSC Act stressed "equal access to the system of justice in our nation for individuals who seek redress of grievances."
By 1981, LSC briefly achieved a plan for minimum access to fund one attorney for each 5,000 income-eligible persons throughout the United States. Upon taking office that same year, President Ronald Reagan tried to eliminate LSC. The Reagan administration could not override congressional support for legal aid, but did force deep budget cuts and restrictions.
Hostilities abated somewhat under President George Bush beginning in 1988, although LSC's funding remained stagnant. Funding increased briefly following Bill Clinton's election, but plummeted in 1995 when House Republicans under Newt Gingrich again sought to end the program. The 1996 Republican platform called for the "elimination, defunding or privatization" of LSC.
