Legal Services Funds for Poor
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Your Sept. 23 editorial, “A Brief for the Poor,” called it “shameful” that Congress wants to cut the Legal Services Corp. budget from $283 million to $141 million. On the contrary, Congress is to be applauded for trying to get rid of this scandal-ridden agency.
Established in 1974 to ostensibly provide assistance to the poor in routine legal matters, LSC grantees have brazenly misused taxpayer money to advance a liberal agenda. This partisan track record includes advocating abortion rights, the legalization of homosexual “families,” the right of drug dealers to stay in public housing and even the right of drug addicts to receive disability. In recent years, legal services attorneys have been especially active filing lawsuits opposing welfare reform.
While it is true that restrictions have been placed on grantees’ right to challenge welfare reform and engage in other ideological litigation, federal legal services lawyers can still get involved in a wide range of controversial lawsuits. Just recently, California Rural Legal Assistance filed a politically charged suit to stop Orange County from abolishing bilingual instruction. Without discussing the manifest failures of bilingual education--a program that is broadly unpopular with Hispanic parents--suffice it to say that it is lawsuits such as this that make LSC a target for the congressional budget ax.
JOHN K. CARLISLE
National Legal and Policy Center
McLean, Va.
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