NCJ Number
116280
Journal
Judicature Volume: 72 Issue: 5 Dated: (February-March 1989) Pages: 266-273
Date Published
1989
Length
8 pages
Annotation
The establishment of the legal services program (LSP) in 1965 signaled a new national commitment to providing indigents with access to the civil courts.
Abstract
By providing counsel and encouraging appellate challenges, LSP reduced the poor's de facto exclusion from judicial processes that conclude in the U.S. Supreme Court. Between 1966 and 1974, LSP's 164 Supreme Court cases involved 26 subject areas and invoked over 20 constitutional issues, although equal protection and due process claims were most common. Of these petitions, 79 percent challenged State or local laws, and State or local Governments were the opposing parties in 74 percent. The court reviewed 72 percent of these cases and issued favorable decisions in 62 percent of the reviewed cases. If the success of LSP litigation is viewed in terms of achieving welfare reform and creating a constitutional right to the necessities of life, the program fell short of this goal. However, if LSP is viewed as a mechanism for enabling a new class of litigants to place its claims before the Supreme Court and influence its policy decisions, the program can be viewed as a success. In a liberal, democratic regime committed to the rule of law, it is particularly important for all classes to be able to set the law in motion. Through LSP, the poor were enfranchised in the judicial policy process. 85 footnotes.