SANTA ANA — Local Legal Aid officials are cheering a recent court ruling temporarily freeing them from several congressional restrictions on how they may use private funds to provide free legal representation to the poor, including challenges to welfare reform laws.
"It's a very significant ruling for our clients," said Robert J. Cohen, executive director of the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, one of five agencies nationwide that challenged the restrictions. Although the restrictions affect legal aid services nationwide, the court ruling frees up only the agencies that sued.
Orange County Legal Aid handled about 20,000 cases last year, the majority involving poor women with problems ranging from custody disputes to housing problems to consumer complaints.
"It frees up about $500,000 [about 15%] of our funding to use as it was intended without these overriding federal restrictions. More importantly, it will allow us to get more involved in the health-care issues confronting our clients, and we also intend to become more involved in welfare reforms."
But some fear the ruling from the U.S. District Court in Hawaii--the first of its kind in the nation--may bolster opponents who would eliminate all federal funds for legal aid groups nationwide. Budget hearings begin this week in Washington.
"Who knows what money is spent on what case," said Phyllis Schlafly, a conservative political analyst who is pushing for abolishment of the 23-year-old federally funded Legal Services Corp. "If they want to engage in political activities, do it on someone else's money, not the taxpayers' money."
Congress adopted new spending restrictions on legal aid caseloads last year as part of a $278-million compromise budget that included deep cuts to the Legal Services Corp., which previously distributed more than $400 million annually to legal programs for the poor nationwide.
Conservative supporters of the cuts and restrictions argued that legal aid funds had been misused in the past for liberal political purposes, such as blocking welfare reform.
The restrictions included bans on challenges to government action, representing prisoners or being involved in any litigation related to abortion. These restrictions were among those lifted by the Hawaii court.
The Legal Aid Society of Orange County joined four other groups in January to sue the Legal Services Corp. because it had agreed to the restrictions. The suit contended Congress had no right to restrict use of private and other nonfederal funds.
