Legal Services for Low-Income People

Mother Jones has a great piece up today about the decades-long attack on the Legal Services Corporation, a federally funded nonprofit that provides legal services to low-income people who cannot afford lawyers.

The corporation’s budget has always been limited, and over the past few years, as more and more Americans grapple with civil cases involving employment, foreclosures, debt collection, and bankruptcy, soaring demand for legal help has overwhelmed the LSC’s limited resources.

But this legal crisis isn’t merely a product of the Great Recession. It’s the natural consequence of a decades-long campaign by agricultural interests, Christian conservatives, and their congressional allies who would prefer to do away with the LSC altogether.

You can also check out another Mother Jones piece about what defunding the LSC actually means for real people.