California legal services groups that receive funding from the Legal
Services Corporation continue to engage in highly questionable and costly
litigation. This includes opposition to mandatory drug rehabilitation for
welfare recipients, INS roundups of illegal aliens and even a number of
sensible education reforms.
Legal Services Promotes Irresponsibility by Homeless
In the last four years, California cities and businesses have been repeatedly
sued by legal services lawyers for trying to control problems associated
with the homeless. For example, Legal Services of Northern California sued
Sacramento for prohibiting the homeless from camping out in public and
threatened yet another suit for prohibiting panhandlers from harassing
people. The San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation attacked
as a threat to privacy a proposal that homeless applicants for social services
be screened for criminal warrants. The cities of Oakland and El Cajon had
to pay $13,000 and $40,000 respectively for allegedly destroying the property
of the homeless when they expelled them from illegal campsites. In Orange
County, Viva Supermarkets had to pay $25,000 to a community activist group
as a condition for stopping a legal services lawsuit. Legal Aid of Orange
County had threatened to sue Viva for allegedly destroying the homeless’
personal property while repossessing shopping carts they had stolen from
their stores.
See Larry Hicks, “Panhandle Lawsuits Expected,” Sacramento Bee,
Dec. 2, 1993, pg. B1 (For further background, contact NLPC)
Legal Services Contributes to Medi-Cal Fraud
Thanks in part to legal services, thousands of Mexicans illegally cross the border each year to fraudulently get free medical care at taxpayer expense under the Medicaid program. Medical professionals and social workers complain that such undocumented immigrants often get more services than are available to legal residents. Investigators with Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, say that whenever they are stationed at the border they catch at least five people per day illegally trying to get Medi-Cal services. They estimate that close border monitoring would save taxpayers $3 million per year. However, the Legal Aid Society of San Diego has hampered such daily inspections because it would deter undocumented immigrants from seeking Medi-Cal.
See Gayle Hanson, “Illegal Aliens Strain an Ailing U.S.
System,” The Washington Times, April 12, 1994, pg. A5; San Diego Union
Tribune, April 15, 1993
Legal Aid Attacks Mandatory Treatment for Addicts on Welfare
In 1993, the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles threatened to sue Los Angeles County for requiring welfare recipients who are substance abusers to enter treatment programs. The county took the step because welfare recipients who were addicts or alcoholics were not volunteering for rehabilitation. In addition, the county had received many complaints about recipients using their checks to buy drugs and alcohol. Under the program, individuals who are determined by a physician to be abusers are required to attend a three month treatment program at county facilities and can not receive further welfare checks until they complete the program. Legal Aid argued that forced rehabilitation discriminates against people with disabilities.
See Somini Sengupta, “Drug Rehab Required of Some Recipients,”
Los Angeles Times, March 8, 1993, pg. B1
Legal Aid Tries to Derail Innovative School Reform
In 1993, the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles tried to halt the implementation of an innovative school reform designed to improve academic performance. Four public schools within the Los Angeles Unified School District received permission to transform their schools into Charter Schools, a reform in which parents, teachers, and administrators are free to design their own curricula, graduation requirements and teaching methods. The curricula designed by the schools included a humanities program for high schoolers based on Ancient Greek literature and philosophy, a curricula for at-risk elementary children emphasizing special tutoring and a curricula maximizing parental involvement. Although the Charter Schools are designed to especially attract students from minority groups, Legal Aid in conjunction with various civil rights groups tried to scuttle the plan, claiming it would discriminate against minorities. However, many minority parents supported the plan. One Latina parent said “the charter plan is the possibility of a better education for our children, Latino and African-American... Why say no?”
See Lois Timnick, “Schools Will Start With a Clean Slate,”
Los Angeles Times, July 3, 1993, pg. B13
INS Sued for Rounding Up Illegal Aliens
In 1992, the Immigration and Naturalization Service agreed to settle
a seven-year legal services lawsuit by restricting its ability to arrest
illegal immigrants. California Rural Legal Assistance sued the INS over
a 1984 raid in which 200 INS agents and police officers sealed off several
streets and bars in the town of Sanger, detaining hundreds of people suspected
of being illegal aliens. The raid resulted in 250 deportations. However,
CRLA successfully argued that because some of the people detained were
American citizens, the INS violated their constitutional rights. Although,
the agreement allows INS to conduct similar raids without police officers
involved, experts believed it would lead to further restrictions on INS’s
ability to arrest illegal immigrants.
See “Court Curbs INS Power to Round Up Migrants,” San Diego
Union-Tribune, February 1, 1992, pg. A21