A Bright Spot for Poor People in Need of Legal Aid

by M G · 2010-03-01 11:10:00 UTC
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With the health care reform bill seemingly on the ropes, the expiring child tax credit poised to send 600,000 kids into poverty, and no progress on extending unemployment benefits and COBRA subsidies, it's been a rough couple of weeks for poor people and their advocates. Fortunately, there was at least one piece of promising news recently. One of the best constitutional attorneys in the world is leaving his prestigious job at Harvard to work for the people who need him most.

Laurence H. Tribe will join the Justice Department next week to lead the new Access to Justice Initiative, an entire program focused on finding ways to help people who cannot afford a lawyer. Not that's there's much competition for best news of the week, but this is pretty exciting. National Public Radio reports that Tribe will coordinate with judges and attorneys in criminal, civil and family courts, as well as with drug and mental health service programs.

Though the Sixth Amendment guarantees criminal defendants the right to a competent attorney, people who can't afford to pay generally are represented by young, inexperienced public defenders. This means that 95 percent of inmates on death row are poor, and two-thirds of prison inmates are non-violent offenders (or simply innocent) who are only there because they can't afford bail. These are immense problems, as Attorney General Eric Holder acknowledged at a symposium on indigent defense in Washington last week. "In too many counties and too many communities, some people accused of crimes may never have a lawyer, either entirely or during a critical stage of the case against them," Holder said at the conference.

If anybody can tackle this problem, it's Laurence Tribe. It's not just that he's brilliant, though he is (he has argued 34 Supreme Court cases and written the master work on constitutional law), it's that he has consistently sided with the underdog, whether it's people seeking to force cigarette companies to end their lies about health effects, migrant workers suing their companies after they were injured on the job or tenant farmers arguing for land reform in Hawaii. It's refreshing to see that Holder takes the problem seriously enough to find the best person for the job. But even Tribe can't do it alone. "As Americans understand how some of their fellow citizens experience the criminal justice system, they will be shocked and angered -- feelings I hope would compel them to become advocates for change and allies in our work," Holder said last week. Who's on board?

Photo credit: maveric2003

M G was most recently a staff reporter for The Washington Post, covering philanthropy and nonprofits, education and the war in Iraq.
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