Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 3, 1990 TAG: 9003052179
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
From the time he was governor of California, legal aid for the poor was one of Ronald Reagan's pet hates. As president he tried first to abolish the Legal Services Corp., which distributes federal money to 325 legal-services offices around the country (including Roanoke) - about 77 percent of all their funding.
Balked in this attempt, he named a board of directors with a majority that tried to reduce the program's funding and limited its powers. At one point, the board even paid $77,000 to a former Reagan administration official to research and write a memorandum contending that the agency's independent status is unconstitutional.
The board has remained under conservative control since those first appointments, which Reagan made during a congressional recess to delay a Senate confirmation vote on them. George Bush is less an ideologue than his predecessor, so it was thought he might name a board more attuned to the corporation's mission. But although terms of 10 of the 11 board members had expired, Bush held off replacing all but two of them.
The delay, reported The Wall Street Journal last August, "permitted a six-person majority of holdover directors to step up efforts to discourage class-action suits on behalf of groups such as farm workers and inmates in overcrowded prisons. The Reagan loyalists contend that for two decades, federally funded poverty lawyers have improperly pursued a liberal political agenda, rather than focusing on individual matters such as child-support disputes and landlord-tenant disagreements."
Bush apparently was wary of offending the Republican right wing, which he also allowed last year to block what would have been a distinguished appointment to the LSC board: that of former 6th District Rep. M. Caldwell Butler. A certified conservative, Butler wasn't reactionary enough for his opponents, who have wielded disproportionate influence over Bush.
Finally the president got around to naming nine replacements for holdovers whose terms had run out. But he took a page from Reagan's book by making the appointments a day before Congress returned from its year-end recess. That lets the appointees take their posts and begin serving without Senate confirmation, until the end of the 101st Congress or the expiration of their terms.
However, the White House indicated that the president will soon submit the nominations to the Senate for formal consideration. How they would fare there is difficult to predict: Not a lot is known about many of them, including Iowa lawyer George W. Wittgraf, whom Bush is said to prefer for chairman. F. William McAlpin, president of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association - and a former Legal Services Corp. board member - has indicated cautious optimism about the appointees. And for their part, right-wingers indicated concern, which probably is a good sign.
Sen. Warren B. Rudman of New Hampshire, ranking Republican on the Appropriations subcommittee that funds the corporation, had severely criticized the former board. Now he expresses hope that the appointments will have a stabilizing effect.
That would surely be constructive for a program in disarray for more than eight years. No statistics have been compiled to support the conservatives' charges that the legal-services program is lopsidedly liberal. Justice is usually available to the educated and affluent. Legal aid attempts to assure that justice will not be denied to those less schooled in such matters and who lack funds to pay for representation at court. This is a fundamentally democratic aim that should be supported.
by CNB