Legal Services Corporation LSC

Federal funding for civil legal aid began with the War on Poverty in 1965. To place it outside direct government control, President Richard Nixon signed the Legal Services Corporation Act on July 25, 1974, creating a private nonprofit corporation funded by Congress, which began operating in 1975. It is governed by an eleven-member bipartisan board appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

LSC does not represent clients itself. It makes grants to about 130 independent legal aid organizations with hundreds of offices in every state and territory, which help low-income people with civil matters such as evictions, foreclosures, domestic violence protective orders, veterans' and disability benefits, and consumer debt. Clients generally must have incomes at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty level. LSC also sets rules for grantees, audits them, and studies the gap between legal needs and available help, which it has found leaves most low-income civil legal problems without adequate assistance. There is no constitutional right to a lawyer in most civil cases.

LSC's funding has long been a political flashpoint. In 1996 Congress cut its budget and barred grantees from class actions, most lobbying, abortion-related litigation, and representing many categories of noncitizens, even with non-federal money. Presidents of both parties have proposed different funding levels, and the President's 2026 budget request proposed eliminating it, as some earlier budgets had. Supporters say it is a cost-effective way to give poor Americans fair access to the courts, while critics say it has funded activist litigation and that legal aid should rely on states, bar associations, and charity.