On November 15, 2004, Judge Frederic Block of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York heard a third round of oral argument in Dobbins v. LSC and Velazquez v. LSC, two pending lawsuits challenging federal funding restrictions on civil legal aid programs that receive some of their funding from LSC. Represented by the Brennan Center for Justice, the plaintiffs include the New York Foundation, LSC grantees Legal Services for New York City and South Brooklyn Legal Services, and former LSC grantee Farmworker Legal Services of New York. Funding restrictions enacted by Congress in 1996 prohibit LSC grantees from using both their federal and non-federal funds to engage in a range of activities, including class actions, claims for attorneys' fee awards, and representation of people in prison and certain categories of immigrants. LSC grantees may not use their non-LSC funds for restricted activities unless they establish a separate, affiliated program, pursuant to LSC's "program integrity regulation." During oral argument, the judge noted that the plaintiff legal services programs had presented a proposal for an affiliation plan that provides for physical separation between their LSC-financed and non-LSC financed activities, but that allows both sets of activities to occur within the organization offices. He then noted that the White House's Faith-Based Initiative has declared that separation in "time or space" between publicly funded secular activities and privately funded religious activities, with all activities occurring with the organization offices, is sufficient for faith-based recipients of federal funds. The judge pressed defendants LSC and the U.S. Department of Justice to explain why they require greater separation in the legal services context. He also questioned the plaintiffs about their Tenth Amendment challenges to the class action restrictions and attorneys' fee award restrictions. Acknowledging that the parties have been waiting a very long time for the court to decide the plaintiffs' preliminary injunction motion and the defendants' motions to dismiss, the judge held up what he said was 69 pages of the opinion he is working on, and said he expected to issue it in the next few weeks.

Based on original reporting by Brennan Center staff. See also Legal Services E-lert of Apr. 25, 2003.