LSC stated this week that it "expects" to appeal the December 20, 2004 ruling in Dobbins v. LSC that held unconstitutional LSC's physical separation requirement contained in LSC's program integrity regulation, 45 C.F.R. 1610.8, as applied to three New York-based legal services programs - Legal Services for New York City and South Brooklyn Legal Services (both LSC grantees) and Farmworker Legal Services of New York (a former LSC grantee). The three programs, their clients and private funders were represented by the Brennan Center for Justice and Kaye Scholer LLP. After Congress imposed several funding restrictions in 1996 barring LSC grantees from using their federal and private funds to engage in a range of advocacy activities, LSC instituted the physical separation requirement, authorizing LSC grantees to use their non-LSC funds free of the federal restrictions but only if they first dedicate some of those funds to finance a physically separate office with a separate executive director, separate staff, and separate equipment. On Monday, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York ruled that the requirement violates the plaintiffs' First Amendment rights. In a press release, LSC states, "LSC takes seriously its obligation to fully defend and implement congressional mandates, and while only one issue in the Dobbins case was decided in favor of the plaintiffs, it is an important one." The press release notes that LSC is pleased that the court upheld the constitutionality of Congress' decision not to fund class actions, client solicitation, and claims for attorneys' fee awards by LSC grantees.

LSC, Press Release: Statement of the Legal Services Corporation in Response to the Ruling in Dobbins v. LSC by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Dec. 22, 2004) (on file with the Brennan Center), available at http://www.lsc.gov/pressr/releases/122204pr.htm. See also Legal Services E-lert of Dec. 22, 2004 and Velazquez v. LSC, No. 97CV182 (E.D.N.Y. Dec. 20, 2004), available at http://www.brennancenter.org/programs/pov/dobbins/dobbins_decision.pdf