Oregon Litigation

NLADA Update, Volume 7, No. 16
October 4, 2005

LSC Restrictions Challenged in Oregon

On September 16, 2005, two lawsuits were filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon challenging several of the LSC restrictions, and LSC’s application of its program integrity provision to a proposal to reconfigure the LSC and non-LSC funded programs in Oregon. Both suits argue that the LSC program integrity provisions, which require physical separation between LSC-funded programs and non-LSC funded entities engaged in restricted work, result in inefficient duplication of services and is a waste of the scarce resources available to the state’s civil legal services community.

One of the suits was filed by the LSC-funded Legal Aid Services of Oregon and the non-LSC funded Oregon Law Center, along with lawyers employed by those programs, low-income clients, and private donors who have contributed funds to legal aid programs in Oregon. The plaintiffs argue that the LSC’s rejection of a proposal to reconfigure the two separate legal services programs in Oregon into one entity results in the unnecessary expenditure of funds that would be enough to finance the opening of another office to provide legal services in the rural areas of the state. The suit claims that the LSC restrictions, including those on attorneys’ fees, class actions, solicitation and lobbying, and the program integrity provisions of Part 1610 of the LSC regulations violate the First and Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution. The Plaintiffs urge the court to declare the restrictions and the program integrity provisions void and unenforceable on their face and as applied to the Plaintiffs.

The other suit was filed by the State of Oregon which claims that LSC’s rejection of the reconfiguration proposal "infringes on Oregon’s right to establish, provide and maintain a legal services program for low-income Oregonians consistent with state policy. . . ." The suit argues that this infringement constitutes a violation of the Tenth Amendment "and the principles of federalism established in the structure of the Unites States Constitution. . ." and exceeds LSC’s authority under the Spending Clause. The State asks the court to enjoin LSC from preventing the implementation of the reconfiguration proposal and otherwise enforcing the program integrity regulation against the legal services program in Oregon.