
Rationing Justice
Poverty Lawyers and Poor People in the Deep South
Kris Shepard(Author)
Louisiana State University Press
Published on 30. April 2009
Book
Paperback/Softback
408 pages
978-0-8071-3416-0 (ISBN)
Description
Established in 1964, the federal Legal Services Program (later, Corporation) served a vast group of Americans desperately in need of legal counsel: the poor. In Rationing Justice, Kris Shepard looks at this pioneering program's effect on the Deep South, as the poor made tangible gains in cases involving federal, state, and local social programs, low-income housing, consumer rights, domestic relations, and civil rights.
While poverty lawyers, Shepard reveals, did not by themselves create a legal revolution in the South, they did force southern politicians, policy makers, businessmen, and law enforcement officials to recognise that they could not ignore the legal rights of low-income citizens. Having survived for four decades, America's legal services program has adapted to ever-changing political realities, including slashed budgets and severe restrictions on poverty law practice adopted by the Republican-led Congress of the mid-1990s. With its account of the relationship between poverty lawyers and their clients, and their interaction with legal, political, and social structures, Rationing Justice speaks poignantly to the possibility of justice for all in America.
While poverty lawyers, Shepard reveals, did not by themselves create a legal revolution in the South, they did force southern politicians, policy makers, businessmen, and law enforcement officials to recognise that they could not ignore the legal rights of low-income citizens. Having survived for four decades, America's legal services program has adapted to ever-changing political realities, including slashed budgets and severe restrictions on poverty law practice adopted by the Republican-led Congress of the mid-1990s. With its account of the relationship between poverty lawyers and their clients, and their interaction with legal, political, and social structures, Rationing Justice speaks poignantly to the possibility of justice for all in America.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Baton Rouge
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
591 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8071-3416-0 (9780807134160)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Kris Shepard is an attorney who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and he serves on the board of directors of Legal Aid of North Carolina. He is the coeditor of A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.