Law: An Organization at War with Itself

Legal Services rifles its files and ruffles some feathers

"It's a grudge, a vendetta. It's his dark, Darth Vader side," says Alberto Saldamando, executive director of California Rural Legal Assistance. Of all the social programs growing out of the Great Society, there is none that Ronald Reagan dislikes more than the Legal Services Corporation, an independent organization that channels federal funds to legal aid lawyers for the poor in civil cases. Reagan's animosity dates from the late '60s when as Governor of California he was unable to restrict some state social programs because of legal aid lawsuits. Even after it became...

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