    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [July 27, 1999]
    [Pages 1335-1337]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1335]]

    Remarks on the 25th Anniversary of the Legal Services Corporation
    July 27, 1999

        Thank you very much. Let me say, first of all, I apologize for being
    late. I've been over meeting with the Russian Prime Minister, and you would have given me a pass, I think. I was
    doing good work, I hope.
        Lucy, thank you for your statement, and on
    behalf of all of us, for the award. Let me say, I could just sit here
    and sort of look at all the people that are here. I hesitate to even
    call people by name, but I want to thank all the Members of Congress who
    are here, including Congressman Berman and
    Congressman Ramstad. I'd also--I see Mr.
    Conyers and Congressman Cardin, Congressman Allen,
    Congresswoman Waters, former Congressman
    Fox, and Father Drinan, we're glad to see you here, sir. Thank you. Sarge and Eunice Shriver; the ABA presidents, Jerry Shestack, Bill Ide, Roberta Cooper
    Ramo, William Paul. And I see former Secretary of Commerce and Trade
    Ambassador Mickey Kantor, who was on
    the Legal Services board with Hillary.
        We all go back a long way, all of us who care about this, it seems
    like. Doug Eakeley and Tom Allen and I, we went abroad together as young men 30
    years ago. We must have gotten infected with a Legal Services virus.
    [Laughter] Judge Broderick, it's good to
    see you here. And Jim Ramstad said, we were there 36 years ago--is that
    how long it was? [Laughter] They're coming tomorrow; you should come
    back. Make you feel old, or young, as the case may be.
        I want to say that for our family, the Legal Services Corporation
    has been very important. My wife has
    done many things I've been proud of, but I have never been more proud of
    anything than her service on the Legal Services Corporation to which
    President Carter appointed her, and the work she did as the chair of
    that Corporation.
        You know, here in Washington, everybody's got a lawyer. Whether you
    need one or not, everybody's got a lawyer, you know? [Laughter] We
    forget what it's like to have a lawyer be the difference between
    homelessness and having a stable home; between unemployment and the
    security of a job; between the disintegration of a household and holding
    a family together in difficult times. The Legal Services Corporation has
    made equal justice not a political cause but an everyday occurrence. We
    have tried to advocate that--I see our former chief advocate, Mr.
    Dellinger, there--but this is a personal
    thing for those of us who have experienced it.
        Hillary's brother, in the back, was a public
    defender for many years in Miami. And Janet Reno,
    as a prosecutor, supported efforts to make sure that everybody had a
    decent defense--something that I think is a sterling example.
        Every one of you in this room has that sort of story. But those of
    us who are old enough to remember when it was different feel it perhaps
    the more strongly. And I want to thank Howard Berman and Jim Ramstad for giving voice
    to the struggles we're now engaged in in Congress. Sometimes I think
    that the Legal Services Corporation, even though it's very young--25
    years old--is suffering from the infirmity of its success and, perhaps,
    from the success of our economy at this moment that we have people who
    may make this decision without the benefit of memory. So I ask you to
    remember.
        It was in 1962, not that long ago, when the Supreme Court had not
    yet established a constitutional right to counsel in criminal cases.
    Then, the idea of legal assistance in civil cases was a distant dream.
    Disadvantaged Americans who had a hard enough time just getting through
    the day found that the legal system was stacked against them, and even
    if it wasn't, they couldn't possibly know it because they couldn't get a
    lawyer.
        Our country's faith in the law was strained in the hearts of many
    because of injustice and the stain of racism. But the men and women who
    founded the Legal Services Corporation knew that educating people about
    the legal rights they did have was critical in the fight for equal
    rights; that if people did not know about their rights and could not
    exercise them, the fact that the Supreme Court had enshrined them was of
    little practical impact.
        Today, thanks in large measure to the efforts of the Legal Services
    Corporation and the countless lawyers you have inspired, it is clear
    that a lot of progress has been made. Lucy's

    [[Page 1336]]

    story really tells the tale. The doors of opportunity are open wider,
    and we are fortunate now to be living in a period of unique prosperity,
    with the lowest minority unemployment in our history and the highest
    homeownership in our history. We have the lowest crime rates and welfare
    rolls in a generation. But you and I know there are still a lot of poor
    folks out there. There are still people in places that have been left
    behind, even by this great recovery.
        I traveled across the country a couple of weeks ago, from Appalachia
    to the Mississippi Delta, to East St. Louis, to the Pine Ridge Indian
    Reservation, south Phoenix, and East Los Angeles. And there are still
    people out there--most of them, by the way, are working; most of them
    are working, doing the same thing you and I do every day, for much
    lesser rewards--who are having enormous difficulties. So we have this.
        It is also true that in spite of the progress that we've made in
    meeting the promise of equal justice, there are still a lot of people
    out there who don't trust the legal system or the law enforcement
    system. So there is a need, a crying need for the work of the Legal
    Services Corporation. And that's idealistic, hard-working lawyers--
    virtually 100 percent of whom could be making a lot more money doing
    something else--who believe that the law should be an instrument that
    benefits us all equally and that the rights that are enunciated in the
    law books and in the Supreme Court cases should be real in the lives of
    all Americans.
        President Kennedy did call for equal justice here 36 years ago. Last
    week in this room, with another glittering array of legal talent, from
    lawyers to judges to scholars of all races and backgrounds in this
    country, we renewed our pledge to that ideal.
        Today I think we have to say again, equal justice is the birthright
    of every American. It is the obligation of those of us in public life
    and politics to try to bring the benefits of this economic recovery into
    every corner of our country. But the Scripture says that the poor will
    be with us always. But American law says they will not be disadvantaged
    under the law. And until we close the gap between our principles and our
    reality, we will need the Legal Services Corporation.
        For years now, some in Congress have tried to dismantle it. They
    have seen it as a political thing. I do not believe it is political to
    say a poor person should have the same right as a rich person. I do not
    believe it is political to say we have to bring the law into the real
    lives of all Americans.
        We have stood firm against the opposition to the Legal Services
    Corporation. I'm proud that every budget we have submitted has requested
    more funding for Legal Services. Like Congressman Ramstad and Congressman Berman--and
    by their presence here, all the other Members who are here--I was deeply
    disappointed that last week the Appropriations Subcommittee in the House
    voted to cut my request in half, leaving hundreds of thousands of
    American families without the critical legal protections they need.
        But need is the wrong word. Under the law, they are entitled to them
    as citizens. For 25 years, the Legal Services Corporation has stood
    above the fray of partisanship, but in the fray of the grimy details of
    daily life that require legal protection and legal assistance. I ask
    Congress to put politics aside, to follow on this issue the model of the
    Legal Services Corporation, and give the full funding and support the
    Corporation needs. In a very large budget, it is a very small item. But
    it has an enormous impact.
        Think how outraged Americans of both political parties in all
    political philosophies would have been if this fine woman and all of her
    fellow tenants had been thrown on the street for failure to pay electric
    bills that they paid. We could have passed the hat in America and
    collected the annual budget of the Legal Services Corporation to help
    them. You know that's true. How then can we walk away from the people
    who save them, and can save so many like them every day, in every way--
    in publicized and quiet ways that we will never know?
        Thomas Jefferson once said that equal justice is a bright
    constellation of our political faith. With conscience and conviction,
    let us get the support for the Legal Services Corporation it needs. We
    cannot let the bright constellation dim. Twenty-five is too young, and
    there are still too many people out there who need you.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 5:08 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Sergey Stepashin of
    Russia; Legal Services Corporation client Lucy Johnson, who introduced
    the President; former

    [[Page 1337]]

    Representative Jon D. Fox; R. Sargent Shriver, honorary cochairman,
    Consortium for the National Equal Justice Library, and his wife, Eunice
    Kennedy Shriver; Father Robert F. Drinan, professor of law, Georgetown
    University; Jerome J. Shestack, R. William Ide III, Roberta Cooper Ramo,
    former presidents, and William G. Paul, president-elect, American Bar
    Association; Douglas Eakeley, chair, Legal Services Corporation board of
    directors; retired Marin County, CA, Superior Court Judge Henry J.
    Broderick; former Justice Department Solicitor General Walter E.
    Dellinger; and the First Lady's brother, Hugh Rodham. The transcript
    released by the Office of the Press Secretary also included the remarks
    of the First Lady. The proclamation of July 26 is listed in Appendix D
    at the end of this volume.