Tighe Burns
Philadelphia Legal Assistance Center
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

“LA NECESIDAD DE SERVICIOS LEGALES”

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” – Lord Acton.  The essence of this axiom must certainly have been in the minds of the Founding Fathers when they wrote the Constitution, thereby establishing the framework of our government.  By creating three co-equal branches of government, with numerous checks and balances, the Founding Fathers sought to diffuse and distribute power, and by doing so, reduce to a great extent the possibility to fulfill the human desire to acquire and accumulate power.

Today, Legal Services plays a vital role in this objective of the Founding Fathers.  It would be disingenuous to say that money isn’t power.  The converse, of course, is that those who lack significant financial resources are ostensibly disadvantaged in any power relationship.  This, however, is where law, and Legal Services more particularly, serves to honor the objective that power, wherever it leads to corruption, must be checked.

As a Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) legal intern at the Pennsylvania Farmworker Project of Philadelphia Legal Assistance, I have observed and experienced the absolute need for Legal Services.  Without Legal Services and access to the legal system, migrant farmworkers have no leverage against exploitative employers.  At the same time, as long as employers are aware of farmworkers’ rights and Legal Services’ active role in assisting farmworkers to protect, defend, and assert their rights, a real disincentive exists for any employer to attempt to exploit their workers.  In this way, Legal Services affects the psychology of both employers and farmworkers.  For the former, it is a check on exploitative activity; for the latter, it is a form of empowerment and a sense of inclusiveness in and access to the larger society.

The most striking experience of my internship has been conducting outreach.  Outreach consists of leaving the office to proactively seek the farmworkers in the places where they live and work.  This is critical because it raises workers’ awareness of their rights, including their rights to access the legal system if necessary.  Perhaps at a more basic level, however, outreach serves to bridge the “outside society” to the socially confined world of the farmworkers.  It provides them with a real sense that they are “not alone,” that an outside third-party may be contacted in the case of an injustice.  Hence, at a basic psychological level, power is diffused through the act of raising awareness.

It is important to note, though, that the experience of outreach is bidirectional.  That is, not only are the workers raising their awareness, but so am I raising my own awareness.  To witness first-hand the sacrifice of the farmworkers is humbling and at the same time motivating.  To realize that these men have left their countries of origin to live, even if temporarily, in a foreign land, motivated oftentimes to provide for their families back home, moves me to a level of utmost respect.  Any injustice committed against a person who has sacrificed so much in order to put food not only on his own family’s plate but, through his labor, on my family’s plate, demands a swift and effective legal response.  It is Legal Services that provides such legal assistance.  For that reason, if for no other, it is morally imperative that Legal Services exist as a meaningful resource for the financially disadvantaged: the poor.

If Legal Services were to cease to exist or if its level of effectiveness, because of a paucity of funding from Congress, were weakened, the poor would have no real legal recourse or protection.  And if such were to happen, it would be an egregious dishonor to our nation’s Founding Fathers.  This principle has been reaffirmed in the U.S. Supreme Court, as when Justice Hugo Black stated in his opinion in Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U.S. 12 (1956): “There can be no equal justice where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of money he has.”

Finally, I cannot conclude without acknowledging the man for whom this internship program is named: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  I offer two of his statements, one which reflects the need for Legal Services and the other which reflects the sentiment of Legal Services.

First: “There is nothing new about poverty.  What is new is that we now have the techniques and the resources to get rid of poverty.  The real question is whether we have the will.”  Unfortunately this question remains today.  It is up to the people of the United States, both on their own and through their elected representatives, to realize and affirm through concrete actions the objective of the Founding Fathers, which in turn is the answer to Dr. King’s question.