Poverty Law Canon

The Poverty Law Canon takes readers into the lives of clients and lawyerswho brought critical poverty law cases in the United States. These casesinvolved attempts to establish the right to basic necessities, as well asefforts to ensure dignified treatment of welfare recipients and to haltadministrative attacks on federal program benefit levels. They alsoconfronted government efforts to constrict access to justice, due process,and rights to counsel in child support and consumer cases, social welfareprograms, and public housing. By exploring the personal narratives thatgave rise to these lawsuits as well as the behind-the-scenes dynamicsof the Supreme Court, the text locates these cases within the socialdynamics that shaped the course of litigation. Noted legal scholarsexplain the legal precedent created by each case and set the case withinits historical and political context in a way that will assist students andadvocates in poverty-related disciplines in their understanding of theimplications of these cases for contemporary public policy decisions inpoverty programs. Whether the focus is on the clients, on the lawyers, oron the justices, the stories in Poverty Law Canon illuminate the centrallegal themes in federal poverty law of the late 20th century and the rolethat racial and economic stereotyping plays in shaping American law.

“The contributors include some of the best academics who writeand teach about poverty. The back stories of these cases aremultidimensionally interesting—the clients, the legal strategies, thelawyers themselves, the historical and political context, the effect on thelaw, the backstage of the Supreme Court and the role of the law clerks.” - Peter Edelman, Georgetown University Law Center

Marie A. Failinger is Professor of Law, Mitchell Hamline School of Law.Ezra Rosser is Professor of Law at the American University, Washington College of Law, USA.