Welfare Recipients Encouraged to Work in Maine Court Ruling

Press Release
April 1, 1969

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- 27f0ad64-b992-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

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Press Releases, Volume 6. Welfare Recipients Encouraged to Work in Maine Court Ruling, 1969. 27f0ad64-b992-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/17f7c04e-0f75-4cd4-9683-2f84436c47ba/welfare-recipients-encouraged-to-work-in-maine-court-ruling. Accessed May 15, 2025.

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    President 
Hon. Francis E. Rivers 

BAA) FE PRESS RELE/ Director Counsel 
egal efense und a ee 

eVore, Jr. NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. 

10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 © JUdson 6-8397 

FOR RELEASE: April 1, 1969 

WELFARE RECIPIENTS ENCOURAGED 
TO WORK IN MAINE COURT RULING 

Legal Defense Fund Attacks Bias Requirements 

PORTLAND, MAINE---Six thousand welfare recipients will be encouraged 
tc seek employment and 52 families will receive additional state aid 
because of a decision handed down this week by a panel of three 
federal judges here. 

The three-judge panel, ruling that Maine's welfare laws did not 
ecually protect the rights of all recipients, said parts of the laws 
were "void and unenforceable." 

Their decision was prompted by the NAACP Legal Defense and Edu- 
cational Fund, Inc. (LDF) and the Pine Tree Legal Assistance Corpora- 
tion who attacked the state's maximum budget and maximum grant 
requirements. 

The two organizations charged that these sections of the state's 
Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) discriminated against 
large families. 

LDF Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg said the decision means that 
52 families currently affected by the maximum grant provision will 
receive increased AFDC assistance. He also said that more than 6,000 
recipients affected by maximum budget requirements will be encouraged 
to seek jobs. 

Families will now be permitted to earn monies to make up the 
difference between their actual need and the aid they receive. 

LDF based its attack on the plight of three recipients of AFDC 
assistance, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Westberry and Mrs. June Martin. 

According to an official state schedule for determining monetary 
need, Mr. Westberry, who is totally disabled, his wife and their ten 
children required $643.86 per month to live adequately. 

But because of the maximum budget requirement, their needs were 
set by the state at $300 minus $156.62, the latter being the family's 
only outside income. They therefore ended up with $345 less than 
what they actually needed. 

Mrs. June Martin is the Negro mother of nine children. Official 
tabulation shows her income requirement to be $514.36 per month. But 
the maximum grant stipulation allows her only $250, even though she 
has no other income. 

Now that the maximum budget and maximum grant requirements have 
been ruled void, the state must create budget allowances based on 
actual need for these families rather than the artificial requirements 

LDF officials say that as a result of this decision, similar 
maximum grant cases pending in 10 other states across the nation are 
also likely to receive similar rulings. 

-30- 

E25

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Welfare Recipients Encouraged to Work in Maine Court Ruling

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