Five-Point Program by Jean Fairfax to U.S. Senate Sub-Committee on Education, Labor and Public Welfare (Telegram)

    Py loa Francia E Wivers 
PRESS RELEASE Director-Counsel 

egal efense und deck Creraibers 
Director, Public Relations 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. FOR RELEASE Jesse DeVore, Jr. 

9 
September 18, 1967 

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10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 MONDAY NIGHT NUMBER 212-749-8487 | 

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CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF 

RELIEF RECIPIENTS DENIED 

WASHINGTON---The Senate Finance Committee was told today that public 

welfare recipients across the country are regularly denied protections 

of the U.S. Constitution, the Social Security Act and federal regula- 

tions of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. 

"This lawless administration of the law is documented in my 

written testimony," said Attorney Leroy D. Clark, spokesman for the 

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDE)* and the National 

Office for the Rights of the Indigent (NORI)**. 

Mr. Clark said that clients receiving Aid to Dependent Children 

are among those most frequently abused under the current procedures. 

Numerous state and local welfare officials daily deny rights 

guaranteed by the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment and 

the due process clauses of the 5th and 14th amendments, he testified. 

Among unconstitutional state rules are: “maximum limits on family 

grants; ‘substitute father' rules; some ‘employable mother! rules; and 

the requirement of minimum periods of absence before desertion can be 

determined.” 

Mr. Clark added that many states have practices which are in 

direct violation of HEW follow-up regulations, issued after passage of 

the Social Security Act. 

Outlining specifics, Mr. Clark stressed that many states 

* do not make prompt determinations of eligibility 

* do not give adequate reasons for denials of assistance 

* do not provide prompt review of decisions 

* do not adequately inform clients of their rights of review 

* do not have adequate hearing procedures. 

"Tn addition," Mr. Clark said, "no state affords welfare clients 

‘their constitutional right to have a hearing before their grants are 

reduced or eliminated by welfare agency officials." 

The LDF and NORI based their testimony on a survey of their 

cooperating lawyers in fifteen representative states geographically 



CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF 
RELIEF RECIPIENTS DENIED -2- September 18, 1967 

scattered across the entire nation, 

The two legal organizations made four observations: 

1. Congress might consider scrutinizing the Social Security Act 
and remove any unconstitutional features. 

2. Congress might consider providing welfare recipients with 

procedures that would allow them to receive realistic redress from 

welfare agencies. 

3. Congress might consider amending the Act "to require, rather 
than permit, HEl to hold hearings on state plans, alleged by aggrieved 
clients to be inconsistent with federal statutes and regulations, 

4. Congress might authorize federal district courts to award 
reasonable attorney fees to clients who bring successful claims so 
that private attorneys will consider accepting their cases, 

2306 

* The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is a 
separate, distinct and different organization from the NAACP, Its 
correct designation is: NAACP Leqal Defense and Educational Fund, 

Inc., which is frequently shortened to LDF, 

The National Office for the Rights of the Indigent (NORI) was estab- 
lished by the LDF last year under a one million dollar three-year 

grant from the Ford Foundation.