In a time of record need, a House subcommittee proposed drastic cuts to federal funding for civil legal services, threatening the integrity and efficiency of our justice system.

In a mixed result for the rights of indigent parents, the Supreme Court's ruling in Turner v. Rogers presents enforcement challenges

The Department of Homeland Security recently issued long-awaited guidance informing the many organizations it funds that they must take steps to ensure that they can communicate with the people they serve. The most immediate beneficiaries will be people with limited proficiency in English (LEP) who seek help from the police or the Red Cross, but we will all benefit -- the effective, efficient operation of these essential taxpayer-funded services matters to us all.

This month, the Attorney General instructed the head of every executive agency to take immediate action to ensure that the agency is able to communicate with the people it serves, regardless of English language ability. In order to serve its customers, the federal government must be able to communicate with them.  As the Attorney General wrote, “[e]vents such as the H1N1 influenza pandemic, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Gulf oil spill, and the 2010 Decennial Census highlight the need for federal agencies to ensure language access.”