Mobilization for Justice has its roots in Mobilization for Youth (MFY), a community-based social service initiative funded in 1962 by the
Kennedy Administration, the
National Institute of Mental Health, the
Ford Foundation, and the
City of New York, with the goal of “enlisting the actionist and researcher in a joint program of social engineering organized to improve opportunities for youth and guide young people into pursuing them.” MFY Legal Services, the legal unit of Mobilization for Youth was launched the following year in 1963 by
Edward Sparer who advocated a new approach: “Instead of piecemeal direct legal services in the Legal Aid tradition, most of MFY Legal Unit’s resources should be channeled into targeted study and direct litigation designed to change the institutional structure that created and sustained poverty.” He advocated the use of
test cases as an early form of
cause lawyering or
impact litigation that would “create new legal rights for the poor.” Sparer identified specific issues in the welfare rights arena that were ripe for legal challenges —including residency laws, violations of privacy, inadequate benefits and arbitrary welfare terminations — linking a litigation strategy to a social movement. MFY Legal Services became the prototype for storefront poverty law offices which opened in virtually every major American city. Its work was characterized by "activism and aggressive advocacy." Examples of the work include supporting organizing campaigns that included rent strikes, education boycotts against school segregation and demonstrations at construction sites demanding jobs for people of color. In 1968, MFY Legal Services challenged the government’s arbitrary cutoff of welfare benefits, which resulted in the
U.S. Supreme Court landmark decision
Goldberg v. Kelly, affirming the right of public benefits recipients to a fair hearing before benefits are terminated. Writing in The
New York Times,
Linda Greenhouse noted that “Goldberg v. Kelly . . . proved to be . . . a critical building block in what came to be known as the
due process revolution. A series of decisions that followed erected a constitutional shield for the ordinary citizen against the arbitrary or standardless use of governmental power in many contexts.” In 1996, the
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act imposed restrictions and reduced funding to the
Legal Services Corporation that provided MFY Legal Services funding leading to the closing of several neighborhood offices. These federal restrictions such as preventing representation of
undocumented New Yorkers or prohibition on
class actions lawsuits led to MFY splitting from
Legal Services NYC. In June 2017, MFY Legal Services changed its name to Mobilization for Justice. == Services ==