225 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014
Phone: (212) 243-1313
EMail: lacinfo@lac.org
The Legal Action Center is a public interest law firm founded in 1973 by persons who had been active in the Vera Institute of Justice. Its goals are the elimination of discrimination against ex-offenders and former alcohol and drug abusers in the areas of employment, insurance, government benefits, and housing, and the elimination of the use of lie detector tests by employers.
The center normally has a staff of 12, 5 of them attorneys. They generally are assisted by four student interns at a time. This staff prefers to litigate in federal court and participates in all judicial levels. Cases come to its attention from a variety of sources, including prisoner programs that refer clients, the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union. The center chooses cases based on their potential for law reform and victory. It files only about one amicus brief per year. One example was University of Texas v. Camenisch (1981), which called on its expertise in litigation and administrative hearings under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Center attorneys believed that a reversal of the decision below would severely hamper the employment of handicapped individuals, including those with drug and alcohol problems as defined by the act.
In 1986, it sought a writ of certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court in Traynor v. Turnage (1988), arguing unsuccessfully that a "Veteran's Administration regulation violated section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 by discriminating against veterans on the basis of their handicap, a history of alcoholism."
