Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza ’14 Writes About the Justice Gap

The Center for American Progress recently published an issue brief that looks at the implications associated with the justice gap—the gap between legal needs and legal services—in America and why the progressive community should care about the problem.

In “Making Justice Equal,” CAP expert and Yale Law Journal Public Interest Fellow Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza '14 argues that the nation’s most vulnerable populations—women; immigrants; the elderly; people with disabilities; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people—are most likely to be negatively affected by the justice gap since they are among the groups more likely to live in poverty and more likely to need legal assistance. Deficits in indigent defense in the criminal justice system have similarly disproportionate effects.

“It is imperative for the progressive community make access to justice in the United States a priority because even the most progressive laws have no meaning for most Americans if there is no way to make sure they are enforced,” said Buckwalter-Poza. “The gap between legal needs and the services available exacerbates systemic inequities and disadvantages that are likely to grow over the next four years. In the United States, people need a lawyer for everything from securing essential human needs, such as housing, to protecting their constitutional and civil rights.”

Read more here.