leftmfy

“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 tha followed erected a constitutional shield for the ordinary citizen against the arbitrary or standardless use of governmental power in many contexts.”
—-Linda Greenhouse, New York Times

LITIGATION

Justice William J. Brennan on Goldberg v. Kelly

"Due process asks whether government has treated someone fairly, whether individual dignity has been acknowledged. If due process values are to be preserved in the bureaucratic state of the late 20th century, it may be essential that officials possess passion—the passion that puts them in touch with the dreams and disappointments of those with whom they deal, the passion that understands the pulse of life beneath the official version of events. [The opinion in Goldberg] can be seen as injecting passion into a system whose abstract rationality had led it astray."

From Justice Brennan's 1987 speech on "Reason, Passion and the Progress of the Law"

Since its founding in 1963, MFY has been committed to challenging the underlying inequities facing low-income people. In 1969, MFY attorneys brought Goldberg v. Kelly (397 U.S. 254) before the Supreme Court, arguing that the state could not terminate a person's welfare benefits without prior notice and hearing. In March 1970, the Court held in a 7 to 2 decision that a state could not terminate "public assistance payments to a particular recipient without affording him the opportunity for an evidentiary hearing prior to termination." The concept of fair hearings is now commonplace, and millions of Americans continue to benefit from this decision.

Impact and class action litigation enables MFY to challenge injustices that affect large numbers of low-income people. In many cases, we work as co-counsel with other organizations and receive valuable assistance from outside pro bono counsel. Click on the following links to view a sampling of current and historic cases: