Our Mission
The National Center for Law and Economic Justice advances economic, racial, and disability justice for low-income families, individuals, and communities across the country. Everyone deserves to thrive, not just survive. That means ensuring that we all have full access to the resources, support, and services we need to live healthy, fulfilling lives that are free from the bigotry and discrimination that have plagued this country from its inception. There are countless barriers to economic access and equity for the most marginalized communities in our nation, which is why NCLEJ relies on high-impact litigation, policy advocacy, and support for grassroots organizing to create structural change for a better future.
Founded at Columbia University in 1965, NCLEJ has achieved significant court victories benefiting hundreds of of low-income people nationwide, demonstrating that the law can be a powerful instrument for improving the lives of the most disadvantaged members of our society. Our work to define individuals’ legal rights to welfare include the landmark 1970 Supreme Court case, Goldberg v. Kelly, which established the right to due process for benefits recipients and remains good law to this day. Since then, NCLEJ has worked to ensure access to benefits for hundreds of thousands of people—providing a baseline of economic security to stabilize low-income families and individuals, holding government agencies accountable when they fail to comply with the law, and safeguarding our clients’ legal and constitutional rights.
In recent years, NCLEJ has achieved critical victories through our advocacy efforts, such as ending debt-based driver’s license suspension in New York, forcing the New York State Housing Authority to clean up toxic mold that sickened residents, and launching a groundbreaking partnership with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in 2023 to advance human rights protections in modern global supply chains.
More broadly, NCLEJ addresses a range of economic, racial, and disability justice issues that impact vulnerable families and communities across the country:
Safeguarding Access to Government Benefits: NCLEJ is the only national program that defends the rights of low-income people to apply for and receive all the essential federal and state government benefits to which they are entitled. We fight to ensure that life-affirming safety net programs like SNAP, TANF, and Medicaid are administered fairly and in a timely fashion.
Advancing the Rights of Lower Wage Workers: NCLEJ supports workers organizing for living wages and safe and fair workplaces. In particular, we provide legal support to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and other members of the Worker-driven Social Responsibility movement. We champion the labor rights of incarcerated workers and draw attention to the ways in which the 13th Amendment has been manipulated to justify the ongoing exploitation and mistreatment of incarcerated people forced to work inside of prisons across the country for little to no compensation. Our work also addresses dangerous working conditions in the agricultural and home care industries, wage theft, gender pay disparity, pregnancy discrimination, and the sub-minimum wage.
Combating Abusive Debt Collection and Wealth Extraction: NCLEJ fights against abusive debt collection practices that undermine economic stability, particularly in communities of color. We work with grassroots leaders to seek justice and equity for people and communities terrorized by legally-sanctioned racial profiling, extreme police violence, the threat of being subjected to debtor’s prison for failure to pay fines and fees, emerging environmental harms, and systematic underinvestment—financial and otherwise—by both the private and public sector.
Advocating for Disability Rights and Justice: NCLEJ utilizes disability rights laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, to improve access to government programs and services, such as public benefits, housing, and medical coverage, for those living with disabilities. NCLEJ also applies those laws in novel ways to pursue deinstitutionalization and non-carceral services and supports for people with disabilities.
