At their 35th reunion in 1993, members of the Harvard Law School Class of 1958 challenged themselves to make a lasting difference – to do their part to fortify the rule of law and ensure genuine opportunity for all.
It was an ambitious goal. Social injustices have deeply tangled roots that are both interconnected across wide geographies and inextricably tied to a community’s own unique political context. The rule of law lies at the end of a daunting social process where broad cultural assumptions and public opinion shape laws and policies whose real-world effects are only realized through complex systems of implementation and enforcement.
Those attorneys understood the indispensable value of direct service programs. Families in crisis must have somewhere to turn when they have urgent problems. But they also knew representing individual clients alone would not be enough. They shared a frustration with seeing communities face the same problems over and over again, and they shared the fear that their kids and grandkids would end up having to confront those very same problems decades in the future.
Following their discussions at the class reunion, those members of the HLS Class of 1958 decided, if they were going to make a lasting difference, they would have to invest their philanthropy and legal talents in multi-issue, multi-jurisdiction, multi-strategy systemic advocacy. They passed the hat and launched the Appleseed Network.
Since then, the Appleseed Network has grown into a collaboration of 17 justice centers across the United States and Mexico tackling interconnected issues of poverty, discrimination, and the rule of law. Appleseed centers use a broad set of strategies – including research, organizing, lobbying, and impact litigation – to move public opinion and build community power, to advance policy reforms, and to ensure effective implementation and enforcement of the law.
In just the past few years, Appleseed centers have secured dozens of new reform laws, won dozens of impact litigation cases, and mobilized thousands of grassroots volunteers. Some recent victories include:
Hawaii Appleseed’s advocacy and analysis of pandemic-related housing assistance this past year led to the creation of a program that distributed nearly $60 million in rent and mortgage assistance, helping prevent eviction of 13,000 households, the largest state-wide pandemic rent assistance program in the nation on a per capita basis.
Nebraska Appleseed this past year pushed the state’s governor to continue accepting SNAP Emergency Allotments after he refused for three months, making Nebraska the only state in the country to do so. Since then, approximately $40 million of supplemental benefits have gone to support Nebraskans. Nebraska Appleseed this year also filed a class action lawsuit challenging the governor’s creation of a two-tiered benefit structure with work requirements for the state’s Medicaid expansion program.
Georgia Appleseed created a social innovation lab in 2020 that crafted an eviction diversion program that has kept over 1,000 families in their homes during COVID. Over the past year, they led a multi-agency task force to develop a state Board of Education rule and guidance on how to assess children in foster care for trauma when they enroll in schools.
Appleseed Mexico this past year completed their four-year civil society project with USAID and launched a new civil society and pro bono program with USAID which will end in 2024. The civil society project strengthens the capacity of community-serving nonprofits in Mexico to fulfill their missions and comply with their legal obligations.
Kansas Appleseed this year secured a settlement in their class action foster care lawsuit, which will help end the extreme housing instability and lack of mental health services youth in foster care have faced in the state. This year, Kansas Appleseed also filed a lawsuit against the City of Wichita challenging the constitutionality of the city’s gang database, which labels certain residents as gang members under vague, arbitrary, and discriminatory criteria.
Alabama Appleseed in December 2020 won the release of Ronald McKeithen, who was sentenced to life without parole under Alabama’s Habitual Felony Offender, and helped secure the parole of Sean Worsley, a Purple Heart veteran sentenced to five years in prison for bringing his legally prescribed medical marijuana into Alabama. These cases, together with Alabama Appleseed’s policy research and advocacy, have become a call to action to repeal these laws and reform the state’s criminal justice system.
Chicago Appleseed, a founding member of the Coalition to End Money Bond, played a leading role in passing Illinois’s Pretrial Fairness Act in January 2021, which will require legal representation within three hours of arrest and make Illinois the first state to abolish the use of money bail. Chicago Appleseed this year also spearheaded the creation of the Illinois Supreme Court Task Force on Court Costs, Fines, and Fees.
Missouri Appleseed won passage this year of two bills that will require both county jails and state prisons in Missouri to provide free quality menstrual products and require judges to consider the effect of parental incarceration on children when sentencing individuals convicted of nonviolent offenses who are also the primary caretaker of minor children.
DC Appleseed this year won a $95 million settlement with CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, creating the largest philanthropic single-purpose fund in the District’s history. The settlement fund will address healthcare disparities for historically underserved District residents. The settlement also requires regular reviews of CareFirst’s surplus to ensure the not-for-profit company is satisfying its community health reinvestment obligations in the District and is not retaining excessive funds.
Louisiana Appleseed recently launched a project to map heirs’ property in a 10 parish region – the first such endeavor in Louisiana – and continued their advocacy for adoption of the Uniform Partition of Heirs’ Property Act in the state.
Massachusetts Appleseed published the Massachusetts Homeless Youth Handbook to help youth experiencing homelessness understand and exercise their legal rights. The center also published an in-depth report on language discrimination at the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families and formed a coalition to introduce legislation based on the report’s findings.
New Jersey Appleseed this year won legislation to fund subsidies for purchase of individual health insurance and to allow undocumented families to access NJ FamilyCare for children 19 and under. The center’s advocacy also led to expanded early voting opportunities and a state executive order permitting electronic signing and submission of initiative petitions.
New Mexico Appleseed this past year wrote and won passage of legislation that will provide free school lunches for 12,500 additional children in the state. The center also published a nationally circulated legal memorandum outlining the legal obligations of schools to remove barriers to distance learning opportunities for the thousands of students who qualify as homeless in New Mexico under federal law. New Mexico Appleseed this year is also piloting a cash transfer program for homeless families with children in high school.
New York Appleseed in December 2020 won a one-year pilot elimination of all middle-school screens in NYC public schools, which the center’s research and advocacy had shown to exacerbate segregation. This past year, New York Appleseed also co-authored a report providing recommendations on how to make the NYC high-school admissions process more transparent and equitable.
South Carolina Appleseed this past year convinced the state to initiate a Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer program for kids missing meals at school due to the pandemic, brought litigation against the Spartanburg County jail for its failure to protect detainees during the pandemic, and issued an in-depth report on high-cost lending. South Carolina Appleseed also partnered with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice to train communities to address redistricting in South Carolina to ensure fair and equitable representation and evermore justice.
Texas Appleseed this year published an in-depth study analyzing debt collection data from justice courts statewide, finding debt collection lawsuits skyrocketed during the pre-pandemic economic expansion, rising 162% from 2014 to 2019 in Texas courts. The center also published a report on the extraordinary adverse impact of the past year on schoolchildren across Texas. Texas Appleseed developed recommendations on protecting privacy and civil rights as part of a report on how the lack of data privacy results in a host of inequities and abuses.
That is the legacy of the Harvard Law School Class of 1958: More families able to stay in their homes, more children getting nutritious food to eat, more communities working to heal the wounds of racial injustice, and much more.
At a time when a kind of nihilism seems to be saturating many of our most important political systems – a growing school of thought that argues public policy can’t really address our biggest problems, and that we’re either stuck with chaos or zero-sum politics – the work of the Appleseed Network is an important reminder that the law really can make our lives better and our communities stronger.
For more information about how you can partner with the Appleseed Network to sow the seeds of justice, please visit www.AppleseedNetwork.org.
Benet Magnuson is Executive Director of the Appleseed Foundation.