First Circuit questions legal aid funding across entire US

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Courthouse News Service

January 5, 2026


BOSTON (CN) — A legal client upset that Maine confiscated the interest earned on his retainer funds to support “queer justice” and pro-immigration advocacy told the First Circuit Monday the practice violated his First Amendment rights. And while the court seemed somewhat sympathetic at oral argument, it also appeared worried about disturbing a key source of legal aid funding across the country. The judges seemed to be exploring some way to resolve the case while ducking the constitutional issue.

Like almost every state, Maine requires the interest on lawyers’ trust accounts — IOLTA for short — be donated to support bar foundations and legal aid organizations. But Maine goes further and allocates some of the funds to lobbying and advocacy groups that, according to plaintiff E. David Wescott, support “left-wing” causes. Wescott claims the money is being used for “queer justice,” pro-immigration activities, advocacy for Medicaid expansion and promoting “racial equity.”

In 1993, the First Circuit upheld an IOLTA program against a similar First Amendment challenge. That case relied on a 1977 Supreme Court decision that allowed public-sector unions to force employees to pay union dues even if they didn’t support the union. In 2018, however, the Supreme Court overruled its 1977 decision in a case known as Janus. So Wescott claims the First Circuit’s 1993 decision is no longer good law and should be discarded as well.

U.S. Circuit Judge Julie Rikelman agreed that the 1993 case “held that the interest belonged to no one. It wasn’t the client’s money. And that doesn’t hold up after Janus.” But the unspoken backdrop to the new case is that a ruling for the plaintiff could upend bar and legal aid programs across the country, which have relied on IOLTA funding since changes to federal banking law allowed the first such program in Florida in 1981. Other states quickly followed suit. A decision allowing clients to “opt out” of IOLTA could threaten these resources.

Read more: https://courthousenews.com/first-circuit-questions-legal-aid-funding-across-entire-us/

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BACKGROUND - Major Lawsuit Challenges Maine’s Mandatory Slush Fund for Left-Wing Groups (August 9, 2024Updated:August 9, 2024)

ORDER (where case was dismissed but had been appealed per the OP) - https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-med-1_24-cv-00286/pdf/USCOURTS-med-1_24-cv-00286-0.pdf