The New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty was established in 1996 to deliver particular types of systemic legal advocacy that other legal service organizations in our state were barred from performing. In 1995 and 1996, opponents of civil legal aid in Congress imposed a number of restrictions on all legal service organizations receiving federal funding through the Legal Services Corporation (LSC). Grantees could no longer initiate or participate in class action lawsuits, engage in direct or grassroots lobbying on behalf of their clients, represent many categories of immigrants, conduct litigation on behalf of prisoners, or challenge welfare reform measures as unconstitutional or otherwise illegal.