Thou shalt not ration justice.

• Author: Young, Gwynne A.
• Position: PRESIDENT'S PAGE

Beaming with pride, I watched my colleague, Sylvia Walbolt, receive the Tobias Simon Pro Bono Service Award in 2008.

To thunderous applause at the Florida Supreme Court, Walbolt said: "Justice is the cornerstone of our nation, and it's the raison d'etre of our profession.

"Learned Hand said it best: 'If we are to keep our democracy, then there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.'"

Four years later, as I embark upon my term as president of The Florida Bar, I am compelled to embrace that commandment anew.

We are facing a crisis--there's no other word for it--in funding legal services for low-income people throughout our country and in our state.

I do not exaggerate when I say we teeter on the brink of a two-tiered justice system: one for the haves and one for the have-nots.

The Florida Bar Foundation, always the guardian angel in providing grants for legal services, is itself in dire straits.

Because falling interest rates have devastated the Interest on Trust Accounts program, the Foundation has suffered an 88 percent drop in income, from $44 million annually in 2007 to only $5.5 million since 2010.

Add in a deep and long recession, and the Foundation's reserve funds would run out in 2014.

This deficit has already caused layoffs of attorneys and staff positions at Florida legal aid organizations, reaching a projected 120 to 410 positions over the next few years.

Of course, this means fewer legal aid cases can be taken on, and fewer people have access to justice.

Another blow hit in April, when Gov Rick Scott vetoed for the second year in a row $2 million for the Civil Legal Assistance Act.

I don't want your eyes to glaze over with a lot of numbers. I want to focus your attention again on what makes America great: the promise of equal justice for all. Here, in the land of the free, justice is not just for the wealthy.

Let me tell you about one case handled by Bay Area Legal Services (BALS):

After taking care of their daughter's three minor children for many years, Sherry and Matt wanted to adopt their grandchildren. But it wasn't a simple process. While their daughter and the father of the two oldest children agreed to surrender parental rights, the father of the youngest child was in prison and contested the adoption. The judge granted the adoption of the older children and scheduled a hearing in the contested adoption to allow the father to participate from prison. With the grandparents in her office, BALS attorney...