William E. Morris Institute for Justice

The William E. Morris Institute for Justice ("Institute") is a non-profit program dedicated to protecting the rights of low-income and other vulnerable Arizonans. The Institute represents the interests of low-income Arizonans by: Major policy and class action litigation; Advocacy with federal and state administrative agencies; Advocacy at the Arizona Legislature; and Training and support of Arizona's three legal services programs.

The Institute is dedicated to protecting the rights of low-income and other vulnerable persons. The following areas are our primary focus:

Access to the Courts
Provision of Language Services to Persons who have Limited English Proficiency
Rights of Victims of Domestic Violence
Healthcare
Other Public Benefits (such as food stamps, cash assistance, and subsidized housing)
Unemployment Insurance
Fair Housing
Landlord and Tenant
Re-entry and Fair Chance Opportunities for persons with criminal records

We also address discrimination against immigrants and persons with disabilities within these areas. We work with legal services programs, community groups and other advocacy programs.

Testimonials

We work on issues that affect large numbers of persons. A client once told us, the Institute may be small, but we do "big things to help low-income Arizonans." The broad reach of our work is shown by the following sample of our activities:

• Advocacy and subsequent litigation that resulted in over 5,000 immigrants entitled to full Medicaid benefits, getting reinstated to those benefits.

• Drafted several successful rule change petitions for eviction cases to address inequalities experienced by tenants.

• Advocacy and subsequent monitoring of state courts to ensure they properly process fee waivers and deferrals so low-income Arizonans have timely access to the courts.

• Our "Ban-the-Box" advocacy resulted in Arizona cities removing questions about criminal history from employment applications.

• Advocacy concerning the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.