Under “Project 100%,” or “P100,” when County residents applied for financial assistance under CalWORKs (“California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids”), the County required them to submit to unannounced searches of their homes by law enforcement investigators. Purportedly an income eligibility and anti-fraud program, P100 only applied to families who were not suspected of fraud. Other anti-fraud programs kicked in if an application raised any red flags. P100 was challenged almost from its inception, but it took a welfare rights organization, two lawsuits, courageous plaintiffs and witnesses, political advocacy and organizing, and one of the most sweeping social movements in U.S. history to create the climate necessary to eradicate the program. This Article examines the history of the struggle against P100 as a case study assessing some of the barriers courts have created which make it difficult to use the law to fight for social change, and articulates how social movements may reverberate in unpredictable ways, making it possible for movement lawyers to turn ostensibly unsuccessful lawsuits into vehicles for meaningful social change.

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