"IOLTA" is the acronym for "Interest on Lawyer's Trust Accounts" -- programs created by state supreme courts and legislatures whereby lawyers pool clients' funds into a designated interest-bearing checking account. The interest on the accounts is funneled through foundations to pay "public interest" law firms to pursue various left-wing causes, charges Suffolk University Professor Charles E. Rounds.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case involving these accounts on January 13.

• Since Florida launched the first IOLTA program in 1981, all 50 states and the District of Columbia have adopted them.

• The programs generate approximately $100 million a year -- a sum derived from interest on small and large amounts of funds from lawyers' clients, held for a short period of time in interest-bearing checking accounts.

• IOLTA programs are typically created and administered by state supreme courts, although a few were created by legislation.

• Critics charge that IOLTA programs are unconstitutional because when the state exerts control over clients' property without consent or just compensation, it violates the Fifth Amendment's "taking" clause.

Rounds says that IOLTA disbursements are being used to support political activity. For example:

• In Massachusetts, IOLTA funds are fueling efforts to reinstate rent control in Boston, despite a statewide initiative that abolished it.

• In Washington state, IOLTA money has funded lawsuits seeking to force the state to increase welfare benefits.

• And in Texas, IOLTA funds are being used in a lawsuit attempting to reverse the election of two Republicans because absentee ballots were cast by military personnel.

Source: Charles E. Rounds Jr., "IOLTA: Interest Without Principle," Policy Analysis No. 291, December 18, 1997; Cato Institute, 1000 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001; (202) 842-0200.