to recognize that lawyers are in the business of practicing law, and that, like other business people, they are and must be concerned with earning a living. The conclusion that permitting fee waivers will seriously impair the ability of civil rights plaintiffs to obtain legal assistance is embarrassingly obvious. Because making it more difficult for civil rights plaintiffs to obtain legal assistance is precisely the opposite of what Congress sought to achieve by enacting the Fees Act, fee waivers should be prohibited. We have on numerous prior occasions held that “a statutory right conferred on a private party, but affecting the public interest, may not be waived or released if such waiver or release contravenes the statutory policy.” Brooklyn Savings Bank v. O’Neil, 324 U. S., at 704 (<HOLDING>). See also, e. g., Boyd v. Grand Trank Western
holding that discriminatory pay reduction under fair labor standards act does not constitute continuing violation holding venue provision of federal employers liability act nonwaivable holding right to liquidated damages under fair labor standards act nonwaivable holding that liquidated damages under fair labor standards act constitutes compensation for the retention of a workmans pay which might result in damages too obscure and difficult of proof for estimate other than by liquidated damages holding claims based on the fair labor standards act subject to arbitration