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Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Courts - Three federal court decisions in the news today

"State Discriminated Against Mentally Ill, Judge Rules" is the headline to this NY Times story by James Barron. Some quotes:

New York State had discriminated against thousands of mentally ill people by leaving them in privately run adult homes, which are usually larger than the disgraced psychiatric hospitals they were intended to replace, a federal judge ruled in a decision released on Tuesday morning.

udge Nicholas G. Garaufis ruled that the state was violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by housing more than 4,300 mentally ill people in sprawling and often poorly run homes. He said the residents are essentially warehoused with little hope of mingling with others in the wider community.

Judge Garaufis wrote in a 210-page decision that the state had “denied thousands of individuals with mental illness in New York City the opportunity to receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs.” He also said the state had failed to show that reforms proposed by the nonprofit group that filed the case “would constitute a ‘fundamental alteration’ of the state’s mental health service system.” * * *

The adult home system took shape in the 1960s and 1970s, when New York shut down large state-run psychiatric hospitals as part of what became known as deinstitutionalization. State officials turned to profit-making adult homes because little had been done to prepare for housing the patients once they had been discharged from the psychiatric wards. Federal disability money was to pay for the homes and the meals and activities they would provide. The homes were responsible for bringing in outside psychiatrists and doctors.

Disability Advocates filed the lawsuit in 2003 after a series in The New York Times described conditions in adult homes based on a review of more than 5,000 pages of annual state inspection reports and 200 interviews with workers, residents and family members. The Times’s investigation found a number of systemic problems, including untrained workers and gaps in supervision.

"Release of 46,000 inmates challenged" is the heading of this entry by Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSBlog. It begins:
California officials have asked the Supreme Court to put on hold a federal court’s order that will require the release of some 46,000 inmates from state prisons over two years, to relieve “unprecedented overcrowding.” In a stay application (09A234) filed Friday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other state officials argued that the order will “divert state legislative and executive attention from state-initiated prison reform at a time when it is needed the most.” The application was filed with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit. He can decide the issue on his own, or share it with his colleagues.

“Every day that the [release] order hangs over California, it places enormous strains on the state’s existing resources and creates intolerable anxiety for both officials and residents of the nation’s most populous State,” the application said.

The case involves the Aug. 9 ruling of a three-judge U.S. District Court, finding serious overcrowding in the state’s prison system that, it said, threatens the health and safety of men and women who work in those facilities as well as the inmates housed in them.

"Appeals Court Rejects Challenge to Lobbying Disclosures" reports Mike Scarcella of The Blog of Legal Times. It begins:
A federal appeals court today in Washington, ruling unanimously in favor of greater transparency in government, upheld the constitutionality of a reform law that requires associations to publicly disclose certain members who are active participants in lobbying.

The National Association of Manufacturers, a regular lobbyist on issues that include global warming and nuclear power, challenged the constitutionality of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 in a suit filed last year in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Among other things, lawyers for NAM argued that membership disclosure requirements would discourage some members from participating in public policy initiatives. The suit was dismissed. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today upheld the dismissal.

The decision is Nat'l. As'n. Mfg. v. Taylor. Judge Garland's opinion begins:
More than fifty years ago, the Supreme Court held that the public disclosure of “who is being hired, who is putting up the money, and how much” they are spending to influence legislation is “a vital national interest.” United States v. Harriss, 347 U.S. 612, 625-26 (1954). Today, we consider a constitutional challenge to Congress’ latest effort to ensure greater transparency, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007. Because nothing has transpired in the last half century to suggest that the national interest in public disclosure of lobbying information is any less vital than it was when the Supreme Court first considered the issue, we reject that challenge.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 8, 2009 01:43 PM
Posted to Courts in general