On September 19, 2005, seven foster children filed a putative class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the Governor of Nebraska and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. The Plaintiffs, represented by Children's Rights, Inc., the Nebraska Appleseed Center, and private counsel, asked the court for declaratory and injunctive relief, claiming that Defendants were violating Plaintiffs' substantive and procedural due process rights under the United States Constitution; Plaintiffs' rights under the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (AACWA) and the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) program of the Medicaid Act. Plaintiffs also contended that Defendants were in breach of their own obligations under the state's State Plan contracts with the federal government under Titles IV-B and IV-E of the Social Security Act by denying Plaintiffs' rights to services and benefits as direct third-party beneficiaries of these State Plan contracts.

On January 19, 2007, the District Court (Judge Richard G. Kopf) entered a memorandum and order adopting Magistrate Judge David L. Piestar's Report and Recommendation denying Plaintiffs' Motion for Class Certification and granting Defendants' Motion to Dismiss on Younger abstention grounds. Specifically, the Court found Plaintiffs' proposed class definition to be "both ambiguous and inconsistent with [Plaintiffs'] stated intent," and held that, even if less vague, the intended class lacked commonality and typicality. The Court further concluded that, under the doctrine announced in Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (1971), the federal court should abstain from exercising jurisdiction in cases where equitable relief would interfere with pending state proceedings (here, the children's state juvenile court proceedings) in a way that offends principles of comity and federalism. The Court subsequently entered judgment for Defendants. Carson P. ex rel. Foreman v. Heineman, 240 F.R.D. 456 (D. Neb. 2007).

Dan Whitman - 04/04/2015


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