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(also known as E.C. v. Sherman)
FILE NO., COURT, AND DATE FILED
05-0726-CV-W-SOW (W.D. Mo., Aug. 15, 2005)
CITATIONS
2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1897(W.D. Mo. Jan 9, 2006); 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27506 (W.D. Mo. May 9, 2006).
CLEARINGHOUSE REVIEW NO.
None
ATTORNEY FOR PLAINTIFFS
Marcia Robinson Lowry
Ira P. Lustbader
Sara Bartosz
Children's Rights, Inc.
330 Seventh Avenue, Fourth Floor
New York, NY 10001
(212) 683-2210
Fax: (212) 683-4015
sbartosz(at)childrensrights.org
John Ammann
St. Louis University Legal Clinic
321 North Spring
St. Louis, Missouri 63108
(314) 977-2778
Fax: (314) 977-9334
ammannjj(at)slu.edu
ISSUES
This case challenges Senate Bill 539, which ends adoption subsidies for many children with special needs who have been or will be adopted from foster care. Plaintiffs allege that the new law violates the federal Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980, which prohibits states from unilaterally modifying or terminating adoption assistance subsidy contracts. Plaintiffs also allege that the law violates the Equal Protection rights of foster children by applying a “means test” to the income of adoptive parents of certain foster children to deny adoption assistance payments.
HISTORY AND STATUS
On August 15, 2005, plaintiffs filed a complaint and an emergency temporary restraining order to prohibit the adoption subsidy law from taking effect on August 28, 2005, as had been scheduled. Two days later, the federal district court entered a temporary restraining order enjoining the implementation of the law. On September 8, 2005, the court granted plaintiffs’ preliminary injunction blocking Senate Bill 539 from taking effect until trial on the merits. On September 29, 2005, the Court entered an order granting class certification.
Defendants filed an appeal from the injunction and class certification orders on October 7, 2005. Plaintiffs filed a motion to dismiss defendants’ interlocutory appeal of the class certification order challenging the Eighth Circuit’s subject matter jurisdiction. Subsequently, both the district court and the appellate court denied defendants’ request for a stay pending the preliminary injunction appeal.
Following a trial in April 2006, plaintiffs won on all legal claims and the court permanently banned the adoption subsidy provisions of Senate Bill 539 from ever taking effect. The Missouri Department of Social Services immediately appealed the ruling, but the appeal was later withdrawn and the permanent ban on Senate Bill 539 remains in place.
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