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Just when you think you are out, they pull you back in.
Judge Janis Jack, who called Texas’ foster care system “broken” in a 2015 ruling against the state that started the process of federal court oversight, may not be done with the case she presided over for 13 years just yet.
Attorneys for current and former foster youth asked the highest court in a filing Monday to overturn the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision to remove the judge and to reinstate a contempt order against a state executive.
“For decades, Texas failed to protect innocent children entrusted to its care. District Judge Janis Jack held the state accountable,” Paul Yetter, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, wrote in a statement.
The Fifth Circuit removed Jack over what judges said were signs of bias against Texas in her statements, manner and rulings.
Jack levied $100,000 a day in contempt fines against the head of Texas’ Health and Human Services Commission over failures investigating facilities that house people with intellectual disabilities.
The plaintiffs' team argued that the conservative Fifth Circuit misapplied key legal standards when it ordered Jack be removed from the case she has overseen for 13 years.
Some of those arguments were echoed in a dissent issued by a Fifth Circuit judge last year. The plaintiffs' team included the justice’s argument in their filing.
[T]oday, we turn away the children protected by [constitutional] guarantees and shut the doors of this court,” wrote Justice Stephen Higginson. “On the other side, with them, is Supreme Court precedent and our own case law and the familiarity built by a fellow inferior court judge over many long years. On the other side is abuse and neglect, put out of sight of the law once more.”
The state argued that the contempt hearing process was flawed and amounted to criminal contempt due to the fines. The Fifth Circuit agreed, nullifying the fines.
The court then went on to nullify significant portions of court oversight, saying the state had achieved compliance.
Since Jack’s removal, the case was reassigned to Judge Randy Crane, chief Judge of the Southern District of Texas.
The 434-page filing renewed the plaintiffs' arguments that the state is neglecting children with intellectual disabilities by failing to promptly investigate allegations of abuse and neglect within facilities that house them.
Calling them the “Forgotten Children,” the filing made the case that the civil enforcement would be severely hindered or impossible without the ability to use coercive fines to ensure compliance.
