Category Archives: Case Analyses

A district court in Florida denied a motion to dismiss class action litigation challenging a lengthy waiting list for Medicaid funding for Florida’s Home and Community Based Services Waiver program.  The court found that many claims depend upon whether there … Continue reading →

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a school district did not violate the Free Speech Clause, the Establishment Clause, or the Equal Protection Clause when it ordered a math teacher to remove religious posters from his classroom. Johnson … Continue reading →

The Seventh Circuit dismissed students’ claims that their high schools had violated the Establishment Clause by holding graduation ceremonies in a church. The court held that the graduation neither coerced participation in religion or conveyed a religious message.  The court … Continue reading →

The federal court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania held that provisions of a Pennsylvania statute imposing additional requirements for special needs trusts under Medicaid were preempted by federal law, including the exclusion of individuals over age 65 from pooled … Continue reading →

A state appellate court held that a resident of an assisted living facility could not be bound by an arbitration clause as a third party beneficiary of a Residency Agreement signed by her son, when the resident suffered from dementia … Continue reading →

Relying heavily on the Eleventh Circuit’s recent opinion that struck down the individual mandate as unconstitutional, a district court in Pennsylvania held that Congress did not have the power pursuant to the Commerce Clause to enact the individual mandate. Goudy-Bachman … Continue reading →

A reasonable jury could find that an eviction notice to a family receiving a Section 8 voucher was deficient when the notice alleging criminal activity merely parrots the regulations without providing information about the factual basis for the determination.  Therefore, … Continue reading →

The Fourth Circuit dismissed two lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”).   While two of the three judges wrote individual opinions stating that they believe the ACA is constitutional, there is no majority … Continue reading →

A district court in Arizona held that several organizations and individuals have standing to challenge the constitutionality of the so-called “Maricopa Migrant Conspiracy Policy” (“MMCP”). We Are America/Somos America v. Maricopa County Bd. of Supervisors, No. 06 Civ. 2816, 2011 … Continue reading →

The Sixth Circuit has granted rehearing en banc in Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action v. Regents of the University of Michigan, No. 08-1387, 2011 WL 2600665 (July 1, 2011), discussed in our earlier posting to the listserv, which is below.  … Continue reading →