June 28, 2010

U.S. Appeals Court Lifts Stay on Relocating Mentally Ill

On June 23, a federal appeals court ruled that New York state must comply with a lower court's order to begin immediately transferring thousands of people with mental illness in New York City out of large, institutional group homes into supported housing throughout the boroughs. Last September, Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the United States District Court in Brooklyn found that the state had violated the Americans With Disabilities Act by keeping approximately 3,400 people with mental illness isolated from the outside world in warehouselike conditions in more than two dozen privately run adult homes. An appeals court judge granted a temporary stay of the lower court's order, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit lifted that stay last Wednesday even though the appeal has not been decided. The state will be under the watch of a court monitor to ensure compliance with the ruling in the months before the appeal is heard. The Paul, Weiss team representing Disability Advocates, the nonprofit legal services group which sued the state on behalf of the residents, included partner Andrew Gordon, former counsel Anne Raish, associates Gayle Gerson and Elizabeth Seidlin-Bernstein, former associate Jonathan Bolton, and staff attorney Francine Murray.