Appeals court tosses order requiring Mississippi to change mental health
system
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[September 21, 2023]
By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday threw out a lower court
order that required the state of Mississippi to make changes to its
mental health system to avoid the risk of unnecessarily
institutionalizing people with mental illness.
In a unanimous opinion, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals found that the 2021 order, which came in response to a
lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department, went too far in requiring
"sweeping modifications" of state policy.
That ruling from U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves in Jackson required
the state to fund housing vouchers and hire specialists to help people
with mental illness live and receive treatment in the community, rather
than in state hospitals. Reeves, who was appointed by Democratic former
President Barack Obama, also required the state to report to a
court-appointed monitor.
"This novel plan of reconstruction fails on many levels," Circuit Judge
Edith Jones wrote for the panel. Jones and the other two judges on the
panel, Leslie Southwick and James Ho, were all appointed by Republican
presidents.
"We are pleased that the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed the
lower court's ruling that gave the federal government the ability to
dictate the way Mississippi provides mental healthcare to its citizens,"
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, a Republican, said in a
statement.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Sep/21/images/ads/current/charrons_bch_2022.png)
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![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/May/02/images/ads/current/guzzardo_lda022609.png) The Justice Department declined to
comment.
The department began investigating Mississippi in 2011, during the
Obama administration, and sued the state in 2016. It alleged that
the state violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by
institutionalizing people unnecessarily.
In siding with the department, Reeves pointed to a survey by
government experts of people who had been institutionalized, which
concluded that many could have avoided institutionalization with
adequate community-based care.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Sep/21/images/ads/current/werth_sda_FHG_2023.png)
The judge said the state's system put all people with mental illness
at heightened risk of being institutionalized, which amounted to
illegal discrimination under the ADA.
The 5th Circuit said Wednesday, however, that merely heightened
risk, rather than actual institutionalization, could not be the
basis for an ADA discrimination claim.
It also said that Reeves' "sweeping" order was "intrusive and
unworkable."
(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Alexia
Garamfalvi and Stephen Coates)
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