2024 Grantees Submit Second Quarter Case Reports
All of the Barbara McDowell Foundation's 2024 grantees were contacted in April in accordance with the Foundation’s requirements and reported with respect to the progress of their case through the second quarter of their grant cycle. A summary of each grantee’s report can be found below, along with a link to each grantee’s full report.
In addition to reporting on their progress, each grantee submitted second quarter timesheets for their case work and met with the Foundation team to discuss their cases. The average dollar value in attorney time spent by each grantee on their respective case for the second quarter was $169,585.59. For the first two quarters combined, the average dollar value in attorney time was $285,811.93.
In Jonathan R. v. Jim Justice, filed in 2019, A Better Childhood (ABC), Shaffer & Shaffer PLLC, and Disability Rights of West Virginia (DRWV) are challenging West Virginia’s Governor and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHR) and several DHHR executives for violations of foster children’s constitutional and statutory rights. This case brings claims on behalf of a general class of all children in foster care; and three subclasses: children in kinship placements, children with disabilities, and children who age-out of the system with no support or services. Plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief to enforce West Virginia foster children’s constitutional and federal statutory rights. Issues in the system to be addressed in this case include high caseloads, an insufficient number of foster care placements, over institutionalization, maltreatment in care and death rates that are double the national average, and a lack of mental health services, which all contribute to the harm of children in foster care.
There have been significant and historic developments in this case over the past six months. This case is a class action brought on behalf of people incarcerated at FCI Dublin, a Bureau of Prisons women’s facility. The class is a 23(b)(3) class consisting of all people currently incarcerated at FCI Dublin. Claims are brought under the 8th Amendment for subjecting people to the unconstitutional risk of serious bodily harm from sexual assault and under the 1st Amendment for retaliating against people who report sexual abuse at the facility.
This case was initiated on August 16, 2023 with the filing of the complaint, motion for preliminary injunction, and motion for class certification. Over several hearings in the winter of 2023-2024, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers heard evidence and argument in regards to these two major motions. She also personally conducted a rare, unannounced visit to Dublin, where she spent an entire day viewing different parts of the facility and speaking with people who are incarcerated there. As a result of what she saw and heard during that visit, she issued several orders. These included an order requiring the government to schedule asbestos, mold, and infectious diseases inspections, and orders requiring medical care for specific individuals.
This lawsuit seeks damages for arrestees under Operation Lone Star, Texas Governor Abbott’s migrant detention program. The Governor claims the Operation has now resulted in over 40,000 arrests. Our clients, four of those arrestees, were detained for weeks to months after they were entitled to release. TFDP serves as Plaintiffs’ Counsel along with co-counsel, the ACLU of Texas and Covington & Burling LLP, in this suit filed in federal court in the Western District of Texas in August 2023. All Defendants—two counties, two sheriffs, three prison wardens, a clerk, a contractor at Texas Department of Emergency Management, and a private company—filed motions to dismiss. Plaintiffs’ responses to the motions to dismiss explain why the case survives the qualified immunity assertions by various defendants and why the Counties are liable for the violation of Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.
In October 2023, Upper Seven Law filed Edwards v. Montana in state court on behalf of a diverse group of nonbinary, transgender, and Two Spirit individuals. The lawsuit seeks to invalidate Senate Bill 458 (SB 458), a law that incorporates a precise and unscientific definition of binary sex throughout the Montana Code. The complaint generated significant local press coverage as well as a CNN article focused on the Two Spirit community’s involvement in the case. The State of Montana declined to file a Motion to Dismiss, instead answering the complaint in December and demanding a jury trial.