Hargrave v. Vermont

340 F.3d 27, 2003 WL 21770957
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit·Decided August 1, 2003·No. Docket No. 02-7160·Published·Cited by 62 cases

Opinion

JOSÉ A. CABRANES, Circuit Judge.

We consider here an appeal from a February 7, 2002 judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Vermont (Jerome J. Niedermeier, Magistrate Judge) granting plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment and permanently enjoining the implementation and enforcement of several sections of Vermont’s “Act 114,” Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 18, § 7624 et seq., which the District Court held facially discriminated against mentally disabled individuals in violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. § 12131 et seq., and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794.

The principal questions presented by this appeal are (i) whether plaintiffs have alleged a sufficient injury-in-fact to support standing to challenge Act 114; (ii) whether this suit is ripe for adjudication; (iii) whether Act 114 violates the ADA by distinguishing between “qualified individuals” on the basis of mental illness; and (iv) if so, whether the District Court’s injunction prohibiting enforcement of certain provisions of Act 114 effects a fundamental alteration to the discriminatory “service, program, or activity.” We hold that the suit is ripe for adjudication, that plaintiffs have standing, and that Act 114 does facially discriminate against mentally disabled individuals in violation of the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act. We also hold that defendants have failed to submit evi[31]*31dence sufficient to demonstrate that the injunction fundamentally alters the discriminatory State program. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the District Court.

BACKGROUND

L Act 114

Under Vermont law, an adult may execute a durable power of attorney for health care (“DPOA”), which allows him to guide health care providers in the event of his incapacity by appointing a guardian and, if desired, by articulating preferences for or limitations on treatment. Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 14, § 3451 et seq. Until 1998, Vermont statutes provided two principal mechanisms for overriding DPOAs: First, individuals could revoke their own previously executed DPOAs,1 id. § 3457(a). Second, a third party could petition the probate court to suspend an individual’s DPOA in conjunction with that court’s appointment of a guardian for the individual, id. § 3463(a).

In 1998, the Vermont Legislature passed “Act 114,” Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 18, § 7624 et seq., the subject of this challenge, which established a third procedure for overriding the DPOAs of certain patients who are committed or imprisoned. Under Act 114, health care professionals may petition in family court for authority to medicate involuntarily individuals who have been civilly committed or prisoners who have been judged mentally ill. Id. § 7624(a)(1)-(3). When the proposed involuntary medication would contravene a patient’s validly executed DPOA, Act 114 requires the court to suspend judgment until the patient has been treated (or not treated) in accordance with his DPOA for a period of 45 days. Id. § 7626(c). If the court concludes that, after 45 days, the patient “has not experienced a significant clinical improvement in his or her mental state, and remains incompetent,” the court may proceed to determine whether he should be involuntarily medicated according to the factors otherwise relevant under Act 114, with no further regard for his DPOA, id. § 7626(c)(2).

In passing Act 114, the Vermont Legislature expressly intended to supersede the previously existing procedures for involuntarily medicating individuals civilly committed for the treatment of mental illness, which were established by a 1985 consent decree in J.L. v. Miller, No. S-418-84WnC (Vt.Super.Ct. Washington County May 20, 1985). Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 18, § 7629(d) (“This act will render the J.L. v. Miller consent judgment no longer applicable.”). J.L. v. Miller provided that, before a health care professional may medicate a committed patient involuntarily, the Vermont Human Service Board must conduct an adjudicatory hearing at which a hearing officer must first find the patient incompetent, then “ascertain and effectuate the decision the patient would have made if competent.” J.L. v. Miller, No. S-418-84WnC, at 7-8. The J.L. v. Miller consent decree did not specifically provide for circumstances in which patients had DPOAs, but it is not disputed that a validly executed DPOA constitutes relevant and substantial evidence of the decision an incompetent patient would make if competent.

Following the enactment of Act 114, Vermont attempted to apply the procedures set forth in Act 114 to patients who had DPOAs, instead of those established [32]*32by J.L. v. Miller, but the family court dismissed petitions filed under Act 114 for involuntary medication on the ground that the J.L. v. Miller consent decree would govern until vacated or modified. See J.L. v. Miller, 817 A.2d 1, 5 (Vt.2002).

Vermont subsequently petitioned for relief from the consent decree. The petition was denied by a state trial court in 1999, J.L. v. Miller, No. S418-84-WnC (Vt.Super. Ct. Washington County Dec. 30,1999), whereupon Vermont officials ceased to seek involuntary medication under Act 114 pending an appeal to the Vermont Supreme Court. On October 18, 2002, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled in the State’s favor, reversing the trial court and granting the State relief from judgment with respect to the consent decree. J.L., 817 A.2d at 6. The Vermont Supreme Court specifically noted that, “[ujntil ..., in a proper case, one or more provisions of Act 114 are successfully challenged as unconstitutional or otherwise invalid, Act 114 takes precedence over the J.L. Consent Decree.” Id. Here we consider just such a challenge, brought in the District Court.

II. Factual and Procedural History

Plaintiff Nancy Hargrave is a resident of Vermont who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, for which she has been hospitalized multiple times since 1995 in the Vermont State Hospital. While hospitalized in 1997, she was twice the subject of proceedings for involuntary medication; the earlier proceeding yielded a finding that Hargrave was competent to refuse medication, but the later one resulted in a finding that she was incompetent to do so. Upon the second finding, she was administered psychiatric medication over her objection in a non-emergency situation.

On April 14, 1999, Hargrave executed a DPOA designating a guardian in the case of incapacity and refusing the administration of “any and all anti-psychotic, neuro-leptic, psychotropic or psychoactive medications,” and electroconvulsive therapy.2 Hargrave then initiated this suit on April 27, 1999, raising claims pursuant to 42 U.S.C.

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Hargrave v. Vermont, 340 F.3d 27, 2003 WL 21770957 (2d Cir. 2003).

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