Appeals Panel Overturns ‘Disability Advocates v. Paterson’

    A federal appeals court has overturned a ruling that would have required New York State to offer relocation to more than 4,000 people with mental illnesses from group homes to the community.

    A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said that the plaintiff, Disability Advocates, Inc., did not meet the legal qualifications to sue state agencies on behalf of its clients. The panel did not disagree with the lower court’s finding that keeping the clients in institutional homes violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).