Texas battles foster care decree

Do teenagers have a constitutional right to drivers’ education as a part of substantive due process? That’s one question raised by a hard-fought battle over federal judge Janis Jack’s virtual takeover of the Texas foster care system. The state has strongly pressed its defense, and the Fifth Circuit has stayed Jack’s injunction. As with earlier ventures into institutional reform litigation in such fields as school finance and busing, special education, and prison reform, the case raises separation of powers issues by transferring the power of the purse into judicial hands and delegating essentially legislative powers to special masters and, implicitly, to private advocacy lawyers who drive the process. [Mark Pulliam/Law and Liberty, first and second parts; Robert T. Garrett, Dallas News; more on foster care, institutional reform litigation and its frequent result, consent decrees]

One Comment

  • Interesting: ” Do teenagers have a constitutional right to drivers’ education as a part of substantive due process?”

    Probably not. The real problem–foster care sucks–no matter what, it sucks. Nothing can replace a loving family. How far should courts go to make it less sucky is a philosophical question, as well as a legal one.