On July 12, 2016, two legal permanent residents filed this lawsuit against Orange County, New York and its officials in the U.S. District for the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs, who both had serious mental illnesses, sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging violations of the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment. Specifically, the plaintiffs alleged that county officials discharged them from civil immigration detention at Orange County Detention Center without providing discharge planning for the continuity of their life-sustaining mental health care. At their civil detention center, the plaintiffs had interacted regularly with psychiatric professionals and received medication to target the symptoms of their illnesses. When they left without discharge plans, their care stopped abruptly, and they were left without access to basic mental health resources. Represented by the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI), the plaintiffs claimed that the county’s failure to provide the most basic aspect of mental health care endangered their lives, thereby depriving them of due process. They sought compensatory damages.

Defendants filed motions to dismiss on January 30, 2017. On September 29, 2017, Judge Nelson Stephen Román granted the motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim. 2017 WL 4402576. The court first examined whether the state had an ongoing and affirmative duty to plaintiffs to provide continuing care upon discharge. Judge Román found that, given the circumstances of the case and the plaintiffs' inability to find care immediately upon discharge, the state did owe them a limited duty of protection. However, the court also found that the plaintiffs had not shown that the defendants engaged in the type of deliberate indifference that would "shock the conscience" as required to make a due process claim under a failure to protect theory. Because the plaintiffs had not shown that the defendants committed a constitutional violation, Judge Román ended his inquiry there.

On October 30, 2017, the plaintiffs filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. From November 2017 through February 2018, dozens of mental health professional associations, public defender agencies, and immigrant rights organizations moved to file amicus briefs, appeared as amicus counsel, or be joined as parties. On May 24, 2019, the Second Circuit vacated the District Court's judgment and remanded the case for further proceedings. 925 F.3d 73. Specifically, the Second Circuit held that Judge Román should have applied the standard for in-custody medical care, rather than treat the allegations as post-custody medical care. The Second Circuit instructed the District Court to reconsider the motion to dismiss in accordance with the in-custody medical care standard.

On November 11, 2019, the parties reached a private settlement agreement of $900,000 and voluntarily dismissed the case. The United States, in a separate lawsuit, also agreed to a settlement of $825,000. The case is now closed.

Ginny Lee - 01/22/2017
Lauren Latterell Powell - 02/28/2018
Alexandra Gilewicz - 03/09/2018
Hope Brinn - 05/11/2020


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