WYATT v. ADERHOLT

No. 72-2634.

503 F.2d 1305 (1974)

Ricky WYATT, By and Through his aunt and legal guardian Mrs. W. C. Rawlins, Jr., et al., etc., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Charles ADERHOLT, as Commissioner of Mental Health, et al., Defendants, The Alabama Mental Health Board, an Agency of the State of Alabama, and George C. Wallace, as Governor of Ala., Defendants-Appellants.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

November 8, 1974.


Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

Charles M. Crook, Montgomery, Ala., for Gov. Wallace.

William Baxley, Atty. Gen., George Beck, Deputy Atty. Gen., Montgomery, Ala., for Ala. Mental Health Board.

George W. Dean, Jr., Destin, Fla., Shelly Mercer, Nat'l. Health & Environmental Program, School of Law, UCLA, Los Angeles, Cal., Jack Drake, Tuscaloosa, Ala., Morton Birnbaum, Brooklyn, N. Y., for plaintiffs-appellees.

Paul Friedman, Patricia M. Wald, Mental Health Law Project, Washington, D. C., for Nat. Council on the Rights of the Mentally Impaired.

Bruce Ennis, New York City, for NCRMI & Am. Psy. Assoc., and others.

Stanley Herr, NLADA, Nat. Law Office, James F. Fitzpatrick, Jeffrey Bauman, Washington, D. C., Ira DeMent, U. S. Atty., Kenneth E. Vines, Asst. U. S. Atty., Montgomery, Ala., Edward Lynch, President's Committee on Mental Retardation, Washington, D. C., for United States.

Robert H. Johnson, Atty., Civil Rights Div., U. S. Dept. of Justice, Louis M. Thrasher, Associate Director, Washington, D. C., for United States, amicus curiae.

Charles R. Halpern, Center for Law & Social Policy, Washington, D. C., for Mental Health Law Project, amicus curiae.

Warren E. Magee, Washington, D. C., for Amer. Psychiatric Association, amicus curiae.

Sheridan Neimark, Washington, D. C., for NSAC, amicus curiae.

Before WISDOM, BELL and COLEMAN, Circuit Judges.


WISDOM, Circuit Judge:

In this case, we must decide whether federal district courts have the power to order state mental institutions to provide minimum levels of psychiatric care and treatment1 to persons civilly committed to the institutions.

The guardians of patients civilly committed to three Alabama facilities for the mentally handicapped brought this class action on behalf of their wards and other civilly committed patients...

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