Epstein Becker Green attorneys filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon on behalf of four major health systems to challenge the state’s failure to ensure adequate access to care for people experiencing severe mental illness who are civilly committed. 

In 2023, the district court dismissed the complaint in its entirety for lack of standing and denied leave to amend. The district court concluded that the health systems lacked Article III standing to assert their own claims because their injuries were not traceable to the state. The court further concluded that the health systems lacked third-party standing to assert claims on behalf of their patients because the interests of the health systems and their patients were not sufficiently aligned.

On June 5, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the lawsuit was wrongly dismissed, reversed the district court’s ruling on Article III standing, vacated its judgment on the issue of third-party standing, and remanded the case for reconsideration.

The case has now returned to the District Court for litigation to proceed.

Results may vary depending on your particular facts and legal circumstances.

Jump to Page

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.