Press Releases

January 19, 2006:

STATE DECLINES TO FOLLOW JUDGE'S ORDER REINSTATING HEALTHCARE

Today, the attorney general's office filed a notice of appeal and requested a stay of an injunction granted last week in Montgomery Co. Circuit Court ordering the state to reinstate health care benefits for 13 legal immigrant children.

The state has notified attorneys representing the children that they are declining to abide by Judge Durke G. Thompson's order, even though a stay has not been granted.

"The state is probably in contempt of the court's order and has been since last Thursday," said Douglas M. Bregman, a Bethesda attorney working on the case pro bono for the children.

"These children have been waiting for months to get health care and the court ordered that their health care be restored," added Regan Bailey, a Legal Aid attorney also representing the children. "The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's refusal to do as the court ordered in unconscionable. These children need and have a court order entitling them to Medical Assistance."

The lawsuit, filed in October, asks the state to restore health care benefits cut last July. The cuts affected about 4,000 legal immigrants who enjoy legal status but have lived in the U.S. less than five years.

Thompson granted the injunction last week, ruling that Maryland had violated the equal protection clause of the state constitution by singling out immigrants.

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