Washington
Supreme Court sides with Native American tribes in health care funding dispute with government
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sided with Native American tribes Thursday in a dispute with the federal government over the cost of health care when tribes run programs in their own communities.
The 5-4 decision means the government will cover millions in overhead costs that two tribes faced when they took over running their health care programs under a law meant to give Native Americans more local control.
Covering those costs is “necessary to prevent a funding gap,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. Not reimbursing them forces tribes to “pay a penalty for pursuing self-determination.”
The Department of Health and Human Services had argued it isn’t responsible for the potentially expensive overhead costs associated with billing insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid.
The federal Indian Health Service has provided tribal health care since the 1800s under treaty obligations, but the facilities are often inadequate and understaffed, the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona said in court
documents.
Health care spending per person by the IHS is just one-third of federal spending in the rest of the country, the Northern Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming said in court documents. Native American tribal populations have an average life expectancy of about 65 years, nearly 11 years less than the U.S. as a whole.
The tribes contracted with IHS to run their own programs ranging from emergency services to substance-abuse treatment. The agency paid the tribes the money it would have spent to run those services, but the contract didn’t include the overhead costs for billing insurance companies or Medicare and Medicaid, since other agencies handle it when the government is running the program.
The tribes, though, had to do the billing themselves. That cost the San Carlos Apache Tribe nearly $3 million in overhead over three years and the Northern Arapaho Tribe $1.5 million over a two-year period, they said. Two lower courts agreed with the tribes.
The Department of Health and Human Services appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that tribes do get some money for overhead costs but the government isn’t responsible for costs associated with third-party income.
The majority of federally recognized tribes now contract with IHS to run at least part of their own health care programming, and reimbursing billing costs for all those programs could total between $800 million and $2 billion per year, the agency said.
Missouri
Court sides with transgender student in case of bathroom discrimination
BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. (AP) — A $4.2 million verdict that jurors ordered a Missouri school district to pay a transgender student is under consideration again.
The Western District Missouri Court of Appeals found Tuesday that a judge erred in ordering a new trial in a lawsuit over bathroom and locker room access. The decision sends the case against the Blue Springs School District back to the trial court to determine the reasonableness of the sum jurors awarded in 2021.
Judge Anthony Rex Gabbert, who authored the appeals court’s unanimous decision, wrote that the district discriminated because the student did not fit their stereotype of what a male should be.
“This is no different than discriminating against a male because he is not tall enough or not muscular enough,” Gabbert wrote.
The school district said in a statement that it was disappointed by the reversal and is weighing its legal options. It said it couldn’t comment further because the case is pending.
The student, identified in court documents as R.M.A., legally changed his name in 2010 and amended his birth certificate to reflect his gender and new name in 2014, according to the lawsuit, which was filed the next year.
Although the state recognized him as a boy, the district denied him access to the boys’ restrooms and locker rooms at Delta Woods Middle School and the Freshman Center, the lawsuit said.
The student participated in boy’s physical education and athletics in middle school but was required to use a single-person bathroom outside the boys’ locker room, according to court documents. He did not participate in fall sports at the Freshman Center because he could not use the boys’ locker room or restrooms.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that the state’s human rights laws against sex discrimination could be extended to people who don’t conform to gender stereotypes, which was considered a significant decision for transgender rights at the time.
Similar issues are at play in a lawsuit that the ACLU filed against the Platte County School District.
Texas
County to pay female constable deputies $1.5M to settle sexual misconduct suit
HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas county has agreed to pay a group of female deputies $1.5 million to settle a federal lawsuit that claimed they were abused and harassed when a constable’s office turned undercover operations into a drunken “playground for sexual exploitation.”
Harris County commissioners approved the settlement Tuesday, three years after the women alleged that as rookie deputies in a constable precinct in Houston, they were subjected to unwarranted touching and kissing, molestation and sexual ridicule during their work in a human trafficking unit.
The lawsuit alleged that undercover “bachelor party” sting operations were supposed to ultimately arrest those behind sex trafficking businesses. But the lawsuit said those operations turned more into parties where officers drank heavily and the female deputies, who were given little to no training in undercover work, were fondled and kissed by their supervisory officer or were told to give lap dances to other male deputies.
Constables are elected positions in Texas, and constables and their deputies have the same powers of a city police officer or sheriff’s deputy. They can investigate, arrest and use force if they suspect criminal activity.
“It’s been a long road. My clients are happy to have this in the rearview mirror. It’s been an honor to represent such amazing people,” said Cordt Akers, an attorney for the women.
A spokesman for Constable Alan Rosen declined comment Wednesday.
In a statement when the lawsuit was filed in 2021, Rosen said an internal affairs investigation by his office found no violations of law or policy and that the women had never submitted a formal complaint.
Colorado
Environmental groups take first step to sue oil refinery for pollution violations
DENVER (AP) — Environmental groups took the first step to sue the owner of an oil refinery near Denver for years of pollution violations, saying Wednesday that state regulators haven’t done enough to hold the owner accountable.
The refinery owned by Suncor Energy sits in Commerce City, near a poorer region of metro Denver plagued by high pollution and heat that threatens the health of residents. Earthjustice sent a notice to sue Suncor, a required prerequisite to filing such a lawsuit, and is representing environmental groups including GreenLatinos, 350 Colorado and the Sierra Club, whose members have been impacted by the refinery.
The plant exceeded pollution standards and limits over 1,000 times between 2019 and 2023, the groups said.
“If someone was given 1,000 speeding tickets, we’d take away their license, but in Suncor’s case the law isn’t even being upheld in the first place,” said Margaret Kran-Annexstein, director of Colorado Sierra Club, in a news release.
Suncor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Suncor had to pay $10.5 million in a settlement with the state announced earlier this year for three years of air quality violations. That includes a $2.5 million cash fine. But environmental groups accuse state regulators of failing to meaningfully enforce rules against the company.
“The health of my friends, family, neighbors and myself should not be sacrificed by allowing Suncor to simply get slaps on the wrist while they ignore permit limits and spew chemicals,” said Lucy Molina, who lives near the refinery and is an organizer with 350 Colorado, in the press release.
On top of health concerns, Molina noted “the stress caused by the lack of enforcement and never knowing if it’s safe to let our kids play outside.”
The Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment, which has oversight over pollution rules, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The violations include exceeding limits or standards on hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide.
New York
Judge seen shoving police officer on video will be replaced on the bench
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A New York judge who was censured after being seen on video shoving a police officer during a brawl with neighbors will be replaced on the bench, authorities said Wednesday.
Judge Mark Grisanti, an acting State Supreme Court justice in Buffalo, has been serving as a “holdover” since his term on the Court of Claims expired last year, essentially waiting to be reappointed. His name did not appear on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s list of 25 judicial nominees considered Wednesday by the state Senate’s Judiciary Committee and he was not reappointed, according to a spokesman for Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the commission’s chair.
Court spokesman Al Baker said Grisanti would remain in his position until a new judge begins his term.
Grisanti had not received formal notice Wednesday that he would not be reappointed, said his attorney, Terrence Connors.
New York’s Commission on Judicial Conduct voted in April to censure Grisanti but narrowly declined the administrator’s recommendation that he be removed from office after finding that he displayed “especially poor judgment” for his actions in June 2020. The commission also faulted Grisanti for participating in legal cases involving an attorney who had made payments to him as part of a business deal.
Connors said Grisanti had been an exemplary judge.
“Lawyers and judges who best know his work want him to continue on the bench,” Connors said in an email. “Even the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, after a thorough investigation, confirmed that, on balance, two hours of misconduct do not warrant removal from his position on the court.”
Grisanti’s expletive-filled confrontation with police followed a dispute with neighbors over parking. The shirtless judge is heard on the video telling officers that Mayor Byron Brown is a friend, and that he has relatives on the police force.
At one point, Grisanti shoves a police officer who is attempting to handcuff his wife, telling the officer “you’re going to be sorry.” Grisanti himself is then handcuffed and put in a police car. He was not charged.
Grisanti was first appointed to the court in 2015.
Supreme Court sides with Native American tribes in health care funding dispute with government
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sided with Native American tribes Thursday in a dispute with the federal government over the cost of health care when tribes run programs in their own communities.
The 5-4 decision means the government will cover millions in overhead costs that two tribes faced when they took over running their health care programs under a law meant to give Native Americans more local control.
Covering those costs is “necessary to prevent a funding gap,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. Not reimbursing them forces tribes to “pay a penalty for pursuing self-determination.”
The Department of Health and Human Services had argued it isn’t responsible for the potentially expensive overhead costs associated with billing insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid.
The federal Indian Health Service has provided tribal health care since the 1800s under treaty obligations, but the facilities are often inadequate and understaffed, the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona said in court
documents.
Health care spending per person by the IHS is just one-third of federal spending in the rest of the country, the Northern Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming said in court documents. Native American tribal populations have an average life expectancy of about 65 years, nearly 11 years less than the U.S. as a whole.
The tribes contracted with IHS to run their own programs ranging from emergency services to substance-abuse treatment. The agency paid the tribes the money it would have spent to run those services, but the contract didn’t include the overhead costs for billing insurance companies or Medicare and Medicaid, since other agencies handle it when the government is running the program.
The tribes, though, had to do the billing themselves. That cost the San Carlos Apache Tribe nearly $3 million in overhead over three years and the Northern Arapaho Tribe $1.5 million over a two-year period, they said. Two lower courts agreed with the tribes.
The Department of Health and Human Services appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that tribes do get some money for overhead costs but the government isn’t responsible for costs associated with third-party income.
The majority of federally recognized tribes now contract with IHS to run at least part of their own health care programming, and reimbursing billing costs for all those programs could total between $800 million and $2 billion per year, the agency said.
Missouri
Court sides with transgender student in case of bathroom discrimination
BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. (AP) — A $4.2 million verdict that jurors ordered a Missouri school district to pay a transgender student is under consideration again.
The Western District Missouri Court of Appeals found Tuesday that a judge erred in ordering a new trial in a lawsuit over bathroom and locker room access. The decision sends the case against the Blue Springs School District back to the trial court to determine the reasonableness of the sum jurors awarded in 2021.
Judge Anthony Rex Gabbert, who authored the appeals court’s unanimous decision, wrote that the district discriminated because the student did not fit their stereotype of what a male should be.
“This is no different than discriminating against a male because he is not tall enough or not muscular enough,” Gabbert wrote.
The school district said in a statement that it was disappointed by the reversal and is weighing its legal options. It said it couldn’t comment further because the case is pending.
The student, identified in court documents as R.M.A., legally changed his name in 2010 and amended his birth certificate to reflect his gender and new name in 2014, according to the lawsuit, which was filed the next year.
Although the state recognized him as a boy, the district denied him access to the boys’ restrooms and locker rooms at Delta Woods Middle School and the Freshman Center, the lawsuit said.
The student participated in boy’s physical education and athletics in middle school but was required to use a single-person bathroom outside the boys’ locker room, according to court documents. He did not participate in fall sports at the Freshman Center because he could not use the boys’ locker room or restrooms.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that the state’s human rights laws against sex discrimination could be extended to people who don’t conform to gender stereotypes, which was considered a significant decision for transgender rights at the time.
Similar issues are at play in a lawsuit that the ACLU filed against the Platte County School District.
Texas
County to pay female constable deputies $1.5M to settle sexual misconduct suit
HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas county has agreed to pay a group of female deputies $1.5 million to settle a federal lawsuit that claimed they were abused and harassed when a constable’s office turned undercover operations into a drunken “playground for sexual exploitation.”
Harris County commissioners approved the settlement Tuesday, three years after the women alleged that as rookie deputies in a constable precinct in Houston, they were subjected to unwarranted touching and kissing, molestation and sexual ridicule during their work in a human trafficking unit.
The lawsuit alleged that undercover “bachelor party” sting operations were supposed to ultimately arrest those behind sex trafficking businesses. But the lawsuit said those operations turned more into parties where officers drank heavily and the female deputies, who were given little to no training in undercover work, were fondled and kissed by their supervisory officer or were told to give lap dances to other male deputies.
Constables are elected positions in Texas, and constables and their deputies have the same powers of a city police officer or sheriff’s deputy. They can investigate, arrest and use force if they suspect criminal activity.
“It’s been a long road. My clients are happy to have this in the rearview mirror. It’s been an honor to represent such amazing people,” said Cordt Akers, an attorney for the women.
A spokesman for Constable Alan Rosen declined comment Wednesday.
In a statement when the lawsuit was filed in 2021, Rosen said an internal affairs investigation by his office found no violations of law or policy and that the women had never submitted a formal complaint.
Colorado
Environmental groups take first step to sue oil refinery for pollution violations
DENVER (AP) — Environmental groups took the first step to sue the owner of an oil refinery near Denver for years of pollution violations, saying Wednesday that state regulators haven’t done enough to hold the owner accountable.
The refinery owned by Suncor Energy sits in Commerce City, near a poorer region of metro Denver plagued by high pollution and heat that threatens the health of residents. Earthjustice sent a notice to sue Suncor, a required prerequisite to filing such a lawsuit, and is representing environmental groups including GreenLatinos, 350 Colorado and the Sierra Club, whose members have been impacted by the refinery.
The plant exceeded pollution standards and limits over 1,000 times between 2019 and 2023, the groups said.
“If someone was given 1,000 speeding tickets, we’d take away their license, but in Suncor’s case the law isn’t even being upheld in the first place,” said Margaret Kran-Annexstein, director of Colorado Sierra Club, in a news release.
Suncor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Suncor had to pay $10.5 million in a settlement with the state announced earlier this year for three years of air quality violations. That includes a $2.5 million cash fine. But environmental groups accuse state regulators of failing to meaningfully enforce rules against the company.
“The health of my friends, family, neighbors and myself should not be sacrificed by allowing Suncor to simply get slaps on the wrist while they ignore permit limits and spew chemicals,” said Lucy Molina, who lives near the refinery and is an organizer with 350 Colorado, in the press release.
On top of health concerns, Molina noted “the stress caused by the lack of enforcement and never knowing if it’s safe to let our kids play outside.”
The Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment, which has oversight over pollution rules, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The violations include exceeding limits or standards on hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide.
New York
Judge seen shoving police officer on video will be replaced on the bench
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A New York judge who was censured after being seen on video shoving a police officer during a brawl with neighbors will be replaced on the bench, authorities said Wednesday.
Judge Mark Grisanti, an acting State Supreme Court justice in Buffalo, has been serving as a “holdover” since his term on the Court of Claims expired last year, essentially waiting to be reappointed. His name did not appear on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s list of 25 judicial nominees considered Wednesday by the state Senate’s Judiciary Committee and he was not reappointed, according to a spokesman for Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the commission’s chair.
Court spokesman Al Baker said Grisanti would remain in his position until a new judge begins his term.
Grisanti had not received formal notice Wednesday that he would not be reappointed, said his attorney, Terrence Connors.
New York’s Commission on Judicial Conduct voted in April to censure Grisanti but narrowly declined the administrator’s recommendation that he be removed from office after finding that he displayed “especially poor judgment” for his actions in June 2020. The commission also faulted Grisanti for participating in legal cases involving an attorney who had made payments to him as part of a business deal.
Connors said Grisanti had been an exemplary judge.
“Lawyers and judges who best know his work want him to continue on the bench,” Connors said in an email. “Even the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, after a thorough investigation, confirmed that, on balance, two hours of misconduct do not warrant removal from his position on the court.”
Grisanti’s expletive-filled confrontation with police followed a dispute with neighbors over parking. The shirtless judge is heard on the video telling officers that Mayor Byron Brown is a friend, and that he has relatives on the police force.
At one point, Grisanti shoves a police officer who is attempting to handcuff his wife, telling the officer “you’re going to be sorry.” Grisanti himself is then handcuffed and put in a police car. He was not charged.
Grisanti was first appointed to the court in 2015.
