Justice Department refiles lawsuit against Pennsylvania courts concerning addiction medication practices

May 26—The U.S. Department of Justice filed an amended civil rights complaint this week accusing the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania and four county courts including Northumberland of denying access to certain doctor-prescribed addiction treatment medications as a condition for probation or parole.

The complaint was refiled after Judge Mitchell Goldberg of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania dismissed the Justice Department's original lawsuit filed in February 2022 for insufficient facts.

The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department alleges court officials in Blair, Lackawanna, Jefferson and Northumberland counties discriminated against people on probation and parole because of their disability, an addiction to opioids, through policies and practices limiting access or restricting the use of prescribed medication.

The Unified Judicial System, which oversees courts in all 67 counties, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, because of its authority over lower courts, are co-defendants. The UJS has denied the allegations.

The Justice Department alleges all of the defendants violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. Its new, more detailed complaint expands on the original allegations and added Blair and Lackawanna as specific defendants. Allegations are made against Allegheny, Butler, Clinton, Delaware and York county courts, too, but they're not named as individual defendants.

In an order issued April 21, Goldberg found that the Unified Judicial System (UJS) had no authority to interfere with the individual decision-making of a Northumberland County judge since the lawsuit didn't allege that the county had a written policy limiting or prohibiting the use of medication to treat opioid use disorder.

Goldberg did allow the Justice Department the opportunity to refile the amended complaint which was submitted May 22 to the Eastern District court.

The amended complaint alleges multiple treatment court officials, a probation officer and a former county drug and alcohol program administrator all had knowledge about court-ordered restrictions on medication-assisted treatment, or MAT.

Goldberg said that allegations in the original complaint against Jefferson note that an administrative local court order restricting medication-assisted treatment was rescinded in December 2018, nearly four years prior to the lawsuit. And, allegations against the other named courts didn't identify individuals harmed by alleged practices in the respective counties making it too vague to state a claim.

The amended complaint states that despite rescinding the policy, Jefferson County's court hasn't disavowed the policy or taken any action to ensure staff were not still following the former directive.

MAT is an evidence-based approach that combines approved medications like buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone with counseling and behavioral health therapies. Commonly used medications include Suboxone and Vivitrol.

The Justice Department alleges the Pennsylvania court system violated the rights of several individuals including new, anonymous individuals named in the amended complaint, by denying equal opportunity to benefit from probation and treatment court based on their disability through unnecessary, discriminative criteria on MAT, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court.

The individuals attempted to comply, including some going against medical advice, or risked violating terms of their court-ordered supervision that may have resulted in jail time, according to the Justice Department. Some resumed taking the medication soon after the counties were notified of the allegations but at least one has not out of fear of violating probation terms, the lawsuit states.

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