Justices Unlikely to Drop Precedent for Civil Rights Suits (1)

The US Supreme Court seemed unlikely to reconsider longstanding precedent allowing injured parties to sue states for violations of federal safety net programs like Medicaid and Medicare.

Congress enacts such programs pursuant to its spending clause authority, which allows the federal government to set minimum standards for states administering them in exchange for federal money.

That makes them akin to a contract between accepting states and the federal government, meaning private individuals who are the beneficiaries of these programs can’t sue to enforce the minimum standards, said Friedman Kaplan partner Lawrence S. Robbins, who urged the justices at argument ...