United States Ninth Circuit

In a case involving whether the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) complied with an order requiring it to provide for the review of all foster care cases open on or after March 3, 2003, for benefits eligibility under a prior case's construction of a statute determining eligibility for the Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care program, denial of motions to enforce the judgment is reversed in part insofar as the court failed to address a request to authorize discovery regarding the agencies' compliance. Grant of agencies' motion for relief from judgment as of the date of the implementation of the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) is affirmed where the district court did not abuse its discretion by allowing the agencies to implement the DRA as Congress intended.

Appellate Information

• Argued 10/10/2007
• Decided 04/25/2008
• Published 04/25/2008

Judges

• BERZON, Circuit Judge:, Before:  DAVID R. THOMPSON, W. FLETCHER, and MARSHA S. BERZON, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Elliot Silverman (argued), David M. Beckwith, and Catherine Shiang, of McDermott Will & Emery LLP, and Marjorie Shelvy (argued), Yolanda Arias, and Silvia Argueta, of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, for plaintiff-intervenor-appellant Enedina Rosales and for the movants-appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Paul Reynaga (argued), Supervising Deputy Attorney General of the State of California, Thomas R. Yanger, Senior Assistant Attorney General of the State of California, and Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General of the State of California, for plaintiff-appellee State of California Department of Social Services., Jeffrey A. Clair (argued), Barbara C. Biddle, Attorneys, Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice, McGregor W. Scott, United States Attorney, and Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney General, for defendant-appellee Mike Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services.