Recent news

For the second time in the last three months, a Pennsylvania judge has ruled that Pennsylvania’s juvenile sex offender registration requirements are unconstitutional. On January 16, 2014, Monroe County Court of Common Pleas President Judge Margherita Patti-Worthington ruled that Pennsylvania's law requiring juveniles convicted of sexual offenses be subjected to lifetime sex offender registration violates their rights under the Pennsylvania Constitution.

The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare (DPW) has opened for comment its draft application to the federal government regarding the operation of the Medicaid program in Pennsylvania. This application, entitled "Healthy Pennsylvania," includes a plan to impose work requirements and health insurance premiums on individuals between the ages of 21 and 26 who are newly eligible for Medicaid by virtue of their status as youth who have aged out of foster care.

In an important ruling earlier this month, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania held that the Commonwealth could not use a youth’s statements to therapists in court-ordered placement to prosecute the youth on new charges.

Late yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania granted plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment against former Luzerne County Juvenile Court Judge Mark Ciavarella, the judge at the center of the now infamous 'kids for cash' scandal. Specifically, U.S. District Court Judge A. Richard Caputo found that Ciavarella violated the constitutional rights of the children who appeared before him to an impartial tribunal, as guaranteed by the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

Late yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania granted plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment against former Luzerne County Juvenile Court Judge Mark Ciavarella, the judge at the center of the now infamous 'kids for cash' scandal. Specifically, U.S. District Court Judge A. Richard Caputo found that Ciavarella violated the constitutional right of the children who appeared before him to an impartial tribunal, as guaranteed by the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Ciavarella is currently serving a 28-year federal prison sentence following his criminal conviction in February 2011 on charges arising out of the scandal.

On January 5, 2014, the New York Times published an editorial entitled Zero Tolerance, Reconsidered, decrying zero tolerance policies in schools. The editorial echoes other recent commentary as well as numerous studies and reports making the same point. Sadly, despite widespread demands for change, we see little progress on the horizon and the stories continue to make headlines.