Suter v. Artist

The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (the act) created a federal program to reimburse state governments for some expenses they incurred in the administration of adoption and foster-care services. Reimbursement required state governments to have a plan approved by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the secretary). The act required such plans to contain certain provisions, such as the reasonable-efforts provision, which required state child-welfare agencies to make reasonable efforts to obviate the need to remove a child from his home and place him in foster care, and to return a child to his home from foster care. Artist M. represented a class of children (plaintiffs) who were wards of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and who were in foster care. Artist filed suit against Sue Suter and Gary Morgan (defendants), who were in positions of leadership at DCFS. Artist did not dispute that the state of Illinois had a plan, approved by the secretary, that contained the necessary provisions. Artist alleged, however, that DCFS was in violation of the act because DCFS failed to fulfill the reasonable-efforts provision, alleging that DCFS did not promptly assign caseworkers to children who were in its custody or promptly reassign cases when caseworkers went on leave. The federal district court held that the act gave private individuals the right to enforce the reasonable-efforts provision and ordered DCFS to assign a caseworker within three days of the child’s placement in DCFS’s custody, and to reassign a child’s case within three days of a caseworker’s resignation from a case. The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.