WYATT BY AND THROUGH RAWLINS v. Rogers

MEMORANDUM OPINION

MYRON H. THOMPSON, Chief Judge.

This class-action lawsuit, commonly referred to as the “Wyatt litigation,” was filed over 26 years ago by the plaintiffs (who represent all current and future mentally-retarded and mentally-ill residents in the Alabama Mental Health and Mental Retardation System) against the defendants (officials of the State of Alabama), claiming that conditions in the system’s facilities violated residents’ rights under state and federal law. In 1986, the court approved a consent decree resolving the parties’ continued conflicts over the defendants’…