Indiana Protection & Advocacy Services v. Indiana Family & Social Services Administration

My colleagues’ approach to this case is in the spirit of the maxim: “Where there is a right, there must be an effective remedy.” Indiana has failed to implement federal requirements that go with grants that the state has accepted, and the state is resisting efforts to enforce the federal statutes directly. The prospects of a funding cutoff or a suit by the national government are not effective enough, in my colleagues’ assessment, so the court creates an additional remedy.

That approach was common in the era of J.I. Case Co. v. Borak, 377 U.S. 426, 84 S.Ct. 1555, 12 L.Ed.2d 423 (1964). But it…