Federal overreach

NEW ORLEANS -- The Fifth Circuit vacated a sweeping order requiring major changes to Mississippi’s mental health care system. In an ADA suit, the federal government claimed the state placed every person with a severe mental illness at risk of unjustified institutionalization. However, Mississippi’s lack of community-based mental health programs does not prove it discriminates against people with mental illness, and even if it did, the broad injunction intrudes on state’s rights.