PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 10 On September 9, 2009, the law firm of Kelley & Murphy of Philadelphia, Blue Bell and Harrisburg has filed a law suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia on behalf of NHS Philadelphia, NHS Pennsylvania, NHS Youth Services, Inc., Wordsworth Academy t/a Wordsworth, Tabor Children's Services, Inc. and the Philadelphia Alliance, a professional organization representing more than forty (40) specialized behavioral health, human service and child welfare agencies against Governor Rendell in his official capacity to end the unlawful withholding of available state and federal funds which are essential to support behavioral health, human services and child and adult welfare services for the adults and children so desperately in need of them.
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NHS Human Services, Inc., through its affiliated companies, is the largest provider of behavioral health and intellectual and developmental disability services in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
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The law suit claims that by the Governor vetoing essentially all non-medicaid social service and child welfare funding while at the same time fully funding all services performed by employees of the Commonwealth, including all non-essential, non-emergent and services not mandated by law, the Governor acted arbitrarily and capriciously, without rational basis in violation of the equal protection clause, the due process clause, the takings clause and the supremacy clause of the Constitution.
The suit seeks to fully fund Senate Bill 850 or to strike the bridge budget in its entirety. The suit also seeks to fully fund all social services mandated by federal law which are not currently being funded.
For more information contact: Joseph T. Kelley, Jr., Kelley & Murphy, 1628 Pine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103, Telephone: 267-238-1300; FAX 267-238-1300; e-mail: [email protected].
SOURCE The Law Firm of Kelley & Murphy of Philadelphia
