Four months after a three-judge panel on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals removed federal Judge Janis Jack from a major, yearslong case against Texas’ foster care system and vacated her latest contempt order against the state, a divided 5th Circuit on Tuesday declined to reconsider the decision.
In a seven-page dissenting opinion joined by four other judges, Judge Stephen Higginson wrote that he believes the decision by a majority of his colleagues puts “abuse and neglect … out of sight of the law once more.”
“It is fundamental in our historic liberties that the state may not set aside due process of law in the care of its wards,” Higginson wrote. “But today, we turn away the children protected by those guarantees and shut the doors of this court.”…