Beyond Pennhurst. Protective Jurisdiction, the Eleventh Amendment, and the Power of Congress to Enlarge Federal Jurisdiction in Response to the Burger Court

Law and the delivery of mental health services in the community.

“…The combination of these four cases—the two Pennhurst decisions, Youngberg , and De Shaney —reflects a Supreme Court vision of the state's obligation to provide services for disabled persons that is drastically at odds with the one offered by advocates representing such persons. Although the mentally disabled individuals at risk in the Pennhurst and Youngberg cases may not have been the Court's specific targets in its decisions, the cases are clearly linked to the Court's desire “to ban ‘public law' litigation in general, and ‘institutional' litigation in particular, from federal courts” (Brown, 1985, p . 344), as well as its ongoing transformation of the court's role “from guardian of individual rights to the guardian of majority rule” (Sherry, 1986, p .…”