In a move heralded as “historic” by U.S. District Senior Judge Thomas Hogan, the District of Columbia last month ended more than three decades of court oversight of the city’s mental health system.
But the litigation was only one of more than a half-dozen class actions lodged against the District decades ago for its failure to provide basic social services. The cases, and the court supervision that followed, have proved costly and time-consuming for the cash-strapped city.