Youngberg v. Romeo, 457 U.S. 307 (1982)

"It must be unconstitutional to confine the involuntarily committed in unsafe conditions."

Building 15, Pennhurst State School and Hospital

Pennsylvania, 1974. Nicholas Romeo has severe developmental disabilities. He can't talk, or care for himself. His mother commits him to a State Hospital.

Over time, she becomes concerned about her son's many injuries, caused by himself and others. She also questions the hospital's frequent use of bodily restraints. She complains, several times; then takes her complaint to court. Her son, she says, has a right to be safe, and to freedom of movement.

In 1982, a unanimous Supreme Court agrees. Justice Powell writes: "If it is cruel and unusual punishment to hold convicted criminals in unsafe conditions, it must be unconstitutional to confine the involuntarily committed -- who may not be punished at all -- in unsafe conditions."

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AMENDMENT 14 Due Process and Equal Protection of the Law

Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. [^].

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