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CA1 OKs Maine's Withdrawal of Medical Benefits to LPRs Under PRWORA

May 01, 2014 (1 min read)

"A federal appeals court has ruled that Maine did not run afoul of the Constitution by ending state-funded medical care for some legal aliens who are ineligible for Medicaid.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held Monday that the class action plaintiffs in Bruns v. Mayhew have not made a valid claim under the equal-protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.  The ruling affirmed U.S. District Judge John Woodcock Jr.'s March 2013 denial of a preliminary injunction to block enforcement of the law.  The panel remanded the case to Woodcock, the District of Maine’s chief judge, and directed him to dismiss it.  The case concerns benefits for legal aliens whose Medicaid and other federal benefits were reduced by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.  Maine provided that group with state-funded medical benefits from 1997 to 2011." - Sheri Qualters, The National Law Journal, April 29, 2014.