Frances K. Grow v. Sidney E. Smith, Individually and in His Capacity as Secretary of the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services

Appellants are parents of dependent children who have been denied or terminated from public assistance under Washington welfare regulations for failure to provide information on absent parents or assist in support or filiation proceedings. They sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for injunctive relief and damages, alleging that Washington’s welfare regulations requiring such information and participation in such support proceedings were inconsistent with federal statutory requirements and in violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The district court invalidated several welfare regulations not at issue here, upheld the validity of WAC 388-28-323(1) and WAC 388-28-340 (relating to family units with illegitimate children), and denied retroactive benefits to families which were denied assistance under the invalidated regulations. We affirm the court’s decision as to retroactive benefits but remand to it for consideration the impact of amendments to federal and state regulations.

I.

RETROACTIVE BENEFITS

The district court denied retroactive benefits to the plaintiffs, holding that the Eleventh Amendment deprived federal courts of jurisdiction to hear…