AUSTIN, Texas—Should people be judged forever based on their past mistakes? Texas says they should. Katherin Youniacutt and Tammy Thompson, two Texas grandmothers with masters’ degrees, want to be social workers. But one past run-in with the law has made each permanently ineligible under Texas statutes. The Texas Constitution, however, protects Texans’ right to earn an honest living in an occupation of their choosing without unreasonable government interference. That’s why Katherin and Tammy have teamed up with the Institute for Justice (IJ) to sue in state court and challenge this permanent-punishment law.

“No one should be permanently barred from a job because of irrelevant criminal convictions,” said IJ Attorney James Knight. “Katherin and Tammy made mistakes and paid for them. Permanently punishing them doesn’t protect the public. It just makes it harder for people to pull themselves up and provide for their families. That’s unconstitutional.”

Katherin and Tammy both suffered through substance abuse issues early in their lives and each woman pleaded guilty to a single assault conviction during that time, though neither was jailed. Over a decade later, Katherin and Tammy have turned their lives around and want to help people who have faced similar problems.  

This comes at a time when Texas—and the country—face an exploding mental health and substance abuse crisis with a dire shortage of professional social workers to address those issues.

But in 2019, Texas passed a law that permanently bars people with an assault conviction from obtaining a social work license, devastating Katherin’s and Tammy’s plans after they had already put years into making their dreams come true.

Previously, the board in charge of licensing had the discretion to award licenses to those with convictions based on evidence presented to them. Now, its hands are tied, and even people like Katherin and Tammy with over a decade of good behavior and years of training must be categorically denied without a hearing.

“All I want is to help people so they won’t make the same mistakes I did,” said Katherin Youniacutt. “Texas isn’t just punishing me, it’s punishing all the people I could be helping right now.”

“I’ve spent decades turning my life around and years preparing for the chance to work as a social worker,” said Tammy Thompson. “People should be able to prove they’ve moved on, but in Texas the past is all that seems to matter.”

Founded in 1991, the Institute for Justice litigates nationwide to defend property rights, economic liberty, educational choice, and free speech. IJ is leading the charge against permanent punishment laws across the country. As part of that mission, IJ is leading the charge against permanent punishment laws on multiple fronts. In Pennsylvania, IJ won its challenge to a law requiring would-be cosmetologists to prove they had “good moral character” to work in skincare. In Tennessee, IJ stopped the FCC from revoking the broadcast license of Knoxville’s only Black-owned radio station because of the owner’s misstatement on his personal tax papers more than a decade earlier. And in Maryland, IJ halted a USDA policy banning retail store owners with convictions related to alcohol, drugs, or firearms from accepting SNAP payments.

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 To arrange interviews on this subject, journalists may contact Phillip Suderman, IJ’s Communications Project Manager, at [email protected] or (850) 376-4110. More information on the case is available at: https://ij.org/case/texas-fresh-start-social-worker/