AUSTIN, Texas—Tomorrow, Katherin Youniacutt and Tammy Thompson, two Texas grandmothers with master’s degrees represented by the Institute for Justice (IJ), will defend their position that Texas’ law making them permanently ineligible to serve as social workers is unconstitutional. The case centers around the Texas Constitution, which protects Texans’ right to earn an honest living in an occupation of their choosing without unreasonable government interference. 

Should people be judged forever based on their past mistakes? Texas says they should. And that’s what has happened to Katherin and Tammy, who each have spent years of training and education working to become social workers but have been denied because of previous criminal convictions.  

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. 

But a 2019 law ended that dream, permanently barring people with an assault conviction from obtaining a social work license and creating a new permanent punishment for people who had already served their debt to society.  

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.  

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

Denying social work licenses to people like Katherin and Tammy who have experience overcoming addiction additionally deprives the public of social workers who are in the best position to connect with and help people still struggling with substance abuse. 

“All I want is to help people so they won’t make the same mistakes I did,” said Katherin Youniacutt. “What makes this even worse is this isn’t just a punishment for me, it’s a punishment for all the people I could be helping.” 

“I’ve done the hard work to turn my life around,” added Tammy Thompson. “What I want now is to share that wisdom and experience. But Texas says I’m not allowed to help people in need.” 

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/