Sons and parents

[Susan Higginbotham]

Speaking as a lawyer, albeit one without any expertise in 19th-century Illinois involuntary commitment law, to get an action into court, one has to file a pleading. Sometimes the court provides a pre-printed document (such as the one RTL filed here); more often the lawyer is expected to draft his own petition, which still must follow guidelines prescribed by the court rules and make certain allegations to state a cause of action. I don't know whether Illinois law required use of the pre-printed form or not.

It's much harder now to get someone involuntarily committed, and to keep him institutionalized, than it was in the 19th century, which in most respects is a good thing but also means that there are a lot of seriously ill people wandering the streets of large cities in America, and often dying on them.

There were certainly no guarantees in the strictest sense of the word that the judge would have authorized RTL to place his mother in a private asylum, but the statute provided for such a placement where the family was able to pay, and judges are supposed to follow the law. For the judge not to allow Mary to be placed in a private asylum run by a reputable person would have been what in legalese is called arbitrary and capricious. In such a high-profile case as this, it also would have been quite stupid.

I have a great deal of sympathy for both Mary and her son. Could RTL have handled the situation better? Probably, particularly with the benefit of hindsight. But he didn't have that benefit at the time.