The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has dismissed a federal district judge from a 13-year lawsuit against the Texas foster care system.

Judge Janis Jack ruled in 2015 that the Texas foster care system was broken and that children were more traumatized than when they entered the system.

Now she has been dismissed from the case by the 5th Circuit for “intemperate conduct.”

The court also overturned the $100,000 per day fines Jack had imposed on the state for failing to protect mentally disabled foster children in treatment homes.

It found that the State had complied with two court orders in this case.

The rulings are seen as a major victory for the state of Texas, which says it spent $150 million to bring it into compliance with more than 50 court orders.

Attorneys for the foster children announced Saturday that they will appeal the ruling to the full 5th Circuit. Friday’s verdict was handed down by three judges.

“Frankly, this is a sad day for Texas children,” said Paul Yetter, an attorney for the current and former foster children in the case. “For over a decade, Judge Jack pushed the state to fix the broken system. She deserves a medal for what she did.”

In a statement, Yetter said they would continue to fight for the children’s safety.

Judge Jack was known as a strict overseer of the state’s child welfare system, which includes the Department of Family and Protective Services and the Health and Human Services Commission.

Jack found that the head of the HHSC, Cecil Erwin, felt contempt for the failures of the Provider Investigations Unit, which is responsible for investigating treatment homes for children with intellectual disabilities.

The State was found to have violated two orders requiring the timely completion of investigations. Both orders apply only to children in the protected class, that is, children in permanent directing guardianship – children whose parental rights have been revoked.

A multi-day contempt hearing last December highlighted numerous problems related to backlogged cases and injured children in 38 cases.

The 5th Circuit concluded that the contempt hearing should have been conducted as a criminal rather than civil hearing because the contempt fines served as punishment for the state rather than as compensation for the plaintiffs.

For the 5th Circuit, the three-day contempt hearing showed the opposite of what Jack saw. It found that one state had complied more than 80 percent of the time. And a judge they considered unyielding.

“Our comprehensive review of the district judge’s conduct during the three-day contempt hearing in December 2023 that led to this matter repeatedly shows extremely hostile behavior toward the defendants,” wrote 5th District Judge Edith Jones

The results of Friday’s ruling mean that Texas’ child welfare system has entered a new phase.