When ROC's Kamila Valieva Skates Next After Doping Case Ruling at Winter Olympics - NBC Chicago

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Kamila Valieva

When ROC's Kamila Valieva Skates Next After Doping Case Ruling at Winter Olympics

The Russian teenager is expected to make a run for her second gold medal in Beijing as she begins the women's individual program, where she is a favorite for gold

By James Ellingworth and Graham Dunbar • Published 3 hours ago • Updated 2 hours ago

NBCUniversal Media, LLC

Kamila Valieva, a figure skater representing the Russian Olympic Committee at the 2022 Winter Olympics, will take the ice again following a ruling on a doping case after she failed a pre-Games drug test.

The Russian teenager is expected to make a run for her second gold medal in Beijing as she begins the women's individual program early Tuesday, where she is a favorite for gold.

Valieva has made headlines these games after she tested positive for a banned substance in a test taken in December. The results of the test weren't released until after she had completed her first performance at the Games, sparking a hearing over whether she could continue to compete.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport released its ruling less than 12 hours after a hastily arranged hearing that lasted into early Monday morning. The ruling stated the 15-year-old Valieva does not need to be provisionally suspended ahead of a full investigation.

The court gave her a favorable decision in part because she was a minor or “protected person" and was subject to different rules from an adult athlete.

“The panel considered that preventing the athlete to compete at the Olympic Games would cause her irreparable harm in the circumstances,” CAS Director General Matthieu Reeb said.

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Now, Valieva and her fellow Russian skaters can aim for the first podium sweep of women’s figure skating in Olympic history. The event starts with the short program Tuesday and concludes Thursday with the free skate.

NBC Olympics 2022 Winter Olympics Figure Skating Coverage Schedule*

Date/Time (ET)	Event	TV/Streaming
Thurs | Feb 3 | 8.55 p.m.	Team Event - Men's & Pairs SP, Rhythm Dance	NBC | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com
Sat | Feb 5 | 8:30 p.m.	🏅 Team Event - Women's SP, Pairs FS	NBC | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com
Sun | Feb 6 | 8:15 p.m.	🏅 Team Event - M/W FS, Free Dance	NBC | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com
Mon | Feb 7 | 8:15 p.m.	Men's Singles Short Program	NBC, USA | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com
Wed | Feb 9 | 8:30 p.m.	🏅 Men's Singles Free Skate	NBC, USA | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com
Sat | Feb 12 | 6:00 a.m.	Ice Dance Rhythm Dance	USA | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com
Sun | Feb 13 | 8:15 p.m.	🏅 Ice Dance Free Dance	USA | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com
Tue | Feb 15 | 5:00 a.m.	Women's Singles Short Program	USA | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com
Thurs | Feb 17 | 5:00 a.m.	🏅 Women’s Singles Free Skate	USA | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com
Fri | Feb 18 | 5:30 a.m.	Pairs Short Program	USA | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com
Sat | Feb 19 | 6:00 a.m.	🏅 Pairs Free Skate	NBC | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com
Sat | Feb 19 | 11:00 p.m.	Exhibition Gala	NBC | Peacock, NBCOlympics.com

Shortly after the decision, Valieva skated in her allotted practice time slot.

The CAS panel also cited fundamental issues of fairness in its ruling, the fact she tested clean in Beijing and that there were “serious issues of untimely notification” of her positive test.

Valieva tested positive for the heart drug trimetazidine on Dec. 25 at the Russian nationals but the result from a Swedish lab didn’t come to light until a week ago, after she helped the Russian Olympic Committee win the team gold.

Reasons for the six-week wait for a result from Sweden are unclear, though Russian officials have suggested it was partly because of a January surge in omicron variant COVID-19 cases, which affected staffing at the lab.

Her case has caused havoc at the Olympics since last Tuesday when the team event medal ceremony was pulled from the schedule.

The Russian anti-doping agency (RUSADA) immediately suspended her, then lifted the ban a day later, putting into limbo the awarding of the medals. The IOC and others appealed and an expedited hearing was held Sunday night. Valieva testified via video conference.

Athletes under 16 like Valieva have more rights under anti-doping rules and typically aren’t held responsible for taking banned substances. The focus of any future investigation will home in on her personal team - coaches, doctors, nutritionists, etc.

This ruling only addresses whether Valieva can keep skating before her case is resolved. It doesn’t decide the fate of the one gold medal she has already won.

Valieva landed the first quadruple jumps by a woman at the Olympics when she won the team event gold with the Russian Olympic Committee last Monday. The United States took silver and Japan the bronze. Canada placed fourth.

That medal, and any medal she wins in the individual competition, could still be taken from her.

Those issues will be dealt with in a separate, longer-term investigation of the positive doping test that will be led by RUSADA, which took the sample in St. Petersburg.

The World Anti-Doping Agency will have the right to appeal any ruling by RUSADA, and also said it wants to independently investigate Valieva's entourage.

With the Valieva case, questions raised by an often-proven culture of doping in Russian sport has been a major theme for a sixth straight Olympic Games, including the past three winter editions at Sochi, Russia; Pyeongchang, South Korea; and now Beijing.

“This appears to be another chapter in the systematic and pervasive disregard for clean sport by Russia,” US Olympic and Paralympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland said in a statement.

Hirshland said the USOPC was “disappointed by the message this decision sends” and suggested athletes were denied the confidence of knowing they competed on a level playing field.

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Russian Doping Case: How Did We Get Here? - NBC Chicago

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Kamila Valieva

Russian Doping Case: How Did We Get Here?

Kamila Valieva is hoping to be allowed to compete in the Women's Individual Event

By Graham Dunbar • Published February 13, 2022 • Updated on February 13, 2022 at 1:55 pm

AP Photo/Bernat Armangue

Kamila Valieva is one of the biggest talents in figure skating and was expected to be one of the most watched athletes at the Beijing Olympics.

It hasn't worked out exactly as expected.

The 15-year-old figure skater found herself late Sunday in a situation unimaginable just one wild week earlier — testifying by video to three judges in a legal fight to salvage her right to compete.

How did it come to this for the Russian potential superstar?

WHO SHE IS

Valieva is the world's best female figure skater right now. At 15, she holds the world-record scores in short program, free skate and total score.

In her debut season at senior level, she is the Russian national champion, European champion and a two-time winner at Grand Prix events.

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AT THE OLYMPICS

Valieva arrived in Beijing favored to win the women’s individual title. First, she competed in the team event.

She became the first woman in Olympic history to land a quad jump and helped the Russian team easily win gold ahead of the second-place United States.

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THE DOPING CASE

After Valieva skated Monday, a testing laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden, flagged up one of her urine samples from December. It tested positive for trimetazidine, a heart medication banned in sports.

The sample was given Dec. 25 at Russian nationals in St. Petersburg. Any sample given by Valieva at the Olympics has come back clean.

Why it took six weeks to get the test result is unclear. A January surge of COVID-19 cases in Stockholm is a possible factor.

The 29-year-old from Florida clinched Team USA’s first individual medal in women’s speed skating since 2010.

Russia’s anti-doping agency, known as RUSADA, will decide that doping case. It must weigh punishments for Valieva and, more likely, her entourage of coaches and doctors.

But not yet. That investigation might take months and the verdict could lead to appeals. Only when that process is done will the Olympic team event result be finalized.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW

Three CAS judges, men from Italy and the United States and a woman from Slovenia, are deciding if Valieva can compete in the individual event.

The short program is Tuesday evening and the free skate is Thursday.

RUSADA gave her a provisional suspension for the drug tests, then lifted it a day later, freeing her to compete. The decision to lift the suspension was appealed by the International Olympic Committee, the World Anti-Doping Agency and International Skating Union.

The judges are supposed to focus on whether Valieva should be provisionally suspended from the ice pending the long-term investigation. CAS expected its appeal hearing to last into early Monday morning in Beijing.

Because she is 15, Valieva has protections in the World Anti-Doping Code rule book that shift responsibility to a minor’s entourage.

The judges must aim for a ruling that is proportionate — balancing potential damage to an athlete’s career against protecting her opponents' rights and the integrity of an Olympic event.

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THE FUTURE

CAS should announce its judges’ ruling Monday afternoon in Beijing, about 24 hours before the women’s short program starts.

If she is cleared, the IOC will likely present the team event medals this week to the Russians, Americans and third-placed Japan.

More legal contests and appeals are likely ahead. If the eventual ruling is that Valieva should have been banned, then she risks being disqualified from the Olympics. It depends how long the ban and when it's backdated to start.

Any medals she won - including the team gold - could be thrown out, and other competitors would be moved up.

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What to Know About the Banned Drug ROC Figure Skater Kamila Valieva Tested Positive For - NBC Chicago

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Kamila Valieva

What to Know About the Banned Drug ROC Figure Skater Kamila Valieva Tested Positive For

A decision is expected soon on whether Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva will be permitted to compete

Published 4 hours ago • Updated 3 hours ago

NBCUniversal Media, LLC

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, who is skating for ROC at the 2022 Winter Olympics, will soon learn whether she will be allowed to continue competing after earlier making history in the Games.

Valieva's status at the Olympics became unclear after she tested positive for a banned medication in Russia. Although she tested positive in December, the result came to light this week.Valieva won a gold medal in the team event before the test result was known.

At stake is Russia's gold medal in the team event and the 15-year-old star’s right to compete in the women’s individual event starting Tuesday, where she is a favorite for the gold medal.

With a decision expected Monday, here's what to know about the banned drug, what could still happen for the young skater and how previous cases of doping have been handled.

What happened with Kamila Valieva that sparked the investigation?

Valieva tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine in a sample given on Dec. 25, when she won the Russian national championships.

That sample was the responsibility of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, known as RUSADA. It was sent to a WADA-approved laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden, for analysis.

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On Monday — hours after Valieva’s skating helped the Russians win the Olympic team event — the Stockholm lab notified RUSADA the test was positive.

She had been provisionally suspended by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency on Feb. 8 but challenged the decision, and the RUSADA lifted it the following day.

The International Olympic Committee, International Skating Union and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have all launched an appeal with CAS against RUSADA's decision to lift the provisional ban, which the Court of Arbitration of Sport will hear Sunday.

“It was sending a signal that we want this solved as quickly as it can be,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams.

What is trimetazidine?

The medication trimetazidine is a metabolic agent that helps prevent angina attacks and treats the symptoms of vertigo, according to the European Union’s medicines agency. It can increase blood flow efficiency and improve endurance — both crucial to any high-end athletic performance.

It is on the prohibited list managed by the World Anti-Doping Agency in the category of “hormone and metabolic modulators.”

What could happen next?

Valieva will find out Monday if she can compete at the Olympics in the women's competition, which starts a day later.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said Saturday the expedited hearing on Valieva's doping case will be held Sunday night in Beijing, with a ruling by Monday afternoon.

International Olympic Committee Spokesperson Mark Adams provided some updates on the investigation into reports of doping by Russian Ice Skating team member, Kamila Valieva.

The legal process is unusually complex because of Valieva's status as a minor, which gives her protections in the anti-doping rule book.

Because Valieva is only 15, her ultimate penalty could be as little as a reprimand. Her entourage of coaches and doctors face more scrutiny because the World Anti-Doping Code mandates they are automatically put under investigation.

If sent home, Valieva would be one of the youngest athletes ever removed from the Olympics for doping.

How does the hearing work?

At the court's closed-door hearing, which will be held by video link, lawyers for the Russian Olympic team and Valieva can ask the three judges to listen to a personal statement from her.

“If she attends I assume it will be by video conference,” CAS director general Matthieu Reeb said at the court's hotel base. "It will be a long night. It could be four or five hours.”

The three CAS judges, from Italy, the United States and Slovenia, will consider only the request to re-impose the interim ban on Valieva. It will be chaired by Milan-based lawyer Fabio Iudica.

The American judge, Jeffrey Benz, is a former national-level figure skater and one of the most in-demand arbitrators for CAS cases. Vesna Bergant Rakočeviċ is a high court judge in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana.

Who is Kamila Valieva?

Valieva, 15, helped lead the Russian Olympic Committee to gold last week with a stunning performance during the team event, becoming the first woman to land a quadruple jump.

Her performance cemented her status as a figure skater to watch at the 2022 Winter Games.

Valieva has set nine world records during her career and is the second woman ever to land the quadruple toe loop.

What happened with Russia before that they were forced to compete under ROC?

Russian athletes are participating under the name of the “Russian Olympic Committee,” or ROC for short, because Russia received a two-year ban from the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2019 for its state-sponsored doping program. Between Dec. 17, 2020, and Dec. 17, 2022, no athlete can represent Russia at the Olympics, Paralympics or World Championships.

The ban was originally set to last four years, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced it to two years.

The doping scheme was first revealed in 2016 by a whistleblower and included at least 15 medal winners from the 2014 Olympics, held in Sochi, Russia.

In 2017, the International Olympic Committee suspended Russia. After an appeal by several Russian athletes who were not linked to the scheme, the Court of Arbitrations for Sport allowed Russian athletes to participate in global competitions as neutral competitors. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, Russian athletes who passed drug tests competed under the "Olympic Athletes from Russia," or OAR, delegation.

Russian officials have long denied wrongdoing in connection with the case.

Have there previous cases of doping using this drug?

The most famous case of trimetazidine in sports doping involved Chinese swimmer Sun Yang.

The three-time Olympic champion served a three-month ban in 2014 in a ruling that was initially not published by China’s anti-doping agency. WADA did not use its right to challenge that Chinese judgment with an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Because it was Sun’s first doping offense, he was punished more severely for his second, and more high-profile, offense of refusing to cooperate with a sample collections team at his home in China.

Russian bobsledder Nadezhda Sergeeva tested positive for trimetazidine at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. She was disqualified from the two-woman bob event and served an eight-month ban.

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Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva will testify in doping case hearing - ESPN

7:38 AM ET

• Associated Press

BEIJING -- Figure skater Kamila Valieva will testify by video at an appeal hearing Sunday that will decide whether the 15-year-old Russian star can still compete at the Beijing Olympics.

Just 30 minutes ahead of the hearing's start, Court of Arbitration for Sport director general Matthieu Reeb said Valieva was scheduled to speak by video to the panel. Reeb said the judges would have a Russian translator.

Three CAS judges will hear arguments in a closed-door session in a conference room at a Beijing hotel. Lawyers and officials for the parties are connecting to the case in the Winter Games host city and from Switzerland.

Reeb said the verdict is expected to be announced in Beijing on Monday afternoon.

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That is just over 24 hours ahead of Valieva's scheduled next Olympic event -- the women's individual competition, where she will be the strong favorite if cleared to compete.

Earlier Sunday, the teenager at the center of Russia's latest doping scandal, now stretching toward its second week and some form of resolution, seemed to be the only person in the world without a word to say about it.

Instead, Valieva continued to gamely practice at the Beijing Olympics amid a sea of media and camera crews as the CAS prepared to decide whether she is even allowed to compete this week. An expedited hearing was scheduled for Sunday night.

Valieva has yet to miss a scheduled practice since a drug test taken in December was flagged Monday for traces of a banned heart medication. That was the same day the reigning European champion helped the Russian skaters win team gold with a dynamic free skate in which she became the first woman to land a quad in Olympic competition.

It hasn't always been easy to plug along as the world implodes around her, though. On several occasions, the stress appeared to have gotten to Valieva, including a moment during Saturday's practice session when she fell during a triple axel and eventually skated to the boards and tearfully hugged her embattled coach, Eteri Tutberidze.

"Kamila is a strong girl," offered Russian ice dancer Nikita Katsalapov, who along with her partner, Victoria Sinitsina, have tried to provide Valieva some much-needed support as three judges in a Beijing hotel decide the fate of her Olympic dreams.

One way or another, Valieva will know soon whether she will be allowed to compete in the women's short program on Tuesday. The overwhelming favorite to win the gold medal drew the 26th starting spot Sunday among the 30 in the event.

"Victoria had a few minutes to share some words with her," Katsalapov said. "[Victoria] asked her to, like, calm down just a little bit, even if it's a hard situation around her right now."

Valieva has yet to speak to the media since the news conference following the Russians' team gold, when the seemingly unbeatable star looked every bit the precocious teenager. Between questions, she was snapping photos and texting with friends on her pink-cased cellphone, while squeezing tightly the plush Bing Dwen Dwen mascot given to each medalist.

Her joy was unmistakable: "We all did such a good job," she gushed. "I'm very proud of my team."

Now, all their gold medals hang in the balance, unlikely to be decided until long after the Olympics have ended.

The closed-loop system of the Olympic bubble, put in place to minimize the spread of COVID-19, has had the unintended consequence of giving Valieva some peace away from the rink. There are no people staking out the Olympic Village, trying to get even the shortest sound bite, providing her a bit of sanctuary from the nonstop news cycle.

Most critics taking to social media have largely supported Valieva, too, leveling their ire instead at Russian coaches and administrators responsible for her well-being. That includes Tutberidze, who also coaches teammates Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova, and who has earned a reputation for using up and discarding her young athletes.

"Let's be kind to the 15-year-old who produced a positive drug test because she lives in an institutionalized system where she was most likely guided and trusted the adults around her," tweeted Mirai Nagasu, a member of the U.S. figure skating team four years ago at the Pyeongchang Games.

Ashley Wagner, another American figure skater who competed at the 2014 Sochi Games, was appalled that Russia is at the center of another doping scandal yet seems to continually get a pass from the International Olympic Committee.

Wagner also took aim at a skating culture that often champions teenagers with little regard for their long-term health.

"Yes, a 15-year-old can be mature, and have a life that is already full of incredible experiences, but still, she is a kid," Wagner said. "She's not the first kid put in this position and she won't be the last unless we start taking this seriously."

At the center of the firestorm is Valieva, a high schooler with fuzzy pink skate guards and a beloved Pomeranian puppy back home. She did a perfect run-through of her record-setting short program during Sunday's early practice at the main rink, then returned for a second session at the nearby practice rink a few hours later.

At one point, as dozens of cameras clicked for pictures, Valieva reached down and touched the ice.

The wait is on to see whether she can again at the Olympics.

"It's always bad when something like that happens, so we're very sorry for any athlete," Russian ice dancer Gleb Smolkin said. "I think like everyone else, we are just waiting for the results of this story. We wish Kamila all the best. She's a great athlete, she's a great skater. She has a bright future."

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Russian skater Kamila Valieva's doping case to be heard Sunday at Olympics - ESPN

6:38 AM ET

• Associated Press

BEIJING -- Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva will find out Monday whether she can skate in the Winter Olympics women's competition, which starts a day later.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport announced Saturday that the expedited hearing on Valieva's doping case will be held Sunday night in Beijing, with a ruling by Monday afternoon.

The 15-year-old skater, the favorite to win the gold medal, broke down in tears after an emotional practice session Saturday.

Valieva's status at the Olympics became unclear after she tested positive for the banned heart medication, trimetazidine, in Russia in December. She won a gold medal in the team event five days ago, before the test result was known, and is scheduled to compete as an individual Tuesday.

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Valieva fell during practice on a triple axel -- a jump she typically executes without a problem -- while doing a run-through of her short program. She later landed two combos, a triple flip-triple toe loop and a triple lutz-triple toe loop before skating to the boards and giving her coach, Eteri Tutberidze, an emotional hug.

Earlier Saturday, the highest court in sports confirmed it has received appeals from both the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency challenging Valieva's right to compete.

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency gave her an automatic ban after testing positive. A day later, RUSADA lifted the provisional ban. The IOC filed an urgent appeal, which the Court of Arbitration of Sport will hear Sunday.

"It was sending a signal that we want this solved as quickly as it can be," IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said.

The legal process is unusually complex because of Valieva's status as a minor, which gives her protections in the anti-doping rule book.

Because Valieva is only 15, her ultimate penalty could be as little as a reprimand. Her entourage of coaches and doctors face more scrutiny because the World Anti-Doping Code mandates they are automatically put under investigation.

Valieva tested positive in a sample given on Dec. 25, when she won the Russian national championships.

That sample was the responsibility of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, known as RUSADA. It was sent to a WADA-approved laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden, for analysis.

On Monday -- hours after Valieva's skating helped the Russians win the Olympic team event -- the Stockholm lab notified RUSADA the test was positive.

The CAS panel of three judges will consider only the request to re-impose the interim ban on Valieva.

Whether the Russian team keeps the gold medal in the team event will be decided later.

The full investigation of the doping case is for RUSADA to handle and could take months. That could also be appealed to CAS.

One of the lawyers who will judge Valieva's doping case is an American who was once picked by Maria Sharapova's legal team for her appeal over a similar performance-enhancing drug.

Jeffrey Benz was named Saturday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport to sit on the three-judge panel for the urgent case of Valieva.

The verdict will come from Benz and his fellow judges, who are from Italy and Slovenia.

The panel for the closed-door, video-link hearing was picked by the court, known as the CAS, from a select group of nine judges made available for special duty at the Beijing Olympics.

Neither side in the Valieva case was allowed to pick a preferred judge -- as they would in a typical case outside the Olympics -- but the Russians might be happy with the American.

Benz was an elite figure skater, competing in ice dance at the national level in the United States, and has been picked for several cases involving Russian sports as one of the most in-demand judges at the CAS.

In Sharapova's appeal at the Switzerland-based court in 2016, Benz was chosen on behalf of the Russian tennis star to serve on the three-judge panel. She had been banned for two years after testing positive for the banned heart medication meldonium at the Australian Open. The CAS ruled she was not entirely at fault and her ban was cut to 15 months.

Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine, another banned heart medication.

Another skating case at the court, in 2017, saw Benz picked by the Russian national federation and RUSADA, the anti-doping agency that is a party in the Valieva hearing on Sunday.

That time, Benz and his fellow judges extended the ban for Russian short track speedskater Alexandra Malkova. She served a 20-month ban instead of three months.

The Valieva case is also not the first involving Russian athletes and Benz as a judge for Olympic eligibility.

A group of 67 track and field athletes took a fast-track case to the CAS in July 2016 amid fallout from the Russian doping scandal and frenetic legal activity ahead of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. The judges upheld the rules of track's governing body, which excluded the Russians.

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Opinion | Alabama's redistricting case shows — again — whose rights matter to the Supreme Court - The Washington Post

Whose rights matter? As the Supreme Court grapples with when to intervene in an ongoing case and when to hold back, it slings around a lot of impartial-sounding legal jargon: “likelihood of success on the merits,” “balance of equities,” “irreparable harm.” But the fundamental question boils down to the justices’ conflicting visions of whose rights they deem worthy of protection — and whose they are willing to see violated.

Time after time, in case after case, from capital punishment to voting, from pandemic restrictions to abortion, the conservative justices’ priorities manifest themselves. They leap to act on behalf of state officials who might be inconvenienced by having to wait for a full ruling; they are similarly solicitous of religious individuals who claim that their constitutional protections are being infringed. Meanwhile, inmates facing execution, women seeking abortions, minority voters challenging voting restrictions — their arguments for urgent intervention are routinely discounted and rejected.

This judicial double standard was once again on flagrant display Monday as the court, splitting 5 to 4, intervened in an Alabama redistricting case. African Americans, who account for 27 percent of Alabama residents, constitute a majority in just one of its seven congressional districts. A lower-court panel found that the redrawn districts violate the Voting Rights Act.

The justices agreed to review that ruling — fair enough. But in the meantime, the conservative majority stepped in to put on hold the lower court’s order that the state draw a new map, in time for the midterm elections, including a second majority-Black district.

Whose rights matter? In this case, the conservative majority airily privileged the convenience of state legislators over the ability of Black voters to secure fair representation — all while pretending it was simply following the rules rather than putting a heavy thumb on the scale for one side.

“Pretending” might overstate matters, since the majority did not explain its action. That was left to a concurrence from Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. Joined by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., Kavanaugh insisted that blocking the lower-court order was a simple matter of maintaining regular judicial process, letting the case be decided after full briefing and argument. He invoked what he described as a “bedrock tenet of election law” — that courts shouldn’t “swoop in and re-do a State’s election laws in the period close to an election.”

Except that Alabama’s primary isn’t until late May. Absentee voting will start on March 30 — but that leaves plenty of time for the legislature to redraw a few districts. It took just five days to produce the new map. “Late judicial tinkering with election laws can lead to disruption and to unanticipated and unfair consequences for candidates, political parties, and voters, among others,” Kavanaugh lamented.

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What’s missing here is any expression — any hint — of concern for the countervailing rights of Black voters. Inconvenience to state officials who have to scramble to redraw maps or candidates who aren’t sure about the contours of their districts? Huge. Infringement on the ability of Black residents to have their political voices fully heard? Not so much.

Alabama has an ugly history of voting discrimination. Black candidates have rarely succeeded in winning election, especially to statewide and federal office. This case involves a challenge under the Voting Rights Act, which is supposed to protect the rights of minority voters. So you might think those rights would be given some consideration — especially since the court intervening to grant a stay is supposed to be an “extraordinary” action.

It would be bad enough if the court’s skewed approach to dispensing justice were limited to voting rights cases. It’s not.

Whose rights matter? Not the rights of women seeking abortions in Texas. The court has stood by for five months, allowing the flagrantly unconstitutional Texas law prohibiting abortion after six weeks to remain in effect. What interests of Texas would be grievously harmed if the law were put on hold while the case is litigated — and how could they possibly outweigh the rights of women in the state to determine whether to continue their pregnancies? Talk about irreparable harm.

Whose rights matter? Not the rights of those facing imminent execution. The conservative majority (this time with Justice Amy Coney Barrett disagreeing) intervened last month to allow the execution of an Alabama man, Matthew Reeves. Two lower courts had said the execution violated federal disabilities law because the man lacked the cognitive ability to fill out a form choosing his preferred method of execution.

The question wasn’t whether the state could go ahead and kill him — just whether it would have to wait a few weeks to do so by a newly approved method called nitrogen hypoxia rather than by lethal injection. (Reeves concluded, once someone was able to explain the form to him, that lethal injection would be more painful.) A few weeks’ delay hardly seems like asking too much.

Whose rights matter? Oh yes, the rights of religious individuals who claim they are being discriminated against — for example, by pandemic restrictions. In those cases, the conservative justices are only too happy to hasten to their defense. Consider the conservative majority’s indulgence of some New York synagogues and churches that challenged pandemic restrictions on in-person services in 2020. As Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. pointed out in dissent, the attendance limits about which they complained had already been lifted.

When it comes to this Supreme Court, some rights are more equal than others. Some state officials deserve deference and accommodation; others are subject to judicial second-guessing. This is two-tier justice, as sloppily reasoned as it is unfairly dispensed.

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154 kids, 1 case manager: Hillsborough’s foster care staff crisis. - Tampa Bay Times

TAMPA — The care and safety of foster children depends on their case manager.

They make sure foster kids attend school, get counseling and medical treatment. They supervise visits with parents and siblings. Case managers also attend the child’s court hearings and, by law, must set eyes on the child under their care at least once a month. On top of all that, it’s their job to make sure parents follow the court’s plan to get their children back.

It’s a heavy burden, which is why the Child Welfare League of America recommends that those in the job oversee no more than 17 cases at a time.

But in Hillsborough County, child welfare experts are sounding the alarm that case managers are overburdened with dozens of cases, kids and families.

An internal report reviewed by the Tampa Bay Times showed LifeStream Behavioral Center, one of four nonprofits that provides case managers to Hillsborough’s primary foster care agency Eckerd Connects, had seven employees managing 80 or more children and four responsible for at least 90.

One caseworker juggled 154 foster kids.

If that employee worked 10-hour days, they would only have 80 minutes a month to check on each child — hardly enough time to conduct home visits, go to court and check on their well-being.

Related: Hillsborough’s $87 million foster care contract has just 1 bidder

The problem is a shortage of case managers. Hillsborough has only 112 overseeing more than 3,100 children who are either in foster care, staying with relatives or being supervised because of concerns about abuse or neglect, according to Eckerd Connects data.

LifeSteam is budgeted to hire 48 case managers but had only 13 on staff as of Feb 7, according to state data. Three of those were in training and ineligible to take on cases. While each case typically involves one set of parents and all their children, the internal report produced last month by Eckerd Connects, cites the actual number of foster children under supervision.

“It’s extraordinarily concerning and, frankly, dangerous for children in Hillsborough County,” said Robin Rosenberg, deputy director of Florida’s Children First, an advocacy organization.

What is happening in Hillsborough is also happening across Florida as counties struggle to retain and recruit foster care case managers. Nearly 600 case manager positions statewide — around 40 percent of the budgeted workforce — are either vacant or filled by someone who hasn’t completed the necessary training to manage cases, said Kurt Kelley, president of the Florida Coalition for Children, a group that lobbies on behalf of primary foster agencies like Eckerd Connects.

’Stretched too thin’

Hillsborough’s overburdened case managers are struggling to do their jobs. Only 25.1 percent of children entering foster care in Hillsborough leave within a year, the second-lowest rate among Florida’s 19 child welfare circuits. That is also well below the state’s target of 40.5 percent. Children whose cases are handled by LifeStream Behavioral Center case managers fare even worse with 18 percent exiting foster care within a year. That’s despite the county having about 200 fewer children in foster care since the end of 2018.

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Rosenberg said foster parents have told her that some case managers have delegated their monthly visit with a foster child to other case managers, who fit the trip in during lunch breaks or after work. She is worried that case managers won’t have enough time to work with parents, increasing the risk that children will languish longer in the system.

Eckerd Connects Community Alternative building in Tampa pictured on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. [ IVY CEBALLO | Times ]

Some parents are already missing court-ordered visits with their children, lawyers recently told Hillsborough Circuit Judge Katherine Essrig, who oversees dependency court. Case manager visits with parents should typically start within 72 hours of a child being removed and are considered vital to reassure distressed children that they have not been abandoned. The judge said lawyers told her some of those still haven’t taken place weeks later.

“It’s evident to all who work in the system there are too few case workers and those working are stretched too thin,” Essrig said. “It’s very difficult, if not impossible, for them to do their job properly.”

Eckerd Connects sends weekly reports to the Florida Department of Children and Families that flag how many workers have caseloads above 25 and 30 children. That includes the Jan. 14 report that noted one manager was supervising 154 children.

After the Times inquired about the situation in Hillsborough, the state agency announced it would send its workers to conduct welfare checks on children whose case managers are overburdened

’We have to be more competitive’

An estimated 33 million workers have quit their jobs since spring 2021 in what has become known as the “Great Resignation.”

That has left companies and agencies struggling to recruit and retain employees.

The foster care sector may be more vulnerable than most, Kelley said. The average starting salary for Florida case managers is around $38,000 a year. That’s not competitive for a demanding, high-stress job that involves working with parents who may be emotional, if not hostile, about having their children removed, Kelley said.

“They can now go and get a different type of work for more money and have less threats on their lives and less stress,” he said. “We have to be more competitive and have to make sure we have a well of workforce resources.”

Reports show Hillsborough case managers have been quitting in droves. The turnover rate at LifeStream was almost 150 percent for the past year and across the county the rate was 138 percent.

“The cost of (employee) turnover is absolutely debilitating to our system of care,” Kelley said.

In a joint statement, officials from Eckerd Connects and LifeStream cited the pandemic and the job market as factors in the shortage of case managers.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unparalleled staffing challenges for employers across the country, including in the child welfare system in Florida,” the statement reads. “Case manager turnover is an ongoing challenge for many child welfare agencies, as most resign within three years of employment, and is not isolated to the Tampa Bay area.”

Eckerd Connects is taking steps to relieve the pressure on LifeStream, said spokesperson Ron Bartlett. In March, the agency started an in-house case management unit and transferred 347 children from LifeStream. The nonprofit also was taken out of the rotation to accept new foster children for four weeks in late 2021. And it hasn’t taken on any new cases in about a month.

Bartlett said Eckerd Connects plans to transfer 200 more children to its in-house case management team.

‘We can stop the drain’

The state put Eckerd Connects under a corrective action plan in 2018 for several issues it found in Hillsborough, including its failure to find placements for teens who end up sleeping in offices and for not maintaining adequate staffing levels.

The state agency announced in November that it would not renew Eckerd Connects’ $80 million contract to run foster care in Pinellas and Pasco counties. The decision came after Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said he intended to launch a criminal investigation into the nonprofit, which allowed children to sleep in “deplorable conditions” in unlicensed offices.

Related: Eckerd Connects loses child welfare contract in Pinellas, Pasco

One child living in an Eckerd Connects’ office was hospitalized after falling off a ladder and cutting open his stomach while trying to climb onto the roof, Gualtieri said. Another overdosed on someone else’s prescription medication.

The nonprofit responded to the loss of its contract in Pinellas and Pasco by announcing it would walk away from its $87 million Hillsborough contract when it expires June 30.

“The Department expects Eckerd to fulfill its contractual obligations by continuously ensuring an adequate number of qualified and trained staff are available to provide services,” said Department of Children and Families spokesperson Laura Walthall in an email, “but unfortunately, it once again appears that Eckerd is failing to meet the needs of the community.”

Florida law does not mandate a specific ratio of foster children to caseworkers, but it does require the Department of Children and Families give foster agencies sufficient funding so case managers are not assigned more than 19 cases.

Related: Hillsborough loses big as state fails to divide child welfare money by need

Foster care agencies have complained they don’t get enough money to meet that target and that state funds are not allocated based on the number of children served. That is the result of a 2015 rule intended to shield agencies from declines in funding when the number of children they serve falls.

But it also meant there was no guarantee that those agencies would receive extra funds when foster care populations rose, which is what has happened in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties over the past five years.

One foster care provider that has taken steps to tackle the case manager turnover crisis is the Citrus Family Care Network, which runs the child welfare system in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.

Its foster population has fallen by several thousand over the past seven years. Because its funding has remained steady, however, it has been able to increase the starting salary for case managers by about $10,000 to $52,000. The agency reports that its case manager turnover rate averaged 4.2 percent over the past 12 months. The average caseload for each worker was about 16 children.

“All of a sudden they got tremendous applicants and they’re not losing anybody,” said Kelley, the lobbyist for lead agencies.

He said the preliminary budget proposed in the Florida House in this year’s legislative session includes an additional $127 million for the child welfare system. If that is matched in the state Senate, it would mean the Department of Children and Families could fully fund every agency based on the number of children they serve.

That would include funding to hire more case managers and pay higher salaries, he said.

“This is something that no one could have foreseen — this came upon us so strong and so fast,” Kelley said. “I’m convinced if we get the money in the right place, we can stop the drain.”

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