Reynolds v. Giuliani , 506 F.3d 183 ( 2007 )

Judge STRAUB concurs in part and dissents in part, in a separate opinion.

Judge WALLACE concurs in a separate opinion.

CARDAMONE, Circuit Judge:

Ordinarily the state and federal governments, under whose parallel jurisdiction we all live, rub along together pretty well. When they conflict, it is unlike when “ignorant armies clash by night” as Matthew Arnold famously phrased it. Instead there is forethought, policy considerations and, as here, legal argumentation. This appeal presents an occasion when the powers confided to the federal courts and those matters reserved to the states conflict. In the shift made ten years ago by Congress from an emphasis on welfare and food stamps to a focus on employment as a solution to long term poverty, the State of New York delegated the transition to the City of New York, but retained the power to supervise the City’s administrator of its changing assistance programs. New York City responded to the new mandate by revamping its infrastructure and policies to encourage welfare applicants to find jobs. Undoubtedly, the reforms posed an enormous administrative challenge to the City.

In December 1998 seven welfare applicants (together with other class members where appropriate, plaintiffs or appellees) brought a putative class action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 on behalf of all New York City residents who have sought, are seeking or will seek to apply for food stamps, Medicaid or cash assistance at the City’s job centers. The complaint was lodged against defendants Rudolph Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City and Jason Turner, former Commissioner of the New York City Department of Social Services (collectively City or city defendants), as well as Brian J. Wing, former Commissioner of the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, and Barbara DeBuono, former Commissioner of the New York State Department of Health (collectively state, state defendants or appellants), each in his or her official capacity. Plaintiffs alleged that the City engaged in unlawful conduct aimed to discourage and deter plaintiffs from obtaining benefits to which they were entitled and that the state failed to properly oversee and supervise the City’s administration of assistance programs.

Almost seven years later, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Pauley, J.) awarded plaintiffs permanent injunctive relief, directing city defendants to comply with specified provisions of federal and state law and directing state defendants to supervise the City’s adherence to the injunction. Initially all the defendants appealed the judgment, but the City withdrew its appeal prior to oral argument before this Court. We are left then with the state defendants’ challenge to the district court’s judgment. We agree with appellants’ contention that the record before us does not support the imposition of liability on the state or warrant the issuance of a permanent injunction against it.

BACKGROUND

The Food Stamp Act, 7 U.S.C. § 2011 et seq., and the Medicaid Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1396 et seq., created cooperative federal-state programs aiming, respectively, to raise nutritional levels and furnish medical care to needy individuals. See 7 U.S.C. § 2011 (1999); 42 U.S.C. § 1396 (2003). The programs are implemented by state and local agencies under the aegis of the United States Department of Agriculture (food stamps) and the United States Department of Health and Human Services (Medicaid). 7 U.S.C. § 2020(a), (d) (1999); 42 U.S.C. §§ 1396, 1396c (2003).

In 1996 Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, 42 U.S.C. § 601 et seq. (2003) (Welfare Reform Act), and set in motion dramatic changes in the delivery of welfare benefits nationwide. Notably, the Welfare Reform Act introduced the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program with the express purpose of minimizing dependence on governmental benefits by promoting employment. See 42 U.S.C. §§ 601(a)(2), 602(a) (2003). The new program contained mandatory work requirements and time limits on eligibility for benefits. See, e.g., 42 U.S.C. § 602(a)(1)(A)(ii).

A. District Court Findings as to City Defendants’ Non-Compliance

The New York City agency in charge of local implementation of food stamp, Medicaid and cash assistance programs is the Human Resources Administration (city agency). The city agency processed welfare applications at 31 income support centers until 1998, at which time it began to convert the income support centers into job centers in response to the new federal policy reflected in the Welfare Reform Act. The aptly named job centers encouraged applicants to find work and required them to undergo a rigorous application process, including interviews with financial and employment planners. Early evidence suggested a “culture of improper deterrence” prevailed at the newly converted job centers, which was reflected in a decline in the number of applicants who received benefits from a City facility after its conversion to a job center.

In the course of this litigation, the City audited 29 income support and job centers to assess their compliance with federal and state law (September 2000 audit). On the basis of the September 2000 audit and other performance measures, the district court determined city defendants violated various rights secured to plaintiffs by federal law in four ways.

First, the City failed to provide a significant portion of eligible applicants with expedited food stamps within the mandated period of seven days. See 7 U.S.C. § 2020(e)(9) (1999); 7 C.F.R. § 273.2(i)(3)(i) (2007). Second, although the City was required to make separate determinations with regard to applicants’ eligibility for food stamps and Medicaid after their applications for cash assistance were denied, see 7 U.S.C. §§ 2014(b), 2020(i)(2) (1999); 7 C.F.R. § 273.2(b)(3) (2007); 42 U.S.C. § 1396a(a)(8) (2003); 42 C.F.R. §§ 435.906, 435.913 (2006), such determinations were made infrequently. Third, half of the withdrawn applicants audited were found to have been improperly withdrawn as a result of the City’s mishandling of notices and records. See 42 C.F.R. § 435.913 (2006), 7 C.F.R. § 273.2(c)(6) (2007). Fourth, the City frequently failed to give adequate and complete notices to applicants regarding eligibility decisions, in violation of the plaintiffs’ due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment and in violation of the regulations. See U.S. Const., amend. XIV, § 1; 7 C.F.R. § 273.10(g)(1) (2007); 42 C.F.R. §§ 435.911, 435.912 (2006).

B. The State Defendants

The Food Stamp and Medicaid Acts authorize the states to vest local agencies with responsibility for day-to-day administration of these benefits programs. See 7 U.S.C. § 2012(n) (1999) (defining State agency to include counterpart local agencies “in those States where such assistance programs are operated on a decentralized basis”); 42 U.S.C. § 1396a(a)(5) (2003) (requiring each state to designate a “single State agency” to “administer or to supervise the administration of [the State’s] plan”). The acts and their implementing regulations make participating states responsible for supervisory tasks, including the development of plans for statewide implementation of the programs, 7 U.S.C. § 2020(d); 42 U.S.C. § 1396a(a)(5), monitoring and evaluation of local agencies’ performance, 7 C.F.R. § 275.5 (2007); 42 C.F.R. § 435.903(a) (2006), and corrective action to reduce deficiencies in local administration, 7 C.F.R. §§ 275.16-.19 (2007); 42 C.F.R. § 435.903(b) (2006).

New York State conducts its food stamp and Medicaid programs on a decentralized basis through 58 local services districts— one of which is New York City — under the supervision of the Office of Temporary Disability Assistance and the Department of Health. It is undisputed that both of these state agencies took numerous steps toward improving the City’s administration of its benefits programs.

C. District Court Proceedings

On December 16, 1998 the named plaintiffs brought a putative class action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the city defendants deterred families and individuals from applying for food stamps, including expedited food stamps, and Medicaid benefits; failed to make separate and timely determinations as to applicants’ eligibility for Medicaid, food stamps and cash assistance; and failed to inform beneficiaries regarding the status of their applications. The complaint further asserted that state defendants’ failure to properly oversee the City’s administration of the food stamp and Medicaid programs violated plaintiffs’ rights under the respective acts and under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The district court issued a preliminary injunction in January 1999 requiring the city defendants to comply with the federal and state laws relied on by plaintiffs and enjoining the City from converting income support centers into job centers, pending the district court’s approval of a corrective plan relating to the job centers. Reynolds v. Giuliani (Reynolds I), 35 F.Supp.2d 331, 347-48 (S.D.N.Y.1999).

In May 1999 the district court approved the City’s corrective plan and modified the injunction to allow the city defendants to convert three income support centers into job centers. Reynolds v. Giuliani (Reynolds II), 43 F.Supp.2d 492, 498 (S.D.N.Y.1999). To obtain further relief from the injunction, the district court required city defendants to prepare statistical evidence showing that the improvements set forth in the corrective plan had materialized. Id.

In July 2000 the district court determined the City’s most recent evidence was incomplete and unreliable and denied its motion to vacate the injunction. Reynolds v. Giuliani(Reynolds III), 118 F.Supp.2d 352, 377, 380 (S.D.N.Y.2000). In the same decision, the district court granted plaintiffs’ motion to certify as a class all New York City residents who have sought, are seeking, or will seek to apply for food stamps, Medicaid, or cash assistance at a job center. Id. at 392.

At this point in the litigation, plaintiffs’ action against state defendants .was not being vigorously prosecuted. Before the district court issued the preliminary injunction, plaintiffs conceded that injunctive relief against the state defendants at that time would be premature. Reynolds I, 35 F.Supp.2d at 340 n. 7. Indeed, even later, in the preparation of their pre-trial memo, plaintiffs did not assert any claims against the state defendants.

As a result, the state defendants moved to dismiss the complaint against them, asserting, inter alia, that plaintiffs failed to allege facts on which relief could be granted. In Reynolds III, the district court rejected the state defendants’ arguments and denied their motion. 118 F.Supp.2d at 392. Importantly, the district court held that the state defendants were liable on a theory of non-delegable duty, under which theory the City’s violations gave rise, by operation of law, to corresponding claims against the state defendants. Id. at 386.

In February 2001 plaintiffs consented to vacatur of that portion of the preliminary injunction that stayed the conversion of income support centers into job centers. In April 2001 the district court held a bench trial at which it assessed new evidence, including the September 2000 audit. Following its memorandum opinion in February 2005, Reynolds v. Giuliani (Reynolds IV), No. 98 Civ. 8877, 2005 WL 342106 (S.D.N.Y. Feb.14, 2005), the trial court issued its final judgment on December 14, 2005 enjoining the City to comply with specified provisions of New York State law, the Food Stamp Act and the Medicaid Act and their implementing regulations. Reynolds v. Giuliani (Reynolds V), No. 98 Civ. 8877, 2005 WL 3428213 (S.D.N.Y. Dec.14, 2005). The state defendants were directed in the judgment to supervise the City’s compliance with the injunction and were assigned specific monitoring duties, such as semi-annual reviews of the City’s performance and regular reporting to plaintiffs.

The state defendants appeal the district court’s December 14, 2005 judgment.

DISCUSSION

Following a bench trial, we review the district court’s conclusions of law de novo and its factual findings for clear error. MacWade v. Kelly, 460 F.3d 260, 267 (2d Cir.2006). The trial court’s grant of a permanent injunction is reviewed for abuse of discretion. Kapps v. Wing, 404 F.3d 105, 122-23 (2d Cir.2005).

I Plaintiffs’ Theories of State Liability

Following the withdrawal of the City’s appeal, state defendants declined to challenge the district court’s conclusion that the city defendants violated the Food Stamp and Medicaid Acts or to dispute its holding that certain provisions of these acts give rise to federal rights enforceable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. In short, state defendants maintain that whatever injury plaintiffs have suffered as a result of a violation of their rights under these Acts is a subject for redress from the City of New York. Hence, the single question remaining before us is whether state defendants are liable to plaintiffs for the city defendants’ violations of the Food Stamp Act, Medicaid Act, their implementing regulations or the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

As numerous theories of liability against the state have appeared in the course of this litigation, we pause to clarify those sufficiently presented to warrant review. First, we note plaintiffs’ cause of action was asserted and defended on appeal under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The district court’s description of the complaint as asserting private rights of action in a different legal context does not accord with our reading of plaintiffs’ complaint. In both its preliminary and jurisdictional statements, the complaint makes clear that plaintiffs intended to bring this action under § 1983. In their appeal brief, plaintiffs proffer no argument as to a separate vehicle for their claims, except one stray assertion that the state’s duty to supervise is enforceable outside § 1983. Accordingly, we proceed to assess the state defendants’ liability under § 1983.

The first theory proposed by plaintiffs, but never explored by the district court, was not preserved on appeal. We have already observed that the Food Stamp Act, Medicaid Act and their implementing regulations outline a state’s supervisory duties. Plaintiffs suggested in district court that these statutory provisions gave them rights to supervision enforceable against the state defendants. On appeal, however, plaintiffs made no effort to anchor liability on these supervision-specific provisions and labeled “irrelevant” appellants’ argument that 42 U.S.C. § 1396a(a)(5) does not create privately enforceable rights of action. Accordingly, we think a theory of plaintiffs having private rights of action against the state under the Food Stamp Act and the Medicaid Act has been abandoned.

A second theory plaintiffs assert to hold state defendants liable received passing attention from the district court. Under Monell v. Dep’t of Social Servs. of the City of N.Y., 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978), state defendants may be liable when a state policy or custom results in the violation of plaintiffs’ federal rights. Plaintiffs maintain the state’s failure adequately to supervise city defendants is persuasive evidence of such a policy or custom.

A third theory, one which was adopted by the district court, grounds the state defendants’ liability in their non-delegable duty to ensure the welfare programs are administered in compliance with federal law. By this logic, a state may delegate day-to-day administration to local entities, but it remains legally liable to plaintiffs for any non-compliance by its delegatee. We turn now to assess the second and third theories of liability in the context of § 1983 jurisprudence.

II Liability Under Monell

In Monell, the Supreme Court ruled for the first time that municipalities were liable under § 1983 to be sued as “persons” within the meaning of that statute, when the alleged unlawful action implemented or was executed pursuant to a governmental policy or custom. 436 U.S. at 691, 694, 98 S.Ct. 2018; see also City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378, 385, 109 S.Ct. 1197, 103 L.Ed.2d 412 (1989). Section 1983 provides in relevant part

Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage ... subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States ... to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.

42 U.S.C. § 1983. In light of the statute’s legislative history and language, Monell reasoned that § 1983 rejects the imposition of vicarious liability on a municipality for the torts of its employees as incompatible with § 1983’s causation requirement. 436 U.S. at 691-94, 98 S.Ct. 2018; see also City of Canton, 489 U.S. at 385, 109 S.Ct. 1197 (“Respondeat superior or vicarious liability will not attach under § 1983.”); City of St. Louis v. Praprotnik, 485 U.S. 112, 122, 108 S.Ct. 915, 99 L.Ed.2d 107 (1988); Amnesty Am. v. Town of West Hartford, 361 F.3d 113, 125 (2d Cir.2004).

An official capacity suit against a public servant is treated as one against the governmental entity itself. Monell, 436 U.S. at 690 n. 55, 98 S.Ct. 2018; Kentucky v. Graham, 473 U.S. 159, 169, 105 S.Ct. 3099, 87 L.Ed.2d 114 (1985). Thus, a state official may be sued in his or her official capacity for injunctive or other prospective relief, but only when the state itself is the moving force behind the deprivation. Graham, 473 U.S. at 166, 169, 105 S.Ct. 3099; Huminski v. Corsones, 396 F.3d 53, 70 (2d Cir.2005).

A. Applicability of Monell

Plaintiffs contend Monell’s policy or custom requirement and its concomitant bar on respondeat superior liability are not applicable to them because they seek prospective relief only. They cite Chaloux v. Killeen, 886 F.2d 247 (9th Cir.1989), which held that Monell did not govern an action for prospective relief against a county that enforced unconstitutional laws. Id. at 250. Chaloux is distinguishable from our case insofar as it dealt with a municipality’s liability for state policy — what one scholar coined “respondeat inferior liability,” David J. Barron, Why (and When) Cities Have a Stake in Enforcing the Constitution, 115 Yale L.J. 2218, 2236 (2006)— rather than a supervisor’s responsibility for the actions of subordinates. Monell did not address directly this application of vicarious liability and it is not relevant to the case at bar. See id.; see also Chaloux, 886 F.2d at 251.

To the extent Chaloux proposes to exempt all claims for prospective relief from Monell’s policy or custom requirement, we are not persuaded by its logic. Monell draws no distinction between injunctive and other forms of relief and, by its own terms, requires attribution of misconduct to a municipal policy or custom in suits seeking monetary, declaratory or in-junctive relief. Monell, 436 U.S. at 690, 98 S.Ct. 2018; see Dirrane v. Brookline Police Dep’t, 315 F.3d 65, 71 (1st Cir.2002); L.A. Police Protective League v. Gates, 995 F.2d 1469, 1477 (9th Cir.1993) (Fletcher, J., concurring) (“Monell ... simply holds that a municipality may not be sued at all unless the challenged conduct represents the official policy or custom of the municipality.”).

We join several of our sister circuits in adopting the view that Monell’s bar on respondeat superior liability under § 1983 applies regardless of the category of relief sought. See Gernetzke v. Kenosha Unified Sch. Dist. No. 1, 274 F.3d 464, 468 (7th Cir.2001) (stating predominant but not unanimous view that Monell’s holding applies to claims seeking injunctive relief); accord Dirrane, 315 F.3d at 71 & n. 4 (collecting cases).

B. Failure to Supervise Claim

Municipal liability in Monell was based on the city’s affirmative conduct, that is, its official policy requiring pregnant employees to take unpaid leaves of absence before such leaves were medically necessary. 436 U.S. at 660-61, 98 S.Ct. 2018. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court has left a narrow opening for § 1983 claims like the one we address here seeking liability based not on affirmative conduct but on a government official’s failure to act. See, e.g., City of Canton, 489 U.S. at 387-92, 109 S.Ct. 1197; id. at 394-95, 109 S.Ct. 1197 (O’Connor, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (“Where ... a claim of municipal liability is predicated upon a failure to act, the requisite degree of fault must be shown by proof of background events and circumstances which establish that the ‘policy of inaction’ is the functional equivalent of a decision by the city itself to violate the Constitution.”).

Specifically, MonelVs policy or custom requirement is satisfied where a local government is faced with a pattern of misconduct and does nothing, compelling the conclusion that the local government has acquiesced in or tacitly authorized its subordinates’ unlawful actions. See Jett v. Dallas Indep. Sch. Dist., 491 U.S. 701, 737, 109 S.Ct. 2702, 105 L.Ed.2d 598 (1989) (noting municipal liability may attach where policy maker acquiesces in longstanding practice that constitutes “standard operating procedure” of local government); Green v. City of N.Y., 465 F.3d 65, 80 (2d Cir.2006). Such a pattern, if sufficiently persistent or widespread as to acquire the force of law, may constitute a policy or custom within the meaning of Monell. 436 U.S. at 690-91, 98 S.Ct. 2018; Jeffes v. Barnes, 208 F.3d 49, 61 (2d Cir.2000); Turpin v. Mailet, 619 F.2d 196, 201 (2d Cir.1980).

It follows therefore that a government supervisor who fails to take obvious steps to prevent manifest misconduct is subject to suit under § 1983 in certain, limited circumstances. See City of Canton, 489 U.S. at 387, 109 S.Ct. 1197. In City of Canton, the Supreme Court held a city’s failure to train its subordinates satisfies the policy or custom requirement only where the need to act is so obvious, and the inadequacy of current practices so likely to result in a deprivation of federal rights, that the municipality or official can be found deliberately indifferent to the need. Id. at 390, 109 S.Ct. 1197.

Although City of Canton addressed a claim of a failure to train, the stringent causation and culpability requirements set out in that case have been applied to a broad range of supervisory liability claims. See, e.g., Amnesty, 361 F.3d at 127 (failure to supervise); Berry v. City of Detroit, 25 F.3d 1342, 1354 (6th Cir.1994) (failure to discipline). In Walker v. City of N.Y., 974 F.2d 293, 297-98 (2d Cir.1992), we outlined the requirements that must be met before a local government or official’s failure to act amounts to deliberate indifference. Plaintiffs are required to submit evidence that defendants knew to a moral certainty that the City would confront a given situation; the situation presented the City with a difficult choice or there was a history of its mishandling the situation; and the wrong choice by the City would frequently cause the deprivation of plaintiffs’ rights. Id.

Walker, which decided an appeal from a dismissal on the pleadings, is best understood as establishing the circumstances that give rise to a defendant supervisor’s duty to act or, more precisely, the circumstances under which a supervisor’s failure to act triggers liability under § 1983. See id. at 294-95, 297-98. At later stages of litigation, a plaintiff must establish also that defendant breached its duty to act by failing to make meaningful efforts to address the risk of harm to plaintiffs. See Amnesty, 361 F.3d at 129-30 & n. 10 (requiring plaintiffs to furnish evidence that training program was actually inadequate); Vann v. City of N.Y., 72 F.3d 1040, 1049 (2d Cir.1995) (allowing inference of deliberate indifference where repeated complaints are followed by no meaningful attempt to investigate or forestall incidents).

Here, the state did respond to the City’s non-compliance, and so plaintiffs faced a heavy burden of proof in showing that the state’s response was so patently inadequate to the task as to amount to deliberate indifference. See, e.g., Sarus v. Rotundo, 831 F.2d 397, 401 (2d Cir.1987) (requiring proof that failure to supervise was severe); Young v. City of Providence ex rel. Napolitano, 404 F.3d 4, 27 (1st Cir.2005) (“[A] training program must be quite deficient in order for the deliberate indifference standard to be met: the fact that training is imperfect or not in the precise form a plaintiff would prefer is insufficient to make such a showing”). Such inadequacy must reflect a deliberate choice among various alternatives, rather than negligence or bureaucratic inaction. Pembaur v. Cincinnati, 475 U.S. 469, 483-84, 106 S.Ct. 1292, 89 L.Ed.2d 452 (1986). Further, as plaintiffs in the case at hand challenge a many-layered supervisory program spanning several years — rather than an isolated incident of non-supervision— they are required to identify with specificity the inadequacies giving rise to their claim. Cf. Amnesty, 361 F.3d at 127 n. 8, 128 (not requiring plaintiff to specify obvious supervisory deficiency based on allegation that chief passively witnessed police brutality).

Plaintiffs must prove in the end that the state defendants’ inadequate supervision actually caused or was the moving force behind the alleged violations. Polk County v. Dodson, 454 U.S. 312, 326, 102 S.Ct. 445, 70 L.Ed.2d 509 (1981); see also City of Oklahoma v. Tuttle, 471 U.S. 808, 823, 105 S.Ct. 2427, 85 L.Ed.2d 791 (1985) (plurality opinion) (requiring at minimum an “affirmative link” between policy and alleged violations); City of Canton, 489 U.S. at 391, 109 S.Ct. 1197 (“[T]he identified deficiency ... must be closely related to the ultimate injury.”); Zahrey v. Coffey, 221 F.3d 342, 350 (2d Cir.2000) (describing causation as an element that must be proved to hold a municipality liable under § 1983).

In sum, plaintiffs’ claims against state defendants are governed by MonelVs policy or custom requirement, which obligates plaintiffs to (1) establish state defendants’ duty to act by proving they should have known their inadequate supervision was so likely to result in the alleged deprivations so as constitute deliberate indifference under Walker; (2) identify obvious and severe deficiencies in the state defendants’ supervision that reflect a purposeful rather than negligent course of action; and (3) show a causal relationship between the failure to supervise and the alleged deprivations to plaintiffs. As we explain in a moment, we do not think plaintiffs successfully discharged that obligation.

Ill Liability Under a Nom-Delegable Duty Theory

Plaintiffs maintained, and the district court agreed, the Food Stamp and Medicaid Acts imposed on participating states a non-delegable duty to administer the programs in such a manner that any state electing to operate its programs on a decentralized basis may only fulfill its statutory obligations by ensuring compliance by its local agencies. Following this logic, the district court concluded that any violations detected in the City’s administration of the programs gave rise, by operation of law, to corresponding claims against the state defendants. Reynolds III, 118 F.3d at 386.

This novel theory did not require the district court to base a finding of liability on any identified deficiencies in the state’s supervision, to find the state defendants deliberately indifferent to the citizens of New York or constructively acquiescent to the City’s misconduct, or to locate a causal link between the state’s alleged sins of omission and the alleged violations. In sidestepping MonelVs rigorous culpability and causation standards, the district court’s holding tumbled headlong into the error warned against by the Supreme Court and imposed de facto respondeat superior liability — a result rejected by Monell — on the state defendants. See City of Canton, 489 U.S. at 392, 109 S.Ct. 1197.

Plaintiffs’ attempt to justify the evasion of MonelVs rejection of vicarious liability is wholly unpersuasive. Plaintiffs neither dispute that the Food Stamp and Medicaid Acts authorize participating states to delegate the day-to-day administration of the programs, nor challenge New York State’s decision to operate on a decentralized basis. Instead, they suggest the Food Stamp and Medicaid Acts allow states to delegate only at their peril. Although plaintiffs decline to state the argument so bluntly, and speak instead in terms of “ultimate responsibility,” we understand their position to be that the statutes themselves render the states vicariously liable to plaintiffs. We see no support in the language of the Acts or our case law for the proposition that § 1983 claims arising under the Food Stamp or Medicaid Acts are exempt from the standards governing all other § 1983 claims.

As a threshold matter, plaintiffs have not provided us with any limiting principle to prevent their non-delegable duty theory from swallowing Monell whole. Neither the assertion that the state was the direct assignee of the task of administering the food stamp and Medicaid programs, nor the amorphous concept of ultimate responsibility, suffices to distinguish our case from countless others in which an employer is charged with certain duties, delegates those duties to his subordinates and remains ultimately responsible to his superiors for the performance of the delegated tasks.

Plaintiffs seek support for their position in Henrietta D. v. Bloomberg, 331 F.3d 261 (2d Cir.2003), where we located a duty to supervise on the part of the state implicit in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, § 504, 29 U.S.C. § 794. Id. at 287. Although the rationale set out in that case might lend support to plaintiffs’ non-delegable duty theory in a different context, see id. at 286-87, Henrietta D. is inapposite because it does not address § 1983 liability. Further, that case merely held that supervisory liability was a permissible basis for suit against a state and did not purport to establish a standard to govern its imposition on that basis. See id. at 287.

Both the district court and plaintiffs rely on Robertson v. Jackson, 972 F.2d 529 (4th Cir.1992), in which the Fourth Circuit affirmed an injunction ordering the state commissioner responsible for supervision of Virginia’s food stamp program to ensure compliance by local agencies. Id. at 532-34. Undoubtedly, Robertson provides a strong endorsement of plaintiffs’ non-delegable duty theory but, as appellants’ suggest, Robertson’s persuasiveness is greatly dampened by its complete silence on § 1983 limitations on municipal liability.

Robertson, in turn, draws significantly from cases and legislative history addressing a state’s liability, not to welfare recipients, but to the federal agency responsible for national implementation of the food stamp program. See id. at 533-34; Woods v. United States, 724 F.2d 1444, 1447-48 (9th Cir.1984) (holding state liable to United States Department of Agriculture for local violations of Food Stamp Act); California v. Block, 663 F.2d 855, 858 (9th Cir.1981); H.R.Rep. No. 95-464, at 299 (1977), as reprinted in 1977 U.S.C.C.A.N. 1704, 2235 (“The state, however, remains ultimately responsible and is the unit with which the [United States Department of Agriculture] deals.”). These sources merely imply that, by private or public arrangement, a supervisor may be held responsible to his supervisor for the shortcomings of his subordinates.

The district court’s final judgment, insofar as it requires the state defendants to supervise the City without finding how the state defendants have previously failed in this duty, supplies further evidence of the earlier wrong turn in the court’s reasoning. The injunction it issued operates as a general caution to do more or do better, thereby imposing prophylactic duties on the state that may or may not be related to the deprivations at bar. See City of Canton, 489 U.S. at 395, 109 S.Ct. 1197 (O’Connor, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). In our view neither the district court’s reasoning nor its judgment can be squared with controlling § 1983 case law.

IV State Defendants Not Liable Under Proper Legal Standard

A. Inadequate Supervision

Plaintiffs contend state defendants were deliberately indifferent under the test set out in Walker because they had knowledge of an obvious need for supervision and the risk of harm to plaintiffs. We do not decide whether plaintiffs succeed under Walker in proving state defendants had a duty to act, nor whether any hypothetical inadequacies in the state’s response can be linked to plaintiffs’ injury, because plaintiffs cannot prove the state’s supervision was patently inadequate.

The district court acknowledged the state’s various measures to foster compliance by the City including reviews at each of the job centers, issuance of policy directives, and instructions to the city agency to step up its monitoring and reporting on identified areas of non-compliance. Reynolds TV, 2005 WL 342106, at *21. For example, in 2000 and 2001, the Office of Temporary Disability Assistance conducted reviews at all job centers and five income support centers in New York City. The state office reported the results of these reviews to the city agency and required it to submit quarterly reports until all outstanding issues were resolved. On the issue of separate determinations regarding an applicant’s eligibility for food stamps, the Office of Temporary Disability Assistance issued a policy directive mandating such determinations be made. When the city agency failed to comply, the office required it to investigate and address the failure, as well as submit a plan for citywide implementation of the state’s policy.

Similarly, the Department of Health, New York’s designated single state agency under the Medicaid Act, responded to plaintiffs’ allegations by issuing instructions to local districts to bring them into compliance and worked, with city defendants to review and approve corrective changes. The Department of Health clarified that applicants were entitled to separate eligibility determinations for Medicaid and required the city agency to monitor referrals for such determinations.

Against this evidence of the state’s efforts, the plaintiffs note that the United States Department of Agriculture faulted New York State in November 1999 for its lack of effective oversight of the local agencies. We concur with the district court in characterizing the 1999 report as a benchmark against which the defendants’ later efforts should be measured. Id. at *10 (“[Plaintiffs’ reliance on prior reviews captures the world’s largest welfare system in a still portrait and overlooks the City defendants’ efforts toward compliance.”). Later reports from the Department of Agriculture noted efforts and improvements made by New York’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, while also identifying areas requiring further corrective action.

Any inadequacy that may be found in the state’s response stands in sharp contrast to the allegations of inaction and even encouragement of misconduct that provide grounds for supervisory liability in the typical case. State defendants did not sit on their hands in the face of an obvious need to act. See Bd. of County Comm’rs of Bryan County v. Brown, 520 U.S. 397, 418, 117 S.Ct. 1382, 137 L.Ed.2d 626 (1997) (Souter, J., dissenting). They did not, as did the municipal defendant in Amnesty, stand idly by, let alone encourage, the City’s non-compliance. 361 F.3d at 128; see also Jeffes, 208 F.3d at 63 (allowing inference of deliberate indifference from evidence that supervisor observed abusive incident with a smile); Bolin v. Black, 875 F.2d 1343 (8th Cir.1989); Gutierrez-Rodriguez v. Cartagena, 882 F.2d 553 (1st Cir.1989). In short, there is little evidence showing the state to be deliberately indifferent.

Nonetheless, we do not hold that any action taken by a local government insulates it from supervisory liability. If a supervisor’s steps are proven so meaningless or blatantly inadequate to the task that he may be said to be deliberately indifferent notwithstanding his nominal supervisory efforts, liability will lie. See, e.g., Vann, 72 F.3d at 1050 (reversing summary judgment against plaintiff in light of evidence that police “paid virtually no attention” to complaints relating to officers with history of abusive conduct); Ricciuti v. N.Y.C. City Transit Auth., 941 F.2d 119, 121, 124 (2d Cir.1991) (vacating dismissal on pleadings where plaintiffs alleged current training was obviously inadequate); Fiacco v. City of Rensselaer, 783 F.2d 319, 330-31 (2d Cir.1986) (finding deliberate indifference where chief of police conducted superficial investigations of citizen complaints and failed to discipline officers, record complaints or engage in any further review).

Here, however, there is no evidence to suggest that the state’s phased efforts were meaningless or obviously inadequate, except the fact of the City’s continued failure to comply with certain provisions of law. Contrary to the district court’s and plaintiffs’ suggestion, the extent of state defendants’ ultimate success in averting injury cannot be the legal measure of its efforts to do so, as such a standard is tantamount to vicarious liability. See Amnesty, 361 F.3d at 130 (“City of Canton unequivocally requires, however, that the fact-finder’s inferences of inadequate training and causation be based on more than the mere fact that the misconduct occurred in the first place.”).

Our view that state defendants’ efforts to foster compliance preclude a finding of deliberate indifference finds support in our cases and those of our sister circuits addressing claims against supervisors who tried, but failed, to prevent injury to plaintiffs. See, e.g., Zahra v. Town of Southold, 48 F.3d 674, 685 (2d Cir.1995) (rejecting § 1983 claim where defendant town had investigated complaint, notwithstanding plaintiffs unsubstantiated assertion that town’s efforts were disingenuous); Grazier ex rel. White v. City of Philadelphia, 328 F.3d 120, 125 (3d Cir.2003) (dismissing failure to train claim where some police training was provided absent evidence that such training was so inadequate as to amount to deliberate indifference); Liebe v. Norton, 157 F.3d 574, 578 (8th Cir.1998) (holding that county’s deliberate efforts to prevent inmate suicides contradicted claim it was deliberately indifferent to them); Palmquist v. Selvik, 111 F.3d 1332, 1345 (7th Cir.1997) (“It is against these ‘better or more’ training scenarios that the Court warned in City of Canton.”)', Davis v. City of Ellensburg, 869 F.2d 1230, 1235 (9th Cir.1989) (finding no deliberate indifference where chief of police failed to remove problem police officers from active duty, but sent them to psychologist and monitored their progress).

The rationale underlying these cases is clear. A local government’s liability under § 1983 must be based on its policy or custom under Monell. Where, as here, that policy incorporates the defendants’ deliberate efforts to protect plaintiffs’ rights, it cannot, at the same time, be deemed deliberately indifferent to those rights. See Liebe, 157 F.3d at 578. A natural presumption arises in such cases that any supervisory inadequacies are the result of negligence rather than deliberate choice.

B. Policy Based on Acquiescence

Plaintiffs argue briefly that the state’s alleged acquiescence to the City’s pattern of misconduct represents an unofficial custom and thus renders the state defendants liable for suit under Monell. To the extent plaintiffs intend their unofficial custom allegation to provide a ground for liability independent of their failure to supervise claim, the former fails for the same reason we rejected the latter. State defendants took affirmative steps to investigate and correct the City’s misconduct, including specific directions to the city agency to correct incidents of non-compliance. We cannot conclude the state defendants have tacitly authorized or constructively acquiesced to violations that it has vocally and actively opposed.

C. Remand Serves No Useful Purpose

The district court did not discuss state defendants’ liability under Monell. On review of a district court decision that rests on an improper legal standard and omits necessary factual and legal analysis, it is often appropriate to remand the case to the trial court for its reconsideration. See, e.g., Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U.S. 471, 475 n. 6, 90 S.Ct. 1153, 25 L.Ed.2d 491 (1970). But if the evidence before us admits only a single resolution of the controlling issue, remanding the case serves no useful purpose. See Stetson v. Howard D. Wolf Assocs., 955 F.2d 847, 850 (2d Cir.1992) (deciding case despite trial court’s application of erroneous legal standard where facts adequately supported result); cf. Abrams v. Interco Inc., 719 F.2d 23, 28 n. 3 (2d Cir.1983) (noting that upon discovery of legal error with respect to temporary injunctions, “the appellate court ... generally will not simply remand to the district court but will act on its own”); accord Buffalo Courier-Express, Inc. v. Buffalo Evening News, Inc., 601 F.2d 48, 54, 57, 60 (2d Cir.1979) (assuming “full power to review” factual record to determine whether legal test not considered by district court was satisfied). Here, “the record permits only one resolution of the factual issue.” Pullman-Standard v. Swint, 456 U.S. 273, 292, 102 S.Ct. 1781, 72 L.Ed.2d 66 (1982). As plaintiffs cannot prevail on the record before us, we bring this case, now in its ninth year, to a close by dismissing the complaint against state defendants.

Y Injunction Against State Defendants Was Abuse of Discretion

Having disposed of the substantive arguments for § 1983 liability against state defendants we turn finally to the injunctive remedy the district court imposed.

While we recognize that a district court has broad discretion in fashioning equitable relief, such discretion is not boundless and must instead be exercised in light of governing legal principles and is subject to thorough appellate review. Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. 405, 416, 95 S.Ct. 2362, 45 L.Ed.2d 280 (1975); Hodge v. Police Officers, 802 F.2d 58, 60 (2d Cir.1986). Consequently, a grant of injunctive relief may be overturned if it is predicated, as here, on legal error. See Abrams, 719 F.2d at 28.

The authority to issue an injunction is an extraordinary and powerful one that is to be used sparingly and cautiously and only in a “clear and plain” case. Rizzo v. Goode, 423 U.S. 362, 378, 96 S.Ct. 598, 46 L.Ed.2d 561 (1976); Irwin v. Dixion, 50 U.S. (9 How.) 10, 33, 13 L.Ed. 25 (1850). Even greater caution is appropriate where a federal court is asked to interfere by means of injunctive relief with a state’s executive functions, a sphere in which states typically are afforded latitude. Rizzo, 423 U.S. at 378-80, 96 S.Ct. 598; see also Huffman v. Pursue, Ltd., 420 U.S. 592, 603, 95 S.Ct. 1200, 43 L.Ed.2d 482 (1975) (requiring federal courts to “abide by standards of restraint that go well beyond those of private equity jurisprudence” when asked to enjoin state officials). As Justice Holmes said “no injunction ought to issue against officers of a State ..., unless in a case reasonably free from doubt ...” Mass. State Grange v. Benton, 272 U.S. 525, 527, 47 S.Ct. 189, 71 L.Ed. 387 (1926). In such cases, we must keep in mind the “integrity and function” of state institutions, see Knox v. Salinas, 193 F.3d 123, 129-30 (2d Cir.1999) (per curiam), as well as the delicate balance that must be maintained between a federal court’s exercise of its equitable power and a state’s administration of its own affairs, see Rizzo, 423 U.S. at 378-80, 96 S.Ct. 598. Writing for the Supreme Court in Hawks v. Hamill, 288 U.S. 52, 53 S.Ct. 240, 77 L.Ed. 610 (1933), Justice Cardozo explained

Caution and reluctance there must be in special measure where relief, if granted, is an interference by the process of injunction with the activities of state officers discharging in good faith their supposed official duties. In such circumstances this court has said that an injunction ought not to issue “unless in a case reasonably free from doubt.”... A prudent self-restraint is called for at such times if state and national functions are to be maintained in stable equilibrium.... Our process does not issue unless the path is clear.

Id. at 60-61, 53 S.Ct. 240.

Such federalism concerns underlie the instant litigation. Indeed, they are exacerbated by evidence of the state defendants’ efforts to improve the City’s compliance with federal law. It is often more difficult to discern a defendant’s culpability if he has acted to prevent harm than where he has failed to act at all. Plaintiffs’ claim that the state should have supervised more or differently put pressure on the district court to second guess the state’s managerial decisions and priorities, a task for which courts are ill-suited. See City of Canton, 489 U.S. at 392, 109 S.Ct. 1197.

In our view, the district court’s decision made light of these considerations, and the permanent injunction it issued against the state reveals a deficit of the caution called for by the authorities just cited. In view of state defendants’ affirmative supervisory steps, plaintiffs’ inability to show defendants were deliberately indifferent to their needs, and the district court’s rebanee on a novel and untenable theory of liability, we are compelled to conclude that this case was neither clear nor plain, and certainly not reasonably free from doubt. Accordingly, the district court abused its discretion in issuing the injunction against state defendants and that portion of the injunction must be vacated.

CONCLUSION

Accordingly, for the foregoing reasons, we reverse the district court’s grant of an injunction against the state defendants, dismiss the complaint against state defendants, and strike paragraphs 2, 4, 8 and 11 from the district court’s December 14, 2005 judgment.