New Orleans social worker challenges Louisiana law that stopped her from helping special needs children and their families

On March 18, 2026, Ursula Newell-Davis filed a new lawsuit in state court to continue fighting for her right to earn a living by caring for children with special needs. 

After earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work, Ursula Newell-Davis devoted her entire career to helping her New Orleans community. As a hospice social worker, she provided end-of-life support to patients and their families. Then she spent several years managing a behavioral health center that provided outpatient mental health services.

In 2018, Ursula started a consulting business to advise mental health agencies, schools, churches, and others who work with special needs populations. Through her work, she often encountered children with challenging backgrounds or who were from homes where caregivers often worked odd hours or night shifts, which meant that the children found themselves at home alone. Some children struggled to complete such basic tasks as doing homework, preparing meals, or even bathing. Ursula was particularly concerned that unsupervised teenagers with behavioral problems might fall in with the wrong crowd and turn to criminal activity.

Believing that she could make a difference in her community, she decided to open a business to provide respite services to families with special needs children—that is, temporary relief to parents, family members, and other caregivers, which would also give her the opportunity to teach those children basic life skills to help them thrive and stay off the streets while their parents were away.

Louisiana requires providers to first apply for Facility Need Review (FNR) approval, which means that the applicant must prove to the government that there is a “need” in the community for their proposed services before even being allowed to apply for a license to operate. Despite evidence showing an increase in crimes by juveniles, pleas by city officials for more early intervention efforts for juveniles, and studies showing that respite care could improve outcomes for both children and their families, state health officials denied Ursula’s FNR application and prohibited her from opening her business. In fact, she received the same denial form letter as 86 other applicants who had also hoped to launch such services in 2019 and 2020.

Laws like FNR regulations do not protect health or safety; rather, they artificially reduce supply of critical services, drive costs, and worsen outcomes—all to protect existing businesses from competition.

The Constitution protects the right to earn a living free of irrational and arbitrary government restrictions. The state cannot deny some people economic opportunity in order to insulate incumbent businesses from new competitors like Ursula.

In her federal lawsuit, Ursula stood up to the government and advocated for children in her community who needed her help. PLF, with assistance from the Pelican Institute, represented her free of charge.

Unfortunately, the courts ruled against Ursula, upholding Louisiana’s FNR laws under the rational basis test, which asks if a law is at all related to a legitimate government interest and almost always favors the government. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear her case.

But while Ursula was fighting in federal court, Louisiana passed the Right to Earn a Living Act, which requires that occupational regulations be “necessary and narrowly tailored” to serve legitimate government interests. Hoping this new law would protect her business, Ursula filed another FNR application in 2025, this time with hundreds of pages of evidence to prove that her community was in dire need of her services. Again, she was perfunctorily denied.

In March 2026, Ursula filed a lawsuit in state court to restore her constitutional right to earn a living and finally get to pursue her calling as a respite care provider.