This federal civil rights action, brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Monell doctrine, seeks to address systemic constitutional deficiencies within the Snohomish County Guardian ad Litem program. Bloom alleges that the County maintained a custom and practice of deliberate indifference regarding the training and oversight of court-appointed professionals. These alleged institutional failures resulted in the deprivation of the Plaintiff’s fundamental liberty interests and the violation of procedural and substantive due process protections guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Legal Claims and Institutional Accountability
The litigation filed in the Western District of Washington asserts that Snohomish County is liable for the implementation of policies and practices that allowed for the arbitrary exercise of state-sanctioned authority over family custodial matters. At the core of the complaint is the allegation that the County failed in its non-delegable duty to provide adequate administrative guardrails for the Guardians ad Litem it appointed to perform quasi-judicial functions. Bloom contends that this lack of supervision created an environment where court-appointed actors could exceed the scope of their legal assignments with impunity, thereby compromising the integrity of the judicial process.
According to the filed complaint, the County’s oversight mechanisms were so deficient as to constitute a policy of deliberate indifference toward the constitutional rights of the families subject to its jurisdiction. The Plaintiff argues that the County permitted the use of unverified and unscientific reports in determining the best interests of minor children, which led to significant and lasting damages. By framing these issues through the lens of municipal liability, the lawsuit seeks to demonstrate that the harms suffered were not isolated incidents but rather the predictable consequence of a systemic failure to regulate the professional standards of the GAL registry.
Demonstrating significant legal acumen regarding the evolution of civil rights litigation, this action pursues both compensatory damages and injunctive relief aimed at mandating comprehensive reform of the County’s oversight protocols. The purpose of this transparency initiative is to allow the public and policymakers to review the federal record and understand the critical need for constitutional protections in the administration of family law.
Following a lower court ruling, Bloom initiated an appeal on the grounds that the District Court erroneously applied the doctrine of absolute immunity to the administrative actions of Defendant Paul Thompson in his capacity as Chair of the Snohomish County GAL Committee. Bloom maintains that such administrative functions fall outside the protections of absolute judicial immunity, and the matter is currently pending before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit under Case No. 25-05820. All assertions contained herein are based upon formal court filings and the ongoing judicial record. In accordance with the best interests of the children, all sensitive identifiers and personal data have been strictly redacted from the public archive.