On December 28, 2006, the Urban Justice Center, along with the National Senior Citizens Law Center and the law firm Proskauer Rose LLP, filed Clark v. Barnhart, a class action lawsuit against the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Commissioner Jo Anne B. Barnhart. The Plaintiffs challenge the SSA's practice of suspending benefits of any recipient who has an outstanding warrant alleging a violation of probation or parole without any finding that the person is actually violating probation or parole.

In Fowlkes v. Adamec, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit struck down the SSA's practice of assuming that anyone with an outstanding warrant is fleeing prosecution and held that the SSA must first determine whether the person intended to flee prosecution before suspending benefits. Clark challenges the SSA's implementation of the other subsection of the "fugitive felon" statutes which relates to probation and parole violators.