Youngberg v. Romeo, 457 U.S. 307 (1982), was a landmark[1] United States Supreme Court case regarding the rights of the involuntarily committed and those with intellectual disabilities.

Nicholas Romeo had an intellectual disability with an infant level IQ and was committed to a Pennsylvania state hospital.

The 3rd Circuit reversed and ordered a new trial, explaining that the standard of care should have been based on the 14th rather than the 8th Amendment and the Supreme Court agreed.

The syllabus summarizes the court's holding: Respondent [Romeo] has constitutionally protected liberty interests under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to reasonably safe conditions of confinement, freedom from unreasonable bodily restraints, and such minimally adequate training as reasonably may be required by these interests.

The proper standard for determining whether the State has adequately protected such rights is whether professional judgment, in fact, was exercised.