For Media Inquiries, contact Patricia Cronin, Director of Development and Communications, at pcronin@dlunited.org.
Statement: The Trump DOJ just dropped an opinion that could undo 25 years of hard-won disability rights.
The OLC memo, issued June 18, argues that neither the ADA nor the Rehabilitation Act requires states to provide services to people with disabilities in the most integrated setting. This eviscerates what’s known as the “integration mandate” and rewrites the legacy of Olmstead v. L.C., the landmark 1999 Supreme Court decision that made community living a federal civil rights guarantee.
If this interpretation stands, states could warehouse people with psychiatric disabilities in institutions — not because they need that level of care, but because it’s cheaper, more convenient, or politically palatable. The opinion explicitly tells HHS and DOJ to rescind their integration mandate regulations.
This is an invitation to re-institutionalize hundreds of thousands of people.
Disability Law United will closely monitor the federal government’s next steps and continue to advocate for the full enforcement of disability civil rights laws. We stand with the disability community in opposing any effort to weaken the protections that make community integration possible.
The promise of Olmstead is simple: people with disabilities belong in their communities, not in institutions. That promise must not be abandoned.
🔗 Read the full OLC opinion: https://www.justice.gov/olc/media/1446701/dl