Washington, D.C. – The National Health Law Program (NHeLP) strongly condemns the recent memorandum from the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). On Thursday, June 18, OLC issued a memorandum arguing that federal law does not give people with disabilities a right to be integrated into their communities. Though this memo does not change the present law, it is a disturbing and deeply flawed attempt to undermine well-settled legal precedent. NHeLP denounces the Administration’s attempt to undermine the rights of people with disabilities and remains steadfast in our commitment to ensuring that people with disabilities are free to live, work, create, and belong in their own communities.
This attack on disabled people’s rights was issued four days before the 27th anniversary of Olmstead v. Lois Curtis and Elaine Wilson. At the heart of this landmark case is the story of Lois Curtis and Elaine Wilson, two women who could live at home with their families and communities and wanted to do so, rather than being forced to stay indefinitely in segregated settings. Prior to Olmstead, it was often the case that the only place that people with disabilities could reliably access health care was in institutionalized settings. In Olmstead, the Supreme Court stated that unjustified segregation is a form of discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and that disabled people have a right to community living.
“Disabled people deserve to be integrated into their communities,” said Jennifer Lav, Director of the Disability Practice Area at the National Health Law Program. “When services and supports are only available in institutional settings, it leaves people with disabilities and their loved ones without a real choice. While the OLC memo doesn’t change existing law, it is a bald attempt to try to undermine decades of settled law and to turn back the clock on decades of progress.”
“The promise of Olmstead was never simply about leaving an institution,” said Dania Douglas, NHeLP Senior Attorney, in a recent blog. “It was about ensuring people with disabilities have the freedom to live, work, create, and belong in their communities. Twenty-seven years later, that promise remains worth defending.”
“OLC’s memo embodies a deeply flawed legal theory that cannot be squared with the decisions of nearly every federal circuit court over the last two decades,” said Geron Gadd, NHeLP Senior Attorney leading the organization’s disability litigation. “The National Health Law Program remains committed to the full integration of people with disabilities into all aspects of public life.”
