For Immediate Release: June 18, 2026
Contact: Jess Davidson, jdavidson@aapd.com; 202-465-5528
WASHINGTON – Today, just days before the 27th anniversary of the landmark Olmstead v. LC decision, the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) learned of an opinion memo from the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) urging the White House to turn back the clock by 30 years on disability integration and civil rights. The DOJ just gave the White House and other federal entities a green light to take disabled people back to a time when the state could, at any time, strip us of our homes, families, autonomy, and our lives.
The Olmstead v. L.C. Supreme Court decision, issued on June 22, 1999, was a landmark decision that affirmed that disabled people are valuable members of their communities, and that it is unacceptable and dehumanizing to shut disabled people away.
The Olmstead decision has repeatedly been affirmed by our judicial system, Congress, court cases, and federal law. In the decades since, related regulations from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice have repeatedly made clear that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504) prohibit states from forcing people with disabilities into institutions, such as psychiatric hospitals, nursing homes, segregated schools, and sheltered workshops in order to receive services such as personal care, when those people could be served in their homes and communities.
Despite this clear and strong legal foundation, in the memo, the OLC concluded that the Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision did not hold that people with disabilities must be served in integrated settings – even though courts across the country have consistently held that the Court did in fact mean for disabled people to be as integrated as possible. Further, in OLC’s memo, they stated that Congress in the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 did not intend to make unnecessary institutionalization of people with disabilities illegal. This is in spite of the fact that the applicable regulations have interpreted those laws to prohibit unnecessary institutionalization for decades.
Let us be clear – the Office of Legal Counsel is incorrect in its interpretation of Olmstead and its assumptions about what Congress intended. But the fact that their conclusion is unjustified and incorrect doesn’t change the fact that they will seek to use said interpretation to hurt disabled people, lock us away, end our autonomy over our lives, and in many cases, end our lives altogether.
This interpretation will open the doors for states to revert to warehousing people with disabilities out of sight and out of mind in institutions, such as the infamous Willowbrook school on Long Island.
Disabled people will never forget that those institutions were phased out beginning in the 1970s in many states because they were found to be horrific, harmful, and even deadly. Individuals with disabilities were forced to live in filthy, overcrowded conditions, and subjected to eugenic “experiments,” forced sterilizations, and other violations of their fundamental dignity as human beings. It is not difficult to imagine that those who argue against Olmstead’s integration mandate also remember the harm and devastation of institutions as we do, and have pushed this policy forward despite, or even because of, such history.
Importantly, institutions were found in many cases to be counterproductive to recovery. Research and experience have demonstrated conclusively that people with disabilities can receive more humane, less expensive, and more effective services in their homes and communities – all while costing the government significantly less to keep disabled people in our communities, where we belong.
As America prepares to celebrate 250 years of independence, today’s opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel threatens to drag our nation back to a dark and shameful era of ignorance and cruelty, and threatens the hard-won progress that our community has made in our struggle for full integration into American society.
AAPD will NOT go back, because we know that disabled people cannot afford to turn back the clock. Instead, we will fight this threat with every tool we have. We do not yet know how extensive the advocacy for the federal government to adopt this interpretation will be, and are heartened that the memo recognizes that any federal agency that adopts this interpretation will likely be sued.
AAPD will continue to monitor the situation extremely closely and will share updates with the community. Please stay tuned for ways you can join us in demanding that Congress exercise its authority to act as a check on an executive branch whose actions again threaten the dignity and independence of millions of Americans with disabilities.