Disability advocates gathered at the State House in Boston on Wednesday to highlight federal threats to a key disability rights case.
The briefing, organized by the Arc of Massachusetts and Disability Policy Consortium, focused on Olmstead v. L.C., the 1999 Supreme Court ruling which held that people with disabilities have a right to receive support and services so that they can live in their communities, rather than in institutions.
Many disability advocates say that right is being threatened. A memo from the Trump administration’s Department of Justice in June backed away from decades of legal understanding and argued that the federal government is not required to provide home and community-based services for people with disabilities. Then, at the end of September, a federal judge in Texas v. Kennedy agreed to remove some parts of the integration mandate from federal regulations.
“Never in the 36 years since the passage of the ADA have we been so at risk of losing those rights, of being confined once again to our homes and to institutions,” said Harry Weissman, executive director of the Disability Policy Consortium. “The Department of Justice memo from this June doesn’t repeal the ADA, it doesn’t overturn Olmstead, but it tells us the federal government no longer believes the integration mandate exists and no longer intends to enforce it.”
In September, Gov. Maura Healey signed a letter along with 17 other governors to the attorney general criticizing the DOJ memo and reaffirming their states’ commitment to protecting community services.
The Olmstead case was brought on behalf of Lois Curtis, a woman from Atlanta with intellectual disabilities who argued that her civil rights were being violated since she was forced to live in state hospitals. Before the decision, many people with disabilities lived in institutions and nursing homes for years and decades.
In Olmstead, the Supreme Court said that type of “unjustified isolation” is segregation that violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
The case has been a key foundation in the deinstitutionalization movement and has been instrumental in how people with disabilities receive services.
Desi Forte, 38, who attended the State House briefing as a representative of the Massachusetts Statewide Independent Living Council, said she has always assumed that her rights would be protected.
“In 1999, I was still in elementary school, making me part of what I call the 'Olmstead Generation,' meaning having the right to live in the community has never been something I’ve had to think twice about until now,” she said. “Now, I, my fellow MASILC members, as well as all individuals who have disabilities, are living in a time where our right to live in the community is under threat.”
Advocates say that while Massachusetts has made significant moves to support community living, more work could be done.
Pam Glatter ‘s son Jacob is 28 and lives in a group home in Marshfield and attends a day program. He has profound autism and needs 24-hour support. She said he thrived with the support he got in school, but that progress has halted since he turned 22 and started relying on adult services rather than school.
She said he’s lucky to have a place to live, but because of staff shortages, his life isn’t as fulfilling as it could be.
“He’s in a community program, but he’s not really being brought out into the community too often,” she told GBH News. “So, you take away the small protections he has, and then what happens? What does [his] life become?”
Maura Sullivan, the Arc’s executive director, said a “perfect storm” of a worker shortage, upcoming cuts to Medicaid and immigration crackdowns means that any weakening of protections could be devastating to the community.
“Massachusetts has made a huge commitment to community-first, and they’ve moved thousands of people out of nursing homes, and have a plan. But that doesn’t mean that we are doing enough,” she said. “We need these protections now. And we don’t know what’s still coming down.”
The Disability Policy Consortium said it plans to introduce a bill in the next legislative session that would put safeguards in place.
State Senator Robyn Kennedy said Massachusetts should prepare for more disruptions coming from changes at the federal level.
“There is no question that everything that we hold dear, the rights that we hold dear, are all under attack right now,” Kennedy said. “It is our obligation in the state of Massachusetts as state legislators to do everything we can in our power to make sure that our residents are protected despite that.”
