DOJ memo stokes fear among disability advocates of a return to institutionalization

[Wiz Imp]

https://www.npr.org/2026/06/20/nx-s1-5865100/doj-memo-trump-disability-civil-rights-institutionalization

The Justice Department released a memo this week that quietly calls into question decades of civil rights protections for Americans with disabilities and stirred fear and anger among advocates and families.

The memo, an opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel, argues that states do not have to provide in-home or community-based care to people with disabilities who need support. These services allow many disabled Americans to continue to live, learn and work at home or in their own communities, among family and friends.

"It is now the position of the United States government that people with disabilities don't have a right to be part of their communities," says Alison Barkoff, a health law and policy professor at George Washington University who led disability law and policy efforts during both the Obama and Biden administrations. "I can't overstate how significant this change in position is."

The most outrageous part of this is :

The new memo, written by Lanora Pettit, principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, argues that, while federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability, it does not impose an "integration mandate" on states to provide these community services. At one point, Pettit acknowledges the novelty of this reading: "We recognize that this view of Olmstead's import is out of step with the common understanding of that decision within the federal courts."

In other words, a government official wrote down, in black and white, admitting that no court in the country agrees with her, yet she made that argument the "official" Federal Goverment position anyway.

[Lovie777]

1. shithole's administration is terrorizing the US........................

[ananda]

3. And enjoying it.

Too much power is an aphrodisiac for bullies.

[LisaL]

2. Institutionalization requires having actual facilities and costs a lot of money, so

I don't think that's what the worry should be here. I think the worry should be cutting of services without providing any replacement services.

[haele]

5. They'll be happy to institutionalize the disabled.

Vulture Capital is just licking their chops to get into hospice, err, disabled support living centers and not only get all that sweet taxpayer money, but grifting family members and trust funds or legal awards.sucking up money that "rightfully belongs to investors instead of losers" on the faint chance these centers might actually provide a service to their loved ones.

[Solly Mack]

4. ...