A New Concern About Olmstead — and Why It Matters in Real Life
A New Concern About Olmstead — and Why It Matters in Real Life I am trying to learn more about a new Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel opinion involving the ADA, Section 504, institutionalization, and Olmstead. I am not an attorney, and I am still learning. But disability-rights advocates are warning that this opinion could narrow how the federal government interprets and enforces Olmstead and the ADA’s integration mandate. That matters. Olmstead is the 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision that recognized that unjustified segregation of people with disabilities can be discrimination under the ADA. For many people with disabilities and their families, Olmstead has represented a promise that people should not be unnecessarily institutionalized when they can live safely in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs. For Alex, that setting is home. Not because his needs are simple. Not because his care is easy. Not because risks do not exist. But because home is wh...
