1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

The DOJ's new Office of Legal Counsel memo, authored by Lanora Pettit, must not go unanswered. It guts the integration mandate that has protected disabled Americans since the Supreme Court's 1999 Olmstead v. L.C. ruling, and it openly admits its reading is "out of step with the common understanding of that decision within the federal courts." That's not a legal reinterpretation — it's a political signal that the DOJ will stop enforcing civil rights law. I need you to publicly condemn this memo and push back against any effort to abandon Olmstead enforcement. The stakes are concrete. 8.4 million Americans currently receive home- and community-based services through Medicaid. This memo, combined with the Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, gives cash-strapped states a legal cover to gut those services and return to institutionalization. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of the ADA exist precisely to prevent this. The law hasn't changed — but if the DOJ refuses to enforce it, the protections are hollow. Disabled Americans have a right to live in their communities. Please use every tool available — oversight hearings, legislative action, public pressure — to ensure Olmstead protections are defended and that this administration cannot quietly dismantle civil rights law through a memo.