Protect the ADA: Stop the DOJ Effort to Return to Forced Institutionalization

On June 18, 2026, the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel issued a dangerous legal opinion reinterpreting decades of established disability civil rights. The memo argues that neither Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) nor Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act requires states to serve individuals with disabilities in the most integrated, community-based settings appropriate to their needs. This opinion is a direct assault on the right of disabled, neurodivergent, and mentally ill Americans to live freely in their own communities, threatening to roll back decades of progress and return our nation to an era of forced institutionalization. AAPD+ 1 The Historical Harm of Institutions: History has proven conclusively that institutions are inherently harmful, dangerous, and dehumanizing environments.Throughout the 20th century, individuals placed in state-run institutions and "schools" like Willowbrook were stripped of their fundamental human dignity, forced into filthy, overcrowded conditions, and subjected to severe systemic neglect. Furthermore, because these facilities operated entirely out of the public eye and stripped residents of their legal autonomy, they became hotbeds for horrific, unethical practices, including forced sterilizations and non-consensual medical and psychiatric experimentation on vulnerable human beings. AAPD Precedents That Protected Us: For decades, our legal system recognized that segregation is discrimination. This right to community living was built on monumental legal victories: Mental Health America 1 Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973: The foundational civil rights law prohibiting discrimination against disabled individuals in federally funded programs, which established the original integration mandate. 2 The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990: Passed by Congress to ensure full societal integration, explicitly stating that unjustified segregation of disabled individuals is a form of illegal discrimination. 3 Olmstead v. L.C. (1999): The landmark Supreme Court ruling brought by two women with intellectual and mental disabilities who were held in a Georgia state hospital. The Supreme Court affirmed that under the ADA, states must provide community-based services rather than forcing individuals into institutions whenever community living is appropriate and desired.
The Arc+ 1

 The Demand: The federal government must not abandon its duty to enforce civil rights. I demand that Congress immediately exercise its legislative authority to override the DOJ’s harmful OLC opinion and permanently protect disabled Americans by passing legislation that: The Arc 1 Codifies the Integration Mandate into Federal Law: Explicitly amend the ADA and Section 504 to state, in unmistakable and legally binding text, that the unnecessary institutional segregation of disabled individuals is a strict violation of federal civil rights law. 2 Guarantees Federal Funding for Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS): Ensure robust federal funding remains dedicated to home health care, community housing, and independent living resources, preventing states from claiming financial necessity as an excuse to warehouse individuals in centralized facilities. 3 Prohibits Involuntary Forced Commitment and Warehousing: Establish ironclad federal protections ensuring that no disabled, unhoused, or neurodivergent individual can be forcibly funneled into an institution, nursing facility, or psychiatric warehouse when community-based alternatives can be utilized. People with disabilities belong in their homes, with their families, and in their communities. We refuse to turn back the clock to a dark era of isolation and institutional abuse.