Defend Olmstead Protections Against DOJ Memo Gutting Disability Rights

The Justice Department's new Office of Legal Counsel memo, authored by Lanora Pettit, is a direct attack on the civil rights of disabled Americans, and I need you to publicly condemn it and push back against its implementation. The memo rewrites Olmstead v. L.C. — the 1999 Supreme Court ruling that states must integrate disabled people into their communities — to mean almost nothing. The DOJ's own memo admits this reading is "out of step with the common understanding of that decision within the federal courts." That's not a legal interpretation. That's a political choice. The stakes are concrete. As of 2023, 8.4 million Americans rely on home- and community-based services through Medicaid. This memo, arriving alongside deep Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signals that the DOJ will stop enforcing Olmstead protections — leaving states free to gut those services and return to institutionalization. Disabled people fought for decades to live in their communities, not in institutions. That right should not be dismantled by a memo. Speak out against this now.