DOJ Memo Threatens Disability Rights, Sparks Fear of Institutionalization

The Justice Department quietly released a legal memo on June 18 that fundamentally reinterprets decades of settled disability rights law, arguing that states are not obligated to provide home- and community-based services that allow millions of disabled Americans to live outside institutions. Disability advocates and legal experts have condemned the opinion as the most significant rollback of disability civil rights protections in a generation.

The memo, issued by the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) and written by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lanora Pettit, contends that federal disability laws — Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act — do not impose an “integration mandate” requiring states to provide community-based services. The opinion acknowledges that its interpretation is “out of step with the common understanding of that decision within the federal courts.”

“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,” said Alison Barkoff, a health law and policy professor at George Washington University who led disability policy efforts during both the Obama and Biden administrations. “I can’t overstate how significant this change in position is.”

The Legal Foundation Under Threat

For nearly 50 years, the integration mandate has been a cornerstone of disability rights law. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (1973) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) both require that services be provided in the “most integrated setting appropriate.” In the landmark 1999 Supreme Court case Olmstead v. L.C., the Court affirmed that unnecessary institutionalization of people with disabilities constitutes discrimination under the ADA. Courts across the country have consistently upheld this interpretation for over 25 years.

By 2023, 8.4 million Americans were receiving home- and community-based services through Medicaid, services that allow disabled people to live, learn, and work alongside their families and communities rather than in segregated institutions.

The new memo argues that the Olmstead decision “held only that a state cannot institutionalize such patients without justification” and that “what counts as adequate justification remains an open question.”

Advocates Sound the Alarm

Pushback from the disability community was swift and forceful.

“As America prepares to celebrate 250 years of independence, [this memo] threatens to drag our nation back to a dark and shameful era of ignorance and cruelty,” said the American Association of People with Disabilities in a press release. “This interpretation will open the doors for states to revert to warehousing people with disabilities out of sight and out of mind in institutions.”

Shira Wakschlag of The Arc of the United States called the opinion “a direct threat to decades of progress toward community living for people with disabilities,” warning that “people with disabilities shouldn’t be forced into institutions because a state refuses to provide services in the community.”

Jennifer Mathis of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law emphasized what is at stake: “Who you can see, when you can go out, when you eat, what you eat. Who your roommate is, who you talk to, what your environment is. And for so many people who are institutionalized, their life is literally a hallway.”

Mathis also cautioned that the memo does not change the law itself. “It’s important to understand that [this memo] is not the law, that the Justice Department can’t change the law. Congress makes laws, not agencies.”

A Broader Administration Agenda

The memo arrives as part of a broader pattern of actions by the Trump administration. It follows President Trump’s July 24, 2025 executive order calling for involuntary institutionalization of unhoused individuals with mental health conditions. A footnote in the DOJ memo suggests federal disability laws have contributed to chronic homelessness — a claim that legal experts strongly dispute.

“It’s just absurd,” said Sam Bagenstos, a University of Michigan law professor and former general counsel for HHS and OMB under Biden. He called the Olmstead decision “one of the most effective tools in combating homelessness.”

The memo also aligns the federal government with plaintiffs in Texas v. Kennedy, a pending lawsuit brought by nine states seeking to strike down the integration mandate in HHS’s updated Section 504 rules.

The Medicaid Connection

Legal experts note that the memo arrives alongside deep cuts to Medicaid enacted through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Since Medicaid is the primary funding source for community-based services, the memo effectively gives states permission to cut community supports and rely on institutionalization instead — even though research shows institutionalization is considerably more expensive for states.

This comes just days after the Trump administration announced it would move federal administration of special education from the Department of Education to HHS, raising parallel fears of civil rights rollbacks for students with disabilities.

What Comes Next

While the memo does not carry the force of law, it signals that the DOJ will cease enforcement of the integration mandate and aligns the federal government with efforts to overturn it in court. Multiple legal experts told NPR they are concerned the memo may be a precursor to an executive order directing DOJ and HHS to roll back integration mandate enforcement.

For the disability community, the stakes could not be higher. The AAPD referenced the infamous Willowbrook State School on Long Island, where people with disabilities were subjected to horrific conditions including overcrowding, filth, and forced sterilizations — an institution that was finally closed following a national movement toward community-based care.

“We will fight this threat with every tool we have,” the AAPD declared. “Disabled people cannot afford to turn back the clock.”

The 27th anniversary of the Olmstead decision falls on June 22 — just one day after this article was published.