Trump administration targets disability integration mandate in DOJ memo
The Trump administration released a memo last week that seeks to upend landmark disability laws and court rulings that prioritize people with disabilities receiving care while living in their community instead of at institutions like nursing homes.
The memo — written by the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel in response to an inquiry from White House officials — breaks with decades of disability law and practice and argues that the “integration mandate” is not actually a mandate, especially for people with “severe mental illness or disabilities.”
“This is potentially devastating for the rights of people with disabilities,” said Jennifer Mathis, deputy director for the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and a former deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s civil rights division.
https://www.statnews.com/2026/06/22/doj-memo-targets-disability-integration-olmstead-mandate/Open linkView original on pawb.social
The redefining of the Olmsted vs LC case away from integration would mean companies can hire disabled people, possibly even for sub minimum wage, and cloister them in areas with only other people with disabilities to create a pseudo sweatshop system of labor on menial tasks that often times offer little in the way of growth, satisfaction, and accomplishment to the laborer. These offenses were at the heart of why the decision was made the way it was in the first place.
Wait… Is this not already happening? One of the hospitals I worked at used Goodwill for their janitorial services, and what you’re describing sounds a lot like what that looked like.
You'd be shocked how much of the ADA, an over 30 year law, is not being followed by certain states. Id also wager almost every, if not every state is doing something wrong when it comes to that law. Thats why the Olmstead case was brought forward and to this day many advocates in many states are trying to get their states to sign consent decrees acknowledging that they'll follow that decision, and the greater ADA which has already been through multiple courts multiple times.
No one is willing to use any kind of enforcement action on states that do this, but in theory they should start losing federal money until they comply with federal law. The mechanisms are there but disabled people are still do not have comparable rights to abled folks aparently. They're allowed to have special laws about them, but they're not allowed to see consequences happen when people break those laws.
This doesn't happen in great countries. This doesn't even happen in good countries.
Everything the Trump administration does must be understood as proceeding from a fascist eugenicist premise that some people are a weak and a burden while others are strong and superior, and only the superior should live and have children. The genetic pinnacle of humanity is seen in such godlike individuals as Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, and Elon Musk, and everyone else needs to die off so humanity can be more like them. The more you can abuse everyone else and make life difficult for them the quicker they'll die off, they think, and there's an obvious place where this logic ends up when the goal is to eradicate everyone they consider flawed.
This is why the cruelty is so often the point, and the suffering is no accident.
"Useless eaters," as Trump's role model put it.
And RFK.
This coming from a kakistocratic administration that has already called being LGBTQ+ (or even an ally) a severe mental illness and suggested putting neuroatypical people on work farms is not EXACTLY ideal.. 😬
"Trump administration declares that crosswalks will no longer have ramps or audible devices, one parking space (the closest) at each building will be painted gold and dedicated to Trump."
That's not enough: there have to be additional physical barriers added to prevent access and to demean and harass people with disabilities.