The Justice Department released a memo this week that quietly calls into question decades of civil rights protections for Americans with disabilities and stirred fear and anger among advocates and families.
The memo, an opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel, argues that states do not have to provide in-home or community-based care to people with disabilities who need support. These services allow many disabled Americans to continue to live, learn and work at home or in their own communities, among family and friends.
"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," says Alison Barkoff, a health law and policy professor at George Washington University who led disability law and policy efforts during both the Obama and Biden administrations. "I can't overstate how significant this change in position is."
DOJ memo stokes fear among disability advocates of a return to institutionalization
The world's leading Palestinian writer, Raja Shehadeh, has been on a mission to save his most...
A documentary examining the Israeli military systems behind the mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza...
An Israeli reservist has said that army officers treat Gaza’s entire population of two million Palestinians...
An eight-year-old Palestinian girl, whose age was confirmed by al-Shifa hospital, was killed alongside her father...
