By Edward Yudelovich
July 24, 2026
As this July 26 approaches. marking the 36th anniversary of the passage of the landmark Civil Rights law, the Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA, the spectre of the loss of all or most of the hard-fought gains of the U.S. disability justice and rights movement looms throughout the land.
On July 24, 2025, Bigot in Chief Donald J. Trump, in an ableist, racist executive order proclaimed: “Endemic vagrancy, disorderly behavior, sudden confrontations, and violent attacks have made our cities unsafe. … the overwhelming majority of these individuals are addicted to drugs, have a mental health condition, or both.” The administration’s solution: Involuntary institutionalization. “Shifting homeless individuals into long-term, institutional settings for humane treatment through the appropriate use of civil commitment will restore public order.”
Trump’s order contradicted Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, one of the first U.S. disability civil rights laws. It states: “No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States, as defined in section 705 of this title, shall, solely by reason of his or her disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”
Both this provision and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 have long been interpreted to require that states provide services to people with disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate. In short: Institutionalization should be a last resort.
In 1999, a case testing these protections made it to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Olmstead v. L.C., two women with mental disabilities sued Georgia, arguing that the state had failed its obligation to provide services that would allow them to return to their communities and that it had continued to institutionalize the women instead, thus violating their civil rights.
The court agreed that states have a legal responsibility to provide support that integrates disabled people into their communities, and for nearly three decades, courts across the country have embraced that interpretation.
By 2023, 8.4 million Americans were receiving home- and community-based services through Medicaid.
On Jan. 23, 2026, Texas and eight other states — Alaska, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana and South Dakota — renewed their attack in litigation against the integration mandates. The states claim that a rule about the integration mandate published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is unlawful, unconstitutional and should be blocked.
On June 18, 2026, Principal Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel, Lanora Pettit, advocated in a memo that states do not have to provide in-home or community-based care to people with disabilities who need support.
In response, on June 23, ADAPT, the great disability justice and rights group, issued a memo entitled “Disability Freedom is Under Attack! The Latonya Reeves Freedom Act” (H.R. 9401 and S. 4865) to update the civil rights law. It would prohibit discrimination against individuals with disabilities needing long-term services and support.
The late Latonya Reeves was a Black disabled woman originally from Tennessee who was institutionalized as a child. To avoid going back into an institution, Latonya moved to Colorado where — with the assistance of the Reverend Wade Blank — she was able to secure freedom through the Atlantis Community in Denver. Reeves then helped other disabled individuals to leave Tennessee. She was a fierce activist with ADAPT, dedicating decades of her life to the fight for Disability Freedom.
Fifty years ago this April, in San Francisco, a group of around 100 people with many kinds of disabilities staged a month-long sit-in in a federal building as part of a national protest. The protesters demanded that the federal government honor their civil rights and sign and implement Section 504. This protest was supported by local community groups, labor unions and the Black Panther Party, who provided food and other supplies.
This world-famous protest won the “Battle for 504”and forced the Democratic Carter administration to sign and implement the 504 regulations.
Disability Justice means “Dare to Struggle, and Dare to Win!”
Edward Yudelovich is a Workers World Party Disability Justice and Rights Caucus activist with neurodivergent and auditory disabilities.
