The Trump administration has significantly shifted federal disability policy by rolling back longstanding enforcement of community integration protections. Following a June 2026 Department of Justice memo asserting no obligation to enforce the 1999 Olmstead v. L.C. precedent, a federal court in Texas v. Kennedy removed integration mandates from Section 504 regulations at the joint request of federal officials and five Republican-led states. Disability advocates warn the rollback threatens home-based care services and risks returning disabled individuals to institutions, prompting state-level legislative pushback and bipartisan congressional resolutions.
Department of Justice policy shift
- ▪The Department of Justice withdrew from disability rights cases in Florida and Texas where it had previously defended disabled individuals seeking community-based care.
- ▪In June 2026, the Department of Justice issued a memorandum stating that federal law does not obligate the federal government to enforce the community integration mandate of Olmstead v. L.C.
Congressional responses to enforcement changes
- ▪In July 2026, 100 Democratic members of Congress sent a letter requesting that the Department of Justice rescind its June 2026 memorandum on Olmstead enforcement.
- ▪Bipartisan lawmakers introduced House Resolution 1586 in September 2026 to reaffirm the Olmstead decision and community integration rights for disabled Americans.
Texas v. Kennedy lawsuit
- ▪In September 2026, a federal judge in Texas v. Kennedy approved a settlement removing community integration requirements from Section 504 regulations after the Department of Justice joined five state plaintiffs.
- ▪Texas v. Kennedy originated in 2024 when 17 Republican-led states sued to challenge Biden administration Section 504 regulations that included gender dysphoria as a protected disability.
- ▪The five state plaintiffs remaining in Texas v. Kennedy at the time of the September 2026 resolution were Alaska, Florida, Louisiana, Montana, and Texas.
- ▪The federal court order in Texas v. Kennedy removed community integration language from Section 504 regulations but did not declare Section 504 or the Americans with Disabilities Act unconstitutional.
Florida medically fragile children litigation
- ▪In August 2026, the Department of Justice requested that the federal court vacate its 2023 ruling against Florida regarding the institutionalization of medically fragile children.
- ▪In 2023, a federal district court ruled that Florida violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by unnecessarily institutionalizing medically fragile children in nursing facilities.
Federal Health and Human Services regulations
- ▪Federal Health and Human Services regulations updated under President Joe Biden in 2024 had explicitly mandated that states serve disabled individuals in community settings rather than institutions.
- ▪In August 2026, the Department of Health and Human Services asked a federal court to strike community integration language from its federal disability rights regulations.
State responses to federal disability rollbacks
- ▪Eighteen Democratic-led states sent a letter urging the Department of Justice to acknowledge and enforce community integration rights for disabled individuals.
- ▪Delaware enacted state legislation incorporating Section 504 community integration requirements that were removed from federal regulations in Texas v. Kennedy.
Disability rights advocates and activism
- ▪In 2025, hundreds of disability rights advocates gathered in New York to protest Medicaid spending cuts and demand enforcement of disability rights protections.
- ▪Disability rights advocates state that removing federal Section 504 integration rules threatens publicly funded home-care services and increases the risk of institutionalization for disabled individuals.
The Supreme Court Olmstead decision
- ▪The 1999 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Olmstead v. L.C. established that the Americans with Disabilities Act guarantees disabled individuals the right to receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate.
- ▪In 2011, Olmstead v. L.C. plaintiff Lois Curtis met with President Barack Obama at the White House to celebrate the twelfth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision.
History of disability institutionalization
- ▪Thousands of individuals with intellectual, developmental, and psychiatric disabilities were historically housed in overcrowded, isolated institutions such as Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, New York.
- ▪The institutionalized population of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the United States decreased from approximately 200,000 in 1967 to 16,000 by 2024.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
- ▪In 1977, disability rights activists conducted a 28-day sit-in at a San Francisco federal building to secure regulations enforcing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
- ▪Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act was enacted by Congress in 1973 as the first federal civil rights law prohibiting discrimination against individuals with disabilities.
Debatable claims
- ▪State fiscal flexibility in Medicaid spending matters more than federal community integration mandates
- ▪The Department of Justice should rescind its memorandum limiting federal enforcement of Olmstead
- ▪Removing community integration rules from Section 504 regulations does more harm than good
- ▪Federal enforcement is necessary to ensure state compliance with disability integration mandates
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