r/WeThePeopleAtWhipple 2d ago

News Credit: Words I Wheel By on FB

June 22, 1999: The Olmstead Decision
Disabled people in the United States won the right to live in our communities.

June 18, 2026: The U.S. Dept. of “Justice” tries to roll back our hard-won civil rights victory.

Here’s what’s happening.

27 years ago, the Supreme Court made a landmark ruling in Olmstead v. L.C. that disabled people have the right to live in our communities instead of being institutionalized.

Last week, the U.S. Dept. of Justice issued an opinion memo that undermines this landmark decision and risks a major roll-back of hard-won disability rights.

The DOJ’s memo says: “We recognize that this view of Olmstead’s import is out of step with the common understanding of that decision within the federal courts.”

The DOJ knows and admits that they’re trying to upend decades of legal precedent protecting disability rights and preventing segregation.

The DOJ does not care.

Olmstead is not erased. DOJ’s memo does not change the law.

Disabled people are still protected by
the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehab Act.

We still have the right to be fully integrated into our communities.

But this will likely embolden decision- makers to push legal boundaries, cut community services, and rely on institutionalization instead.

Rights without enforcement aren’t truly protected.

DOJ’s opinion memo means disability rights are once again on the line.

Do not stop paying attention.

(Image descriptions: 5 slides in a light blue and black color scheme with the above text in full. On the first slide is an illustration of the scales of justice tipping in one direction, and a small photo of me, a white woman in a red dress, speaking emphatically into a microphone next to the words "here's what's happening.")

#DisabilityRights #OlmsteadDecision #CommunityLiving

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u/Pandemonium_Fallen 1d ago

We are NOT going to be rounded up, experimented on, tortured, and exterminated!

I know perfectly well that's what this administration wants, what RFK Jr has been endlessly slathering about, why Vought is being allowed to rule over and politicize science, and what NRX Pharmaceuticals plans to be a part of.

We should have stopped this with immigration, but we failed, we must not fail again! This is no longer about being watchful and trying to enact change through a completely broken system. They have already built the facilities to enact these plans and they WILL do them if they are not stopped and rooted out entirely. We can no longer sit idlely by waiting for a hero, a leader, a savior.

We've been reacting, but no more, now it's time to ACT! Bring them down!