Olmstead About-Face

Date and Time

October 13, 2026
12:20PM - 01:20PM EDT

Location

Wasserstein Caspersen Center, Room 1015
Register for the Event Here

In 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Olmstead v. L.C. that segregated services and programs for persons with disabilities constitute discrimination and are unlawful under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Ever since, Olmstead has strengthened the deinstitutionalization movement’s efforts to return persons with disabilities to community settings.

However, the Department has recently changed course. In June, the Department released a memo that reverses the Department’s longstanding approach to Olmstead enforcement. The memo posits a novel, narrow interpretation of Olmstead, which the memo itself acknowledges “is out of step with the common understanding of that decision within the federal courts.” Even so, the Department has already doubled down on this dubious interpretation, for example, by formal notice that it views prior Olmstead guidance as not enforceable. While the memo alone does not change settled legal precedents, it signals a substantially narrower approach to Olmstead enforcement by the Department and also retrenchment by other federal agencies charged with implementing federal laws and programs undergirding persons with disabilities’ right to community living.

At this event, co-sponsored by the Harvard Law School Disabled Law Students Association and Health Law and Policy Clinic, panelists will bring to bear their decades of experience advocating on behalf of persons with disabilities for their right to be included in their communities to describe the practical implications of the Department’s Olmstead about-face, as well as what the disability community can do to counter rising threats to integration, inclusion, and belonging.

Welcoming Remarks

Moderator

  • Hezzy Smith, Director of Advocacy Initiatives, HPOD

Panelists

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