Blackman v. District of Columbia
November 1997 | Latest News July 2011
This 1997 class action lawsuit found the District of Columbia to have violated the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a federal law that guarantees children with disabilities the right to a free and appropriate public education.
Chambers v. San Francisco
October 2006 | Latest News September 2008
Over the next five years, several hundred residents of the Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco will move to independent apartments linked to the supportive services they need, according to the settlement in a class-action lawsuit approved by the court in September 2008. The case was resolved by agreement between the city and five advocacy groups representing recipients of California’s Medicaid benefits, called Medi-Cal, who live at Laguna Honda, are in San Francisco General Hospital and eligible for discharge to Laguna Honda, are on the waiting list for the nursing home or have been discharged from it within the past two years.
Disability Advocates, Inc. (DAI) v. Cuomo
July 2003 | Latest News April 2012
The lawsuit challenged New York State's illegal segregation of approximately 4,300 residents of large "adult homes" which lack the staff, resources and mandate to provide integrated housing and services to promote community living.
Disability Rights New Jersey (DRNJ) v. Velez
May 2005 | Latest News July 2009
This class action challenged the illegal confinement of nearly 1,000 individuals in New Jersey’s four state psychiatric hospitals. The Bazelon Center asserted that the state’s commissioner of human services has failed to ensure that community services are available to these residents and instead has warehoused them for years after they are ready for discharge.
District of Columbia Charter Schools
May 2011
The Bazelon Center filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice against the District of Columbia. The District’s charter schools have discriminated against applicants with disabilities by requiring them to disclose disability status, then denying admission to those with serious disabilities, telling parents that the school cannot or will not provide needed accommodations. District charter schools have also inappropriately sent dozens of students with disabilities to segregated private schools, instead of serving them in classrooms with non-disabled peers. In doing so, the district’s charter schools violate the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.
Florida v. HHS
January 2012 | Latest News July 2012
This is one of the cases challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the health reform law passed by Congress. Florida and 25 other states are challenging the constitutionality of ACA's expansion of Medicaid eligibility to individuals whose income is 133% of the poverty level or less. This expansion accounts for about half (14 million people) of those newly insured as result of the ACA. The Bazelon Center supports the ACA and was part of the effort before the Supreme Court to defend ACA's Medicaid expansion.
J.K. v. Humble
November 1996 | Latest News November 2009
This lawsuit challenges Arizona's failure to provide mental health services to poor children.
Katie A. v. Bonta
July 2002 | Latest News December 2011
This lawsuit challenges the longstanding practice of confining abused and neglected children in costly hospitals and large group homes instead of providing mental health services that would enable them to stay in their own homes and communities.
Louisiana Bar Conditional Admissions
January 2011
The Bazelon Center filed this administrative complaint with the Disability Rights Section of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division on behalf of a young attorney granted a “conditional admission” to practice law in Louisiana because of her mental health diagnosis. Conditional admissions have become a vehicle for imposing onerous and discriminatory conditions on people with mental illnesses who seek admission to the Bar.
Lynn E. v. Lynch
February 2012
This lawsuit seeks to protect New Hampshire residents with serious mental illnesses who are or are at risk of being institutionalized in state-run facilities due to the state's failure to provide community-based mental health services.
Montgomery Public Schools (Alabama)
August 2011 | Latest News November 2011
The Bazelon Center, along with the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program, filed complaints with the Alabama State Department of Education charging that the Montgomery Public Schools failed to identify and provide needed services to children with emotional disturbances. These children are entitled to the special education and related services they need to stay in their neighborhood schools and learn, and the Montgomery Public Schools violates the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Rehabilitation Act by failing to provide it.
Office of Protection and Advocacy v. State of Connecticut
February 2006 | Latest News April 2010
This lawsuit asks the court to order state agencies to develop suitable community-living alternatives for more than 200 people with mental illnesses who are “needlessly segregated and inappropriately warehoused” in three Connecticut nursing homes.
Troupe v. Barbour
March 2010 | Latest News December 2011
This lawsuit seeks to improve Mississippi's mental health system for children, who are denied access to home- and community-based services and unnecessarily institutionalized.
U.S. Marshals Service
June 2012
A combat veteran's offer of conditional employment to the U.S. Marshals Service was revoked after the service discovered he had been diagnosed with PTSD five years prior--despite the fact that by the time of his application, his evaluating psychologist determined that his symptoms no longer met criteria for the disorder. The revocation was later affirmed by the Department of Justice. The Bazelon Center then filed an appeal with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, arguing that this action violated the Rehabilitation Act.
U.S. v. Georgia
February 2009 | Latest News October 2010
The Bazelon Center assisted a coalition of stakeholders in requesting that the U.S. District Court in Atlanta withhold approval of a settlement that would have ended a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit challenging abuse and neglect of patients in Georgia state hospitals. The groups asserted that the settlement failed to comply with the Olmstead mandate for the provision of services in the most integrated setting consistent with individuals' needs. A new settlement calls for the State to create such services for individuals with mental illnesses or developmental disabilities.
U.S. v. North Carolina
August 2012
The Bazelon Center represents a diverse group of stakeholders who have written to the state to demand that the state comply with Olmstead. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) conducted an eight-month investigation and concluded that North Carolina is violating the ADA and Olmstead decision by failing to afford many people with mental illnesses the opportunity to live in integrated settings. DOJ has been negotiating with the state to resolve these findings.
U.S. v. Virginia
January 2012 | Latest News August 2012
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) challenged Virginia’s practice of warehousing people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in its five state institutions, on the grounds that it violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Olmstead decision by unnecessarily denying Virginians their rights to live in the most integrated setting consistent with their needs. The Bazelon Center and co-counsel from Williams Mullen represent a coalition of 72 members supporting the Virginia-DOJ settlement agreement.
Williams v. Quinn
August 2005 | Latest News September 2010
Residents of Illinois nursing homes charge that they and many others with mental illnesses are “needlessly segregated and inappropriately warehoused” in violation of federal laws including the Americans with Disabilities Act.