Keynote

Date: Thursday, 9/25

Time:1-2:15pm

This keynote will discuss the rights of people with disabilities to receive services in their own homes and communities, and the current Administration’s apparent efforts to try to turn the clock back and return to segregation and institutionalization. Professor Bagenstos will discuss the recent DOJ memo concluding that neither the Americans with Disabilities Act nor Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act has an “integration mandate” requiring states to provide services to people with disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate.  He will address the interaction of the Administration’s new position on community integration with recent cuts to Medicaid and other federal benefits, and with its policy on homelessness.  Professor Bagenstos will talk about what people can do to try to preserve the integration mandate in the current environment.  

For Further Reading:

The Past and Future of Deinstitutionalization Litigation, 34 Cardozo L. Rev. 1 (2012)

The Limits of Negative Rights Claims in Social Change Litigation: A Disability Law Perspective on Grants Pass, 71 Wayne L. Rev. 71 (2025)