(b) Undue institutionalization qualifies as discrimination “by reason of … disability.”
Content Note: Opinion uses the r-slur as the official legal language of the time.
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OLMSTEAD V. L. C. (98-536) 527 U.S. 581 (1999) Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court … concluding that, under Title II of the ADA, States are required to place persons with mental disabilities in community settings rather than in institutions when the State’s treatment professionals have determined that community placement is appropriate, the transfer from institutional care to a less restrictive setting is not opposed by the affected individual, and the placement can be reasonably accommodated...
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Center for Public Representation Statement on the Passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
In 1999, as the author of the majority opinion in Olmstead v. L.C., Justice Ginsburg affirmed that people with disabilities have a civil right to live, work and participate in their communities and found that unjustified segregation of people with disabilities is a type of discrimination prohibited by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
She aptly described the harms caused by segregating people with disabilities from their communities: it “perpetuates unwarranted assumptions that persons so isolated are incapable or unworthy of participating in community life.”
