For Immediate Release
Contact: David Card
202.408.9514 x122 | [email protected]
Washington, DC —The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, the National Disability Rights Network, the Center for Public Representation, the National Health Law Program, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, and the Arc of the United States condemn the issuance of an Executive Order on “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets.” The Order directs the Attorney General to seek “the reversal of Federal or State judicial precedents and the termination of consent decrees that impede the United States’ policy of encouraging civil commitment of individuals with mental illness who pose risks to themselves or the public or are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves in appropriate facilities for appropriate periods of time.”
“This Executive Order appears aimed at upending decades of established Supreme Court precedent and eliminating basic protections that prevent the arbitrary confinement of people based on a disability. We cannot go back to the times when people’s liberty could be taken away with no rhyme or reason, or for reasons like revenge or punishment,” said Jennifer Mathis, Deputy Director of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. “The executive branch has an obligation to abide by Supreme Court decisions rather than seeking to overturn them.”
“What unhoused people with disabilities need is not more policing or confinement, but permanent affordable housing, access to mental health services, and the support to live with dignity in their communities,” said NDRN Executive Director Marlene Sallo. “This executive order diverts resources away from the real solutions we know work and instead embraces coercion over care.”
This is a broader disability rights issue – up to 40% of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), such as Down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, and more, also have co-occurring mental health conditions. Currently, only 1 in 10 children and adolescents with IDD and mental health disorders receive specialized services. The solution is sufficient funding for community-based services and appropriate housing, not this Executive Order. Further, at a time when the federal government is making historic cuts to Medicaid, warehousing people in costly institutions is an absurd solution.
The Supreme Court has issued decisions ensuring that Americans have due process protections before the government can take away their liberty and confine them in a psychiatric hospital. Those decisions are the law of the land for good reason. Before the Court clarified these protections, people were too often confined for extended periods of time in psychiatric hospitals with little or no reason—and in some cases, for wholly inappropriate reasons. Many spent years or decades neglected on the back wards of overcrowded state psychiatric hospitals housing thousands of people. These practices destroyed lives and overwhelmed state budgets. Protections against inappropriate commitment are critical, as these practices still occur. Disability Rights Montana documented this problem in a 2022 report, while Disability Rights California found in 2024 that persons with mental health disabilities languish in a county jail without being charged with a crime costing millions of dollars a month. Promoting “maximally flexible” commitment standards will set treatment of citizens with disabilities back by decades.
Kenneth Donaldson was locked up against his will in a Florida state hospital for fifteen years with scant basis when he brought a lawsuit challenging that confinement. The Supreme Court held that the hospital had violated Donaldson’s constitutional rights, noting that “the mere presence of mental illness does not disqualify a person from preferring his home to the comforts of an institution” and that “a State cannot constitutionally confine, without more, a nondangerous individual who is capable of surviving safely in freedom by himself or with the help of willing and responsible family members or friends.” The Court has reaffirmed these legal principles on multiple occasions. The government must uphold them.
By using federal guidance, grants, or other means to promote “maximally flexible” commitment standards, the Executive Order also interjects the federal executive branch into an area long recognized as the states’ responsibility subject to critical Constitutional protections.
We call on the Administration to uphold the law and support the humane care and treatment of people with mental health disabilities.
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Since 1972, the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law has advocated for the civil rights, full inclusion and equality of adults and children with mental health disabilities. The Bazelon Center accomplishes its goals through a unique combination of litigation, public policy advocacy, coalition building and leadership, public education, media outreach and technical assistance—a comprehensive approach that ensures we achieve the greatest impact.
The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) is the nonprofit membership organization for the federally mandated Protection and Advocacy (P&A) Systems and the Client Assistance Programs (CAP) for individuals with disabilities. Collectively, the Network is the largest provider of legally based advocacy services to people with disabilities in the United States.
The Center for Public Representation is a national advocacy organization dedicated to enforcing and expanding the rights of people with disabilities and others who are in segregated settings. CPR provides technical assistance and support to a network of federally-funded Protection and Advocacy programs in each of the United States and U.S. territories.
The National Health Law Program (NHeLP) is a public interest law firm that protects and improves access to health care for low-income and underserved people and works to advance health equity. We believe that everyone should have access to high quality, equitable health care and be able to achieve their own highest attainable standard of health. We enforce health care and civil rights laws; advocate for better federal and state laws and policies; train, support and partner with national, state and local health and civil rights advocates; and use strategic communications to achieve these goals.
Founded in 1979, the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF) is a leading national civil rights law and policy center directed by individuals with disabilities and parents who have children with disabilities. Our mission is to advance the civil and human rights of people with disabilities through legal advocacy, training, education, and public policy and legislative development.
The Arc advocates for and serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), including Down syndrome, autism, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, cerebral palsy, and other diagnoses. Founded in 1950 by parents who believed their children with IDD deserved more, The Arc is now a network of nearly 600 chapters across the country promoting and protecting the human rights of people with IDD and actively supporting their full inclusion and participation in the community throughout their lifetimes. Through the decades, The Arc has been at the forefront of advances in disability rights and supports. There are over 7 million people with IDD in the United States, which encompasses over 100 different diagnoses. Visit www.thearc.org or follow us @TheArcUS to learn more.
