In September of 2024, 17 states sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In the complaint they filed they asked for Section 504 to be declared unconstitutional. The reason they provided for filing this suit centers around a final rule released by the Biden administration that updates Section 504. It strengthens the law by:
- Adding language about website accessibility for blind users
- Making sure that disabled parents and disabled children can’t be discriminated against in the child welfare system
- Stopping doctors from discriminating against disabled patients and denying them any life-saving care based on their assumptions about whether a disabled life is worth living
- Defining “integration” and “segregation”, protecting disabled people who could be placed in institutions or segregated
- Acknowledging that gender dysphoria is a disability (this is in the preamble, and is not an official regulation)
Although the 17 state Attorneys General claimed that they only took issue with the section discussing gender dysphoria, they attacked the entire law in their complaint.
In February of 2025, disability rights organizations and activists discovered what the 17 states were trying to do, and we raised our voices. In response to our advocacy, the state Attorneys General and Secretary Kennedy released a joint status report, where they claim that they were never planning on asking the court to strike Section 504 down. This was directly contradicted by their original complaint.
In December of 2025, HHS released a proposed rule that addressed the states’ concerns about gender dysphoria. Disability rights organizations strongly condemned it, both in allyship with the trans community and in solidarity with trans disabled people who would be impacted directly.
In January of 2026, eight states withdrew from Texas v. Kennedy. The nine remaining states could no longer hide behind their claim that their involvement in the case only stemmed from the 2024 rule’s position on gender dysphoria, so they released a new complaint where they revealed the real reason for this lawsuit. They asked the court to declare the 2024 final rule illegal, attacking language surrounding the integration of disabled people.
In March, Secretary Kennedy joined the states in asking the court to completely skip the trial, and proceed directly to a decision. Instead of defending Section 504, Secretary Kennedy is supporting all claims that the state Attorneys General are making. The judge agreed to skip the trial, so now the fate of our integration rights is in his hands.
This language the states take issue with is not new. It has existed for 50 years, and it protects our right to receive services in our communities with our loved ones, not isolated in institutions. It allows disabled students to learn with the accommodations that help them succeed, and ensures that they learn alongside their able peers, not hidden away in separate classrooms.
Our organization’s namesake, Judy Heumann, was denied her education before Section 504 was passed. When she was finally able to learn, her school instructed her alongside disabled students of all ages in a basement. Others at that time were sent to institutions, many of which had long, well-documented histories of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. Today, reports of abuse in institutions still come frequently. Texas v. Kennedy jeopardizes the rights of disabled students, and puts millions of disabled people at risk of being sent to these facilities. .
This article was written in plain language. Plain language is a writing style that makes information more accessible to more people, including some people with intellectual or cognitive disabilities.
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