17 states are suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and in the complaint they filed, they ask for Section 504 to be declared unconstitutional. The Secretary of HHS used to be Xavier Becerra, so he was labeled as a defendant, but now that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has taken over that role, he is the new defendant in the case. In this role, Secretary Kennedy is supposed to protect Section 504, but he has failed to do that.
The reason the 17 states sued in the first place is because in 2024, HHS under the Biden administration released a final rule that updates Section 504. It makes the law stronger by:
- adding language about website accessibility for blind people
- making sure that disabled parents and disabled children can’t be discriminated against in the child welfare system
- stops doctors from discriminating against disabled patients and denying them any life-saving care based on stereotypes about what they think life must be like for us
- defines “integration” and “segregation”, protecting disabled people who could be placed in institutions or segregated
- talks about gender dysphoria being a disability (this is in the preamble, and is not an official regulation)
In September of 2024, the 17 states filed their complaint in the northern district court of Texas. Though they talk about wanting the gender dysphoria portion out of the new rule and claim it’s the only reason they’re suing, they explicitly state in their complaint (which they all signed) that “Section 504 is unconstitutional”.
In February, disability rights organizations and activists discovered what the 17 states were trying to do, and we raised our voices. In response to our advocacy, both the states and Secretary Kennedy released a status report together. This is a report they give the court that the public can see. In this report, they state that they never wanted to make Section 504 unconstitutional, and that they only take issue with parts of the 2024 rule. The parts they cite are: (1) the inclusion of gender dysphoria as a disability; (2) the mandate that disabled people get their services in the “most integrated setting” and (3) the protection for disabled people at risk of being placed in an institution.
Even though they said they didn’t want Section 504 struck down, they refused to change the language of the complaint they filed in September. To this day, the complaint still talks about how Section 504 is unconstitutional. The second part they take issue with, that disabled people need to receive our services in “the most integrated setting”, has been around for 50 years; the 2024 rule just made it clearer. The 17 Attorneys General are trying to strike a part of Section 504 down that keeps us from being segregated.
On April 10, Secretary Kennedy officially took gender dysphoria out of the 2024 rule. This is important because, when asked, most of the 17 state Attorneys General said they were only suing to remove the gender dysphoria section. With that in mind, they got what they wanted. But it’s been two months, and it’s very telling that none of them have withdrawn from this lawsuit.
That’s because, despite what they’re telling the media, they want to remove the whole 2024 rule, and potentially strike Section 504 down completely. It was never only about gender dysphoria. It was about stripping away the rights of disabled Americans and hoping no one would notice.
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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