We will soon offer detailed information about the work of freeing people with disabilities from institutions and bringing them back into communities. In the meantime, we thank the groups, Mouth and Ragged Edge, for developing the webpage, www.freedomclearinghouse.org that discusses the national process of deinstitutionalization of people with disabilities.

Check out this information that they have on the groundbreaking Olmstead decision:

The Olmstead Decision

On June 22, 1999, the United States Supreme Court held in Olmstead v. L.C. that the unnecessary segregation of individuals with disabilities in institutions may constitute discrimination based on disability. The court ruled that the Americans with Disabilities Act may require states to provide community-based services rather than institutional placements for individuals with disabilities.

In a 6-3 opinion written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the court affirmed a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, saying that "unjustified isolation of individuals with disabilities is properly regarded as discrimination based on disability."

Read the Olmstead Supreme Court decision

Read attorney Steve Gold's discussion

Read about the Olmstead Decision from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law

Activists can push harder after Olmstead

State responses to Olmstead