Statement of Solidarity Against DOJ Olmstead Meno
We, the undersigned, believe Trump DOJ’s Olmstead memo should be recognized for what it is: an attack on disabled people’s right to live in the community. Disability history shows how dangerous it is when the state starts by labeling disabled people as problems to be managed, then treats segregation and institutionalization as “care.”
That is the same logic that made Nazi policy possible. The Nazis did not begin with mass murder; they began by devaluing disabled lives, separating people from family and community, and building a system that made institutionalization inevitable.
When a government insists that disabled people do not belong in ordinary life, it is not protecting us. It is reviving the Nazi playbook of disability oppression: control, segregation, and removal of autonomy.
The DOJ memo does not equal Nazi policy, but it draws from it’s dehumanizing roots: deciding which lives are worth supporting, which people can be warehoused, and which communities are allowed to exist. Disabled people have fought too hard for community living, self-determination, and freedom to let that history repeat itself.
For more information about the Olmstead vs L.C. decision, the memo, the disability organizations against it, and actions you can take, visit Olmstead Under Attack