Disability Law Commons^™

Olmstead 25 Years Later: Advocating For Children With Mental Health And Behavioral Health Needs, Laura C. Hoffman

Mercer Law Review

On June 22, 1999, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a monumental decision in the history of the disability rights movement in Olmstead v. L.C. by Zimring. As people with disabilities, especially those with mental health conditions or developmental disabilities, were frequently institutionalized without much of any thought to allowing them to be a part of the community, the Olmstead decision changed all of that, at least in terms of the acknowledgment of the legal right to a placement in the least‑restrictive environment whenever possible and cementing into legal protections the understanding that community integration was firmly …

New Jersey And Guardians: Perfect Together? Suggested Improvements To Guardianship Laws In New Jersey For Adults With Developmental Disabilities, Caroline H. Osborne

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

New Jersey has a large population of adults with developmental disabilities, and many family members of adults with developmental disabilities will seek guardianship. Guardianships and conservatorships have been gaining widespread media attention and awareness. With celebrities coming forward to discuss their experiences and movies being made about their potential for abuse, there has been a new focus on reforming the systems that are in place to improve outcomes for those being placed under guardianships.

Guardians and conservators have been identifying several problems with the current system, including that it is too difficult to secure guardianship over their loved ones, and …

How Do School-Level Dynamics Impact Mainstreaming Practices In American Schools?, Natalie M. Watson

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

How do school-level dynamics impact the everyday experiences of students with disabilities, compared to their abled peers? Extant research has mostly focused on the experiences of individual students with disabilities, and their teachers. We know far less about how school-level dynamics shape students’ experiences. Historically, American schools formally separated students with and without disabilities, though the specific mode varied over time -- ranging from explicit institutionalization to segregation in special education programs. At least since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, efforts to educate students with disabilities alongside their abled peers in mainstreamed settings have increased …

From Flames To Change: An Exploration Of Housing, Fire, And Inequity, Helen Underhill, Charles R. Jennings, Brian Meacham, Danielle Antonellis

Publications and Research

Housing and fire safety are deeply connected: inadequate and poorly maintained housing poses heightened fire risk for occupants. An individual or household’s housing situation (including limited or constrained choice) interacts with issues such as affordability, access, location, quality, safety, occupancy levels, tenure type, and resident or immigration status. These dynamics shape vulnerability, and inequity becomes most visible in the event of a fire. The extreme end of this spectrum includes the unhoused, who occupy structures entirely outside of regulatory systems with little or no fire protection.

The Idea Of Inclusivity: The Fallacy Of School Choice, Harleigh Summerville

Arkansas Law Notes

As calls for reform in public education grow, students with disabilities have become the poster children for a failing system that is not equipped to handle students’ varying needs. With the number of children receiving services for learning disabilities growing, some argue that the current system not only is failing to provide students with appropriate education but is actively causing harm. Issues gaining adequate funding, disparities in educational access to racial minorities, and failure to adhere to federal mandates have made it difficult for public schools to meet the individualized needs of all students, particularly students with disabilities. One example …

Defining An "Appropriate Education" Under The Education For All Handicapped Children Act Of 1975, Stephen A. Mansfield

Maine Law Review

The educational rights of handicapped children have long been neglected due to a combination of societal indifference and ignorance. Judicial recognition of the educational rights of handicapped persons only began in the early 1970's when constitutional challenges were brought against school systems that excluded handicapped children from attending school. Federal statutory reforms, however, have gone much further than the constitutionally-based decisions of the early 1970's. This Comment focuses on the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, the primary federal statute for securing educational rights of handicapped children. Because the Act is relatively new, case law providing guidance for judicial decision …

Occupy, Nicholas Marti

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

Rise Re-Entry Program, Rise Artists

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

Airport Milk Justice, Elsbeth Magilton

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

This creative and personal Essay explores the complex and often overlooked experience of a new working mother. Through a series of personal stories featuring airports and security personnel, this author navigates the struggles and lack of support from society for breastfeeding on-the-go. Ultimately, the author was able to use these personal experiences and turn them into a positive advocacy mission for herself and for other working mothers across the United States by finding solutions and reaching out to airport regulators. This piece highlights candidly the intersection between motherhood and the professional world by illustrating the difficulties and evolving expectations for …

A Love Letter To The Leaders: Why Recognizing And Discussing Secondary Trauma In Legal Work Will Benefit Your Staff, Your Clients, And Most Importantly, The Work, Isabel Corngold, Elizabeth Cole

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

When you work in a client-facing, client-centered section of the law like criminal law, and specifically wrongful convictions, you encounter trauma. Many organizations, including innocence organizations, do not do a sufficient job to recognize and address the impact of that trauma on their staff. This piece seeks to explain the potential impact of this trauma by, one, defining the terms burnout; secondary and vicarious trauma; empathetic distress; countertransference; and compassion fatigue, and, two, listing out signs and symptoms that can be caused by experiencing any of these emotions. Drawing from the authors’ experiences in innocence organizations, this piece addresses leaders …

Forewords To The Inaugural Issue, Njaj Editorial Board, Richard Moberly, Stefanie S. Pearlman, Kala Mueller, Danielle Jefferis, Brooklyn Terrill

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

2024-25 Masthead, Njaj Editorial Board

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Re-Imagining Tomorrow: A Technology, Innovation Law, And Ethics Symposium On Addictive Technology And Children, Margaret Chon

Seattle University Law Review

In this Foreword, Professor Margaret Chon introduces Seattle University's Technology, Innovation Law, and Ethics (TILE) program, the 2024 TILE Symposium, and Dr. Gaia Bernstein’s Unwired: Gaining Control Over Addictive Technologies.

Keynote Address: The Movement To Protect Kids From Addictive Technologies, Gaia Bernstein

Seattle University Law Review

In this keynote address, I describe my personal journey starting with a school outreach program I created in 2017 to address technology overuse among kids. While I initially advocated for self-help methods, I grew to recognize that the tech industry bore responsibility. This realization led me to write Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies, which focused on collective action to pressure the tech industry to redesign its addictive products.

I then describe the movement to control addictive technologies and protect kids, which has gained momentum since the end of the pandemic. This movement combines grassroots parent activism with legal-political action. …

Moral Panic Or Public Health Crisis? Lessons From Drugs And Gambling For “Addictive” Design, Matthew B. Lawrence, Haomin (Kevin) Yan

Seattle University Law Review

Alcohol, automobiles, guns, lottery, loot boxes, meat, music, opioid painkillers, processed foods, prop bets, slot machines, television, tobacco, violent video games. Over the last century each of these has been subject to concerns—some might even say “moral panics”—from parents and policymakers about avoidable harms to kids and adults. In some cases we look back with the benefit of hindsight and dismiss those concerns as naïve or moralistic. In others we look back at them as justified or as having come too late to check an expanding industry before it did unfathomable harm while growing so powerful that it became all …

Responding To Digital Addiction, Ned Snow

Seattle University Law Review

In Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies, Professor Gaia Bernstein calls our attention to the growing problem of digital addiction. Digital addiction may sound like something out of a science-fiction novel or something that does not raise the same sort of real-life practical concerns as are present in a physical health crisis or an economic decline. But as Bernstein presents the evidence, we learn that the consequences of digital addiction can be just as harmful as a serious disease or a financial depression. Cognitive development disorders, anxiety, emotional depression, social isolation, and other mental health ills can be debilitating—as much …

The Ai Doppelgänger Dilemma: Cloned Voices In The Music Industry, Elizabeth Shields

Seattle University Law Review

With the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), there has been an influx of “voice clones”—deep-learning algorithms that create synthetic speech to realistically mimic human voices. Celebrities and, in particular, music artists, have been subjected to the proliferation of AI voice clones on social media platforms like TikTok and streaming platforms such as Spotify. Despite music utilizing AI voice clones having amassed much popularity, this technology can be harmful and highly invasive to musicians whose livelihoods often depend on their distinct voices. While legal scholars have attempted to articulate various rights that could protect a person’s voice, individuals are largely …

Let The Sunshine In: Crafting Constitutional Transparency Regulations For Content Moderation, Caitlin Ring Carlson

Seattle University Law Review

In response to public concern about the impact of social media, legislators in some U.S. states have developed laws to regulate the process of content moderation. Many include mandatory transparency and disclosure requirements, some of which courts have already deemed an unconstitutional infringement on social media platforms’ right to free expression. This article explores the parameters for crafting constitutional social media transparency regulations using existing U.S. media policy and insights from recent legal challenges. The resulting analysis identifies content neutral transparency requirements that mandate the disclosure of purely factual, non-controversial information as those most likely to withstand judicial scrutiny. Specifically, …

This Is Not A Game: The Addictive Allure Of Digital Companions, Nizan Geslevich Packin, Karni Chagal-Feferkorn

Seattle University Law Review

Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents have become an inescapable part of modern childhood, reshaping education, leisure activities, entertainment, and social interaction. From AI-powered tutors that adapt to individual learning styles to emotionally responsive chatbots that simulate human companionship, these systems promise unprecedented personalization, cognitive stimulation, and social support. However, these benefits mask significant risks that remain unregulated and inadequately addressed.

Although adults are also susceptible to forming deep emotional bonds with AI companions—often trusting them as if they possessed genuine understanding and empathy—children are particularly vulnerable. Their misplaced trust can more severely distort social development, weaken critical thinking, and foster unhealthy …

Lawyering As A Public Health Tool: Enforcing Title Ii Of The Americans With Disabilities Act With Preventative Litigation, Elena Cohen

Fordham Law Review

A recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that plaintiffs cannot bring a claim alleging a risk of unnecessary institutionalization under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This directly contradicts the holdings of six other circuit courts and guidance issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ)—all of which maintain that Title II of the ADA (Title II), the integration mandate, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Olmstead v. L.C. ex rel. Zimring permit these claims. This Note explores how the circuit courts have evaluated risk of unnecessary institutionalization claims, including …

Reforming The Medical Expense Income Tax Deduction To Better Reflect "Crip Time", Diane Kemker

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

Extraordinary medical expenses— whether due to a one-time occurrence or a chronic condition— happen on their own time. These expenses, their causes, and their consequences (medical, personal, financial, or all of these) can rarely be neatly cabined into a single calendar year. Treatment requiring an expensive prescription medication or complex surgery not covered by insurance may address a condition that arose over years. That condition may have interfered with a taxpayer’s ability to work in prior years, the current year, and perhaps for years to come, even for the rest of the taxpayer’s earning life. The medical condition of a …

Integrating The Workforce: A Proposed Expansion Of The Lane V. Kitzhaber Rule, Dean Farmer

Michigan Law Review

Sheltered workshops are workplaces that employ, and may legally pay subminimum wages to, individuals with disabilities. Though these workshops have historically been a large part of disability employment services in the United States, many policymakers have advocated for a shift from sheltered workshops to integrated disability employment services, in which individuals with disabilities work alongside other workers for an equal wage that meets or exceeds the minimum wage. In Lane v. Kitzhaber, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon applied Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to sheltered workshop programs, holding that states must …

The Dim Prospects Of A Child Find: Journal Entries Of An Academic, Engineer, And Mother Navigating Special Education Services, Idalis Villanueva Alarcon

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

This provocation is a journaling exercise to uncover the author’s experiences of navigating child find, a process to identify specific learning disability needs for my oldest child. While the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act provides provisions to protect and support children with special needs, private schools do not operate equally. When considering how these inequities in the educational system overlap with precollege engineering education, there is a large gap the literature, positioning a dire need to move disability studies into the precollege engineering education space. The critical authoethnographic journal sheds light on the inequities and educational gaps that are present …

Guardianship And Its Alternatives: A Handbook On Maryland Law, Joan O'Sullivan, Ellen A. Callegary, Rebecca Hall, James F. Silver

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Disability Rights And Inclusion: A Multidisciplinary Conference, Samuel J. Levine

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Vulnerability In The Law, Sara Aziz, Aisli Ali, Casey Williams, Lindsey Nye, Saya Khandhar, Sofia Bazdekis

Human Rights Brief

On Monday, February 24, 2025, the Human Rights Brief (“the Brief”) at American University Washington College of Law (“WCL”) held its annual spring symposium with the theme of “Vulnerability in the Law.” This year’s theme aimed to highlight areas where legal systems fall short in protecting vulnerable populations, as well as highlighting where the law itself is vulnerable. The symposium was organized by Symposium and Education Editor Sara Aziz, in collaboration with the Junior Symposium Staff: Asli Ali, Casey Williams, Lindsey Nye, Saya Khandhar, and Sofia Bazdekis. The team worked relentlessly to coordinate panels on legal issues, including technology, environmental …

The Witchcraft Act And The Cost Of Inaction: Afchpr On The Persecution Of Persons With Albinism, Aly Orvis

Human Rights Brief

On February 5, 2025, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (“AfCHPR”) issued a landmark ruling in Centre for Human Rights and Others v. United Republic of Tanzania, holding that Tanzania had violated the rights of persons with albinism (“PWA”) by failing to protect them from systematic discrimination, violence, and ritual killings. The applicants, a human rights organization advocating for PWA, argued that the Tanzanian government’s inaction and weak legal framework fostered an environment of impunity for attacks against PWA, including violations of Article 2, the right to non-discrimination, of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (“ACHPR”). …

Through A Glass Darkly: How Securities Disclosures Give A Distorted View Of The Economy, Gerald F. Davis

Seattle University Law Review

Our understanding of the American economy often relies on stylized facts derived from mandatory disclosures by listed corporations. Data vendors like Standard & Poor’s vacuum up 10Ks and proxy statements into databases, and scholars distill these into tentative maps. This may have been adequate for a postwar economy centered on asset-heavy manufacturers, but it is increasingly out of step with an information-based economy. Companies listed on the stock market are fewer in number and less representative than they were, light in tangible assets and people, and heavy on IP. Basic facts such as what industry they are in are increasingly …

Accessibility For All?, Jessica Pasquale

Law Librarian Scholarship

There are new Americans with Disabilities Act requirements for state and local governments, so as employees of the University of Michigan, my colleagues and I have been preparing to meet them for over a year. Recently, I began wondering about the accessibility of websites for law firms in Michigan, so I conducted a brief and informal survey of randomly selected firms based on affiliations listed in the State Bar of Michigan’s ‘Find a Lawyer’ directory. I ran each site through the automated tool offered by AccessibilityChecker.org and found that 100% of the sites I checked were rated as noncompliant with …