The most monumental U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act was issued on June 22, 1999, in the case of Olmstead v L.C. and E.W. L.C. stood for Lois Curtis. She died on November 3 of pancreatic cancer at age fifty-five.
In Olmstead, the justices ruled 6-3 that unjustified and endless segregation by state governments of disabled people in institutions, like the plaintiffs, was a violation of the ADA.
Sadly, the story of Lois Curtis isn’t uncommon for disabled people. She grew up in Georgia in the 1970s and 80s, and was diagnosed with cognitive disabilities and schizophrenia. As a teenager, she was a permanent resident of the state-run Georgia Regional Hospital. She desperately wanted to get out and live someplace where she would have more freedom, such as a group home. The medical professionals treating her agreed that this would be a good option for her. But the state of Georgia didn’t offer an alternative to living forever in the institution.
Lois regularly contacted the Atlanta Legal Aid Society to seek help in getting out. Fortunately, the ADA had been signed into law in 1990, so in 1995 Atlanta Legal Aid launched an ADA lawsuit with Lois as the lead plaintiff. The defendant was Tommy Olmstead, who was Commissioner of Georgia’s Department of Human Resources at the time.
Both the U.S. District Court and the Court of Appeals agreed that state governments were obligated by the ADA to provide support programs to enable disabled people to live outside of institutions.
She didn’t set out to be a hero. She just had a simple dream to live a life where, as much as possible, she could do as she pleased.
The state of Georgia appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion, in which she said that “Institutional placement of persons who can handle and benefit from community settings perpetuates unwarranted assumptions that persons so isolated are incapable or unworthy of participating in community life.” Meanwhile, Clarence Thomas wrote in the snide dissent, “By adopting such a broad view of discrimination, the majority drains the term of any meaning other than as a proxy for decisions disapproved of by this Court.”
As a result of her legal action, Lois Curtis was released from the state hospital and never returned. She lived the rest of her life in Georgia in a variety of community settings. She was a visual artist and in 2011 she presented one of the self portraits she painted to President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.
But the Olmstead decision has also been used to set free many other disabled Americans by challenging and changing oppressive laws and policies that kept them locked up like Lois.
That’s why Lois Curtis is a hero in the disability community. But she didn’t set out to be a hero. She just had a simple dream to live a life where, as much as possible, she could do as she pleased.
In a 2014 interview with the University of Minnesota Institute on Community Integration, Curtis was asked what her wish was for all the people her determined action has helped move out of institutions. “I hope they live long lives and have their own place,” she said. “I hope they make money. I hope they learn every day. I hope they meet new people, celebrate their birthdays, write letters, clean up, go to friends’ houses and drink coffee. I hope they have a good breakfast every day, call people on the phone, feel safe.”