February 2021 Newsletter

People with disabilities can thank Lois Curtis for paving the way for them to live in the community while receiving the services they need.

In what many called "the most important decision for people with disabilities in history," the Olmstead Decision justified the right for people with disabilities to live independently, but would take four years to come in effect including being heard in the Supreme Court.

At the center of the 1999 lawsuit that cited a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 were Lois Curtis and Elaine Wilson, two women with mental and intellectual disabilities. They were held in Georgia Regional Hospital for years after their treatment team determined they were able to live in the community because the state did not want to give them the funds they needed to live independently.

While she was growing up, Curtis was diagnosed with intellectual and mental disabilities. As a result, she would get into trouble constantly - at home and at school. The police were called several times and they would take her to jail or to a mental hospital.

However, at 11-years-old she was sent to live at Georgia Regional Hospital, a mental institution for people with disabilities. She would remain there until she was 29 years old.


	Curtis presenting one of her paintings to President Obama.

It would not be until May 11, 1995 that Curtis' situation began to change when Sue Jamieson, an Atlanta-based legal aid attorney took Curtis' case challenging Tommy Olmstead, the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Human Resources, whose decision kept Curtis in the hospital. Wilson was added later as a plaintiff in the case.

A decision would be reached more than two years later in May 1997 when Judge Marvin Shoob said that the Georgia Department of Human Resources and Regional Hospital failed to place Curtis and Wilson in adequate housing.

Because of Shoob's ruling, the Department of Human Resources and Regional Hospital appealed on December 14, 1998, and one year later on June 22, 1999, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg decided it was unconstitutional for Curtis and Wilson to be forced to stay in the mental institution when they could live in the community.

Justice Bader-Ginsburg created three important requirements for that ruling. A person with a disability can live in the community when:

treatment officials deem it appropriate for the patient to live in the community,
the person doesn't object to living in the community, and
when there is a reasonable accommodation to live with other people who have mental disabilities.

In writing the opinion of the Court, Justice Bader-Ginsburg opined: "Institutional placement of persons who can handle and benefit from community settings perpetuate unwarranted assumptions that persons so isolated are incapable or unworthy of participating in community life."

We concur. And we feel bringing attention to this case is altogether fitting during this time as we celebrate Black History Month and as we honor the life of the late Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg.