Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) released a memo that advances a vanishingly narrow reading of states’ longstanding legal duty to serve persons with disabilities in community-based settings, rather than in segregated institutions.
On May 21, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Hamm v. Smith, a case being heavily watched by both criminal justice and disability rights advocates for its potential impact on convictions for individuals sentenced to death involving a determination of intellectual disability.
“Unrepresented” veterans — those lacking both the capacity to make medical decisions on their own and surrogates to act on their behalf — face difficulty transitioning from VA hospitals to post-acute care facilities, such as nursing homes or assisted living, due to their inability to provide consent.
On Aug. 7, 2025, with Advisory Opinion OC-31/25, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights took a decisive step by becoming the first international court to recognize the human right to care as an autonomous right.
New directions for disability advocacy and organizing in the Americas? On August 7, 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights broke new ground in international human rights law by recognizing the “right to care” as an autonomous and enforceable right. Its Advisory Opinion recognizes care as an essential and universal human need on which functioning societies and humanity itself…
The case for a new international human rights treaty for older persons is clear. In much of the world, older persons represent ever-larger shares of the population. The World Health Organization estimates the number of people aged over 60 will double by 2050.
This virtual event will discuss a forthcoming international treaty on the rights of older persons and how it could build on lessons from the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. On April 3, 2025, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council adopted a resolution jumpstarting the multilateral process for negotiating a new international treaty on the rights…
My fourth guide dog, Izzie, was the final dog partner in my particular federal agency’s building when I recently retired from service as a health care lawyer with expertise in public health.
In the United States, more persons with intellectual disabilities are living in the community than ever before. This was not always the case.
The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School is pleased to announce our 2025 annual conference: “Law, Health Care, and the Aging Brain and Body.” This year’s conference is organized by the Petrie-Flom Center in collaboration with Nina A. Kohn, the David M. Levy Professor of Law at Syracuse…
