Disability Justice

The National Center for Law and Economic Justice is a national leader in the fight to advance disability justice. Many low-income people have physical, psychiatric, and learning disabilities that affect their ability to access public benefits. Nearly half of families receiving public benefits have a parent or child with a disability. States and the federal government alike are renewing efforts to institutionalize disabled people rather than promote full inclusion and access in the community, and the federal government is now considering rollbacks to longstanding ADA regulations. Our work on access to benefits, deinstitutionalization, and meaningful inclusion in the community is urgent.

NCLEJ maintains a robust docket of litigation and advocacy to ensure that public benefits are fully accessible to people with disabilities. We seek to ensure that laws and programs live up to the promise of the ADA, which was designed to eliminate discrimination against disabled people, promote full inclusion into all aspects of society, and create clear anti-discrimination standards. NCLEJ is excited to broaden this advocacy by bringing a disability justice lens to our litigation and policy efforts. The disability justice movement takes disability rights activism a step further, acknowledging and engaging in the inextricability of racist, classist, sexist, transphobic, and ableist oppression. We are committed to centering intersectionality as we develop our disability justice casework across the country.

Illinois: 

In May 2026, we reached a settlement with a private reentry housing provider in our lawsuit against the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC), and other private defendants to secure critical disability accommodations for a disabled individual, Mark Davenport, on Mandatory Supervised Release (MSR), a.k.a. parole. Because IDOC failed to accommodate Mr. Davenport’s physical disabilities when he was in the community, he was unnecessarily and illegally sent back to prison for four months. Without reasonable accommodations and protection from retaliation for requesting such accommodations while on parole, formerly incarcerated individuals with disabilities are at significant risk of physical and mental harm, recidivism, institutionalization, and reincarceration. In Illinois, where one’s successful release on MSR depends largely on financial resources and the support of friends and family, economic, racial, and disability justice come to the forefront. This case illustrates NCLEJ’s commitment to litigating cutting-edge issues, addressing a largely unmet need for advocacy on behalf of people with disabilities on parole. Litigation remains ongoing. 

Michigan:  

In January 2025, NCLEJ received court approval of a major settlement in Waskul v. Washtenaw County Community Mental Health, leading to more than $110 million in additional State expenditures for Michiganders living with intellectual and development disabilities who rely on Medicaid Community Living Support. This follows a landmark ruling secured by NCLEJ in 2020 in which the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that isolation at home constitutes violations of the “integration mandate” under the ADA.  

New York: 

In April 2026, NCLEJ moved to hold the Suffolk County Department of Social Services (SCDSS) in contempt of a 2022 settlement over their failure to provide reasonable accommodations to persons with disabilities applying for public benefits, including SNAP, Medicaid, and emergency shelter services. The SCDSS has demonstrated systemic failure to comply with the terms of the 2022 settlement. Between January and October 2025, SCDSS failed to provide reasonable accommodations for disabled individuals requesting public benefits at a monthly noncompliance rate between 29-71%. 

NCLEJ secured a watershed settlement in 2015 establishing the right of public benefits applicants and recipients who are blind or have low vision to receive critical eligibility documents in alternate formats they can access. 

NCLEJ continues to enforce the pathbreaking 2014 settlement in Baez v. NYCHA, which obligates the New York City Housing Authority to ensure timely and effective remediation of toxic mold and moisture in public housing. The Baez consent decree, also the first of its kind in the nation, sets out detailed protocols mandating abatement of these deplorable living conditions, under the oversight of a court-appointed Special Master and mold and data analyst experts, as a reasonable accommodation to public housing tenants’ respiratory disabilities under the ADA.  

In January 2026, NCLEJ won a court order requiring the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance to hold administrative fair hearings for recipients of SNAP and TA benefits receiving adverse decisions within legally-mandated timeframes, issue notices and materials advising affected people of their rights, and limit collection of clawback payments beyond the legal fair hearing resolution period. The ruling found that the OTDA violated mandatory time periods to hold administrative fair hearings and unconstitutionally deprived public benefits recipients of due process. Litigation remains ongoing.   

NCLEJ filed a motion to reargue our appeal in Andersen v. Roberts before New York’s highest court, following a misguided May 2026 court opinion in favor of the state that was inconsistent with prior jurisprudence. The issue on appeal is whether disabled New Yorkers have the same right as everyone else to receive credit for work performed as a requirement of receiving public assistance. Though a 2015 ruling held that Public Assistance recipients who are required to participate in the Work Experience Program are protected by the Fair Labor Standards Act and must receive credit for their work, New York State continues to deny such credit to people with disabilities. 

Georgia:  

In R.H. v. Rawlings, NCLEJ and other co-counsel secured a 2019 federal court settlement requiring the State of Georgia to implement a uniform system of providing reasonable accommodations to persons with disabilities to allow them to access critically needed public benefits. 

Missouri:  

In November 2025, NCLEJ defended our victories in our lawsuit against the Missouri Department of Social Services over their SNAP dysfunction. Low-income Missourians are unlawfully denied access to SNAP benefits due to long call center wait times, wrongful denials of benefits, and lack of disability accommodations. We secured a court order against the Missouri DSS in May 2025 requiring the State to take remedial action to improve their SNAP program. Litigation remains ongoing.