Advocacy

Issues

Community Integration • Criminal & Juvenile Justice • Education • Employment • Health Care • Involuntary Interventions • Legal Capacity

CPR combines administrative, legislative, and policy advocacy to protect, enhance, and expand the rights of people with disabilities. It assists disability organizations and coalitions to advocate for these reforms, and elevates their role in developing and implementing policy initiatives that impact their lives. As a result of CPR’s advocacy, supported decision making has become the preferred method of ensuring individual choice, health care protections have been enhanced to ensure equal access for people with disabilities, segregated employment programs have been closed, and civil commitment laws have been narrowed.

CPR also provides training and technical assistance to disability rights advocates throughout the country to expand the rights and opportunities of people with disabilities.

Recent Medicaid Updates:

November 10, 2020

The US Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments today in California v. Texas, a challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) arguing that the law’s individual mandate is unconstitutional and that because of that, the entire law should be struck down.

A coalition of disability organizations, including CPR, has worked throughout the course of this litigation to represent the disability community and filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court earlier this year, explaining the importance of the ACA for people with disabilities. You can read the coalition’s statement on today’s argument here. More information on the case, including background information and legal filings, can be found on our webpage.

November 3, 2020

Yesterday, a federal district court judge in Illinois issued a decision vacating the Department of Homeland Security’s discriminatory public charge rule nationwide. Unfortunately, today the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of that decision, meaning the rule is allowed to remain in effect while litigation works its way through the courts.

Additional background information on the rule, resources, and media can be found here and the latest on the litigation efforts can be found here.

November 2, 2020

This morning a federal district court judge in Illinois issued a decision vacating the public charge rule nationwide, effective immediately. This means that the new harmful and discriminatory public charge rule is no longer in effect. We will keep you updated as the Department of Homeland Security will likely immediately appeal this decision.

Advocacy Updates

October 11, 2023

Quarterly Newsletter, October 2023

Read important updates on CPR's work in our October newsletter.

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July 18, 2023

CPR Highlights the Critical Need for Department of Justice Efforts for People with Disabilities

At two sessions with the senior leadership of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, including Assistant Attorney General Kristin Clarke, CPR’s Legal Director, Steven Schwartz, discussed several key ADA enforcement priorities for people with disabilities.

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February 14, 2023

CPR Reaches New Settlement to Provide Community Residential Options for Class Members at New Hampshire’s State Nursing Facility

After months of negotiation, CPR and its partners, the Disability Rights Center (DRC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), have reached a new settlement agreement to provide community residential alternatives to class members who are institutionalized at the Glencliff Home, New Hampshire’s only publicly-operated nursing facility.

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October 11, 2022

ADA Class Action Seeks to Compel Massachusetts to Stop Unnecessary Institutionalization of People with Disabilities

Six people with disabilities who are unnecessarily institutionalized in nursing facilities, joined by the Massachusetts Senior Action Council, filed a class action lawsuit today in federal district court in Boston. Their complaint claims that Governor Charlie Baker and other state officials have failed to provide community residential services and supports, and this failure has forced thousands of people with disabilities to live in segregated nursing facilities rather than in the community. The Commonwealth’s failure violates the Americans with Disabilities (ADA) and the Medicaid Act and disproportionately impacts people of color.

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May 10, 2022

CPR’s Landmark Case for Persons with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in New Mexico Ends

On April 17, 2022, the district court found the State of New Mexico finally achieved compliance with a 2019 settlement agreement and dismissed the case of Jackson v. Los Lunas Community Program. The class action litigation was originally filed in 1987 on behalf of hundreds of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities who lived in the state’s two public institutions.

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