Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2000
Abstract
Olmstead v. L.C., 119 S. Ct. 2176 (1999), qualifiedly affirming a decision that the Americans with Disabilities Act entitled plaintiffs - residents of Georgia State Hospital - to treatment in an "integrated community setting" as opposed to an "unnecessarily segregated" state hospital, potentially has the capacity to transform and revolutionize institutional mental disability law. Whether that potential is realized depends on multiple factors, especially the extent to which courts, legislatures and the public are willing to confront the extent to which sanism (an irrational prejudice of the same quality and character of other irrational prejudices that cause and are reflected in prevailing social attitudes of racism, sexism, homophobia and ethnic bigotry) and pretextuality (ways that courts accept and even encourage, either implicitly or explicitly, testimonial dishonesty, especially on the part of expert witnesses) in the law.
Recommended Citation
Thomas M. Cooley Law Review, Vol. 17, Issue 1 (2000), pp. 53-90