WHAT IS SECTION 504?

Section 504 is a federal law that protects disabled people from discrimination within human services. This applies to both state-run and private service providers.

Most commonly, Section 504 is used in schools to create 504 plans. While similar to IEPs, 504 plans are easier to access and help disabled students overcome barriers in learning and attending classes.

However, Section 504 goes beyond just schools. For instance, it prohibits “discriminatory segregation” – that is, it prohibits the isolation or institutionalization of disabled individuals if integrated and community-based services are available and have not yet been utilized to their fullest extent.

WHAT IS TEXAS V BERCERRA?

Texas v. Bercerra is a lawsuit that was initiated by Texas in September 2024. Alongside Texas, the Attorney Generals of 16 other states – including Kris Kobach from Kansas – joined the lawsuit.

The lawsuit aims to have Section 504 declared unconstitutional. If they win this lawsuit, this would have very serious impacts for all people regardless of disability and caregivers. It could also potentially open the door to attacks on the American Disabilities Act.

WHY ARE THEY SUING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT?

The 17 states involved seek to have Section 504 declared unconstitutional. They argue that the provisions of Section 504 are too costly for states and an overreach of state power. Specifically, they argue against the idea of the “most integrated setting” and reject responsibility for providing community-based and state-funded health care and services.

This would be disastrous. Privately owned schools and hospitals would have the right to refuse service to people with disabilities. Even within institutions that receive public funding, protections against discrimination and equal access to services and spaces would be eroded. Disabled people stand to lose the right to engage with others on equal terms and even access services altogether.

WHAT DO TRANS PEOPLE HAVE TO DO WITH IT?

The reason this lawsuit is happening now is due to a change the Biden administration made to the Section 504 rules. Essentially, gender dysphoria has been declared a disability, meaning that anyone diagnosed with it is now protected under Section 504.

Under the pretense of objecting to any form of protection for trans people from discrimination, these 17 states are not only attacking trans people, but are trying to completely remove one of the most valuable pieces of legislation protecting disabled people of all ages and backgrounds.

WHAT KRIS KOBACH GETS WRONG

Kobach believes that community-based services are too costly for Kansans and supports institutionalization instead. This stance blatantly ignores that:

1. Community-based services are sorely underfunded and understaffed in Kansas;
2. Kansas has not yet expanded Medicaid, meaning that millions of Kansans are unable to access care at all; 
3. Waitlists for services and housing are so bad that some have to wait over a decade to get help;
4. People with serious mental health conditions are incredibly likely to cycle between jails and homelessness due to a lack of services, leading to further strain on other community services and resources; and
5. Hospitals in rural and frontier areas are rapidly closing while the only two state psychiatric hospitals are understaffed, overworked, and often more detrimental than helpful to the patients within them.

THE LINK BETWEEN DISABILITY & TRANS RIGHTS

The irony of these states declaring that gender dysphoria isn’t a disability is how often they use the argument of disability to deny our autonomy. For instance, during the hearings for SB 63 and HB 2071 last month, multiple anti-trans speakers focused on the idea of autistic girls being fooled into transitioning – as if autistic individuals cannot make decisions for themselves.

What this irony reveals is that these politicians ultimately do not care about any marginalized population. They care only about increasing the profits of the private sector and eliminating groups they find undesirable from the public sphere.

Disabled people are some of the most vulnerable in the country. In the state of Kansas, 1 in 4 disabled adults are impoverished – over twice the poverty rate for Kansas as a whole. Far too frequently, disability becomes the justification for criminalization and state-sanctioned abuse and neglect.

The attacks on trans people and disabled people ultimately serve the same point: to keep us disenfranchised. To deny us the right to access to basic services and protections from discrimination is to keep us impoverished, unemployed, homeless, and ultimately disempowered. Why? Because our existences prove a threat to the way of life of the ruling classes.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

More information about the case should come out next week. If you would like more information about the lawsuit, including a webinar explaining the impacts of this lawsuit and how to contact Kris Kobach, please visit the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund at https://dredf.org.