By rssfeeds-admin According to a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Lubbock, Texas in September 2024, 17 states -including Indiana – are challenging the United States Department of Health and Human Services on its “Final Rule” addition to Section 504 in May 2024.
Section 504, a portion of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, was the first civil rights legislation that protected disabled people from discrimination, according to the U.S. Administration for Community Living’s website.
The act states individuals with disabilities should not be excluded from participating in, denying the benefits of or being subjected to discrimination under any program or activity that receives federal funds. This includes health care, public transportation and public education.
In May 2024, former President Joe Biden signed an order to add “gender dysphoria” to the definition of disability in Section 504, stating it could be considered a physical or mental impairment entitled to protection.
This addition spurred the lawsuit, according to the court documents, with the defendants stressing that gender dysphoria cannot be confirmed or denied by any physical test.
The lawsuit argues that the Americans with Disabilities Act, which shares the definition of disability with the Rehabilitation Act, “expressly excludes from that definition ‘transvestism, transsexualism, pedophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism, (and) gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments or other sexual behavior disorders.'”
The lawsuit also claims the Final Rule exceeds the authority of the Department of Health and Human Services by:
- Obligating all recipients of federal financial assistance to provide services in ‘the most integrated setting’ as defined in the Final Rule
- Prohibiting actions that result in ‘serious risk of institutionalization’
- Allowing discrimination claims to be brought when no institutionalization or segregation has actually occurred.
“The Final Rule’s stipulation that gender dysphoria ‘may be a disability’ is contrary to the express language in the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA, and the court should set aside the Final Rule,” the documents said, “enjoin Defendants from enforcing or implementing it and declare it unlawful.”
Specifically, the lawsuit said that through the state of Indiana’s participation in the Medicaid program, compliance with this Final Rule would “add new regulatory burdens and impose substantial costs on the state.”
However, the lawsuit as it is currently written would do away with Section 504 entirely, not only the addition of the Final Rule. According to the demand for relief portion of the complaint, the states are asking a federal judge to declare Section 504 as “unconstitutional” and “issue permanent injunctive relief” so the states do not have to enforce Section 504.
The states argue Section 504 is “coercive, untethered to the federal interest in disability, and unfairly retroactive.”
“The Rehabilitation Act fails to provide clear notice to States, preventing States from voluntarily and knowingly exercising choice in accepting federal funds,” the lawsuit reads. “…Section 504’s universal scope unfairly surprises States by retroactively adding conditions to pre-existing federal spending programs.”
In a statement from the Indiana Attorney General’s office, a spokesperson said Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is “in full support” of Section 504 as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act, but not in support of the May 2024 additions to the act.
“That is exactly why Indiana joined a multi-state lawsuit to stop the Biden Administration’s unlawful attempts to add “gender identity disorders” to the list of disabilities,” the spokesperson said in the statement. “And now thanks to President Trump, Section 504 will be restored to its original intent.”
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