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I want to write an #ADA30 thread but is 3 am the right time to start composing it? Perhaps not, but going to try anyway. Please note there are likely to be typos.
The ADA was signed into law July 26, 1990. Was I aware of it at the time? Most likely not. Was working at a temp job and probably excited/distracted by the start of law school that August.
On October 11, 1990, I went to an appointment with the psychiatrist at university health services. I walked out of her office and into the waiting arms of Harvard University police officers. I was put in an ambulance and brought to McLean Hospital. I was 12’d.
Signed the voluntary, revoked it, hospital petitioned for civil commitment, had a hearing, and committed for up to 6 months. Discharged after 60 days. Not saying that time frame has anything to do with that being the limit on the insurance coverage.
How is this an ADA30 thread? Patience...I’m getting there.
Law school put all kinds of conditions on my return to school. I agreed to them. Did I know enough to question whether those conditions were actually legal, considering the ADA had been in existence for about a year at that point? No. No I did not. I wanted to go back to school.
And I did. And I graduated in 1994. Took NY and MA bar. Passed NY, flunked MA. Retook MA. Passed. Admitted in both states. Didn’t have a full time job because I wanted to be a legal aid lawyer and no one was hiring.
Moved back home. Got Connecticut bar application. Threw it across the room (this was back when we had paper applications) when I saw the mental health questions. Could not fathom how those inquiries could be legal. Found out they were the result of a lawsuit & used to be worse.
Contemplated suing but after talking with folks at @CTLegalRights (where I had interned during law school) decided to answer the questions. I was already admitted in two other states. This shouldn’t be that big a deal, right?
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA how naive I was
Three hearings and a year and a half later, I finally get admitted. With conditions. Between the 1st and 5th of June and December, for nine years, I was required to submit an affidavit that I was compliant with treatment. My psychiatrist had to send a letter that I was compliant.
Wrote about it here: https://rootedinrights.org/setting-the-bar-higher-for-inclusion-in-the-legal-field/
Filed a Title II ADA complaint with Department of Justice in the early 2000’s. Lost. [Yeah. I know.]
In 2010, the rules for admission to the Connecticut bar were amended to acknowledge the existence and applicability of the ADA, and that questions would have to comply with ADA requirements. Yes, you read that correctly. 2010. Twenty years after the ADA became the law of the land
However, the “mental health” questions remained on the application - in modified form, focusing on conduct rather than diagnosis, but still there - until last year. 2019. Twenty-nine years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
So, this year, 30 years after the passage of the ADA, represents the first year that the CT bar application does not ask intrusive questions of law grads with psychiatric histories simply on the basis of that history (lots of other intrusive questions to everyone)
So, does that mean we’re done? NOT YET. Far from it.
Please don’t ever think that mere existence of a law means immediate change. Especially this one. There’s a reason Congress had to pass the ADA Amendments Act in 2008. There’s a reason we have had to fight to preserve the ADA from proposals to require additional notice/education.
The ADA is a civil rights law protecting disabled people/people with disabilities from discrimination. We have had to fight to change the law to focus on whether there was discrimination, not on whether we are disabled “enough” to deserve protection of the law.
Thirty years is a long time. Almost half my life. And we are still fighting to make the promise of the community integration mandate real. Our people are still segregated in institutions. We will never stop fighting. I want to say happy birthday, but I’m not all that happy.
Too much work left to do.
