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Judy Heumann, a preeminent and internationally acclaimed activist, died on March 4, 2023, at age 75. Widely regarded as the “mother of the disability rights movement,” Judy, a visionary and tireless activist, committed her life to advancing the rights of people with disabilities in the United States and abroad. As a disabled woman and disability scholar, I have been profoundly impacted by Judy, both personally and professionally. More, she was a friend and mentor whom I was privileged to know
So what would Judy have us to do to honor her iconic legacy? The short answer is that we must continue to march forth and keep fighting until every law, policy, program, organization, and activity not only acknowledges but meaningfully includes disability at every level and in every area of life. For Judy, meaningful inclusion meant much, much more than inserting “persons with disabilities” in a long list of marginalized groups. And by every level, Judy meant every level, from the highest decision-makers to the individuals with whom persons with disabilities interface every day. And every area of life meant not stopping at ensuring that every school is accessible and every teacher trained, but also that persons with disabilities are centered in existential issues, such as climate action. Like the best kind of mindful aunt, she would expect more of all of us.
Did tester standing survive the Supreme Court's curtailment of standing in TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez (2021)? The Fourth Circuit recently held that it did, joining two other appellate courts and worsening an existent circuit split.
There was something conspicuously absent from the courtroom when the Supreme Court heard arguments in Twitter v. Taamneh last week. For decades now, the...
The “Notwithstanding Clause,” the common name for section 33 of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms—the country’s constitutional bill of rights—authorizes time-bound legislation that...
The Supreme Court’s conservative Justices unapologetically asserted their power this term. Over one week in June, they eliminated the constitutional right to abortion, expanded...
During oral argument in Dobbs v. Jackson, the Supreme Court case challenging Mississippi’s attempt to prohibit pre-viability abortions, Justice Coney Barrett called the attention...