New Orleans—Dentons joined with the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund and Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law to file an amicus brief on behalf of those organizations and 13 other disability rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Association of People with Disabilities, in Texas v. United States. The brief urges the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to overturn a controversial lower court decision declaring the Affordable Care Act (ACA) unconstitutional.

According to the brief, the ACA has been essential to overcoming the disproportionate impact that America’s health care crisis has had on people with disabilities. It is uniquely difficult, for various reasons, for people with disabilities to obtain affordable and adequate health insurance coverage. Yet those same individuals often depend on health care services more than people without disabilities. The result is a cruel irony: the population that needs health care the most has the hardest time obtaining it. The brief argues that stripping away the ACA’s protections now will reverse the positive gains that people with disabilities have realized and will return the community to the same grim reality as before the ACA, if not place people with disabilities in an even worse position.

The Dentons team was led by Richard Salgado and Peter Anthony, and included Wade Carr, Bruce Merlin Fried, and Caroline Reigart.

The full list of amici represented in the brief is: Judge David L. Bazelon Center For Mental Health Law, Disability Rights Education And Defense Fund, American Association Of People With Disabilities, American Civil Liberties Union, The Arc Of The United States, Association Of University Centers On Disabilities, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Autism Society Of America, Center For Public Representation, Disability Rights Legal Center, National Council On Independent Living, National Association Of Councils On Developmental Disabilities, National Association Of The Deaf, National Disability Rights Network, and National Down Syndrome Congress.

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