In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the civil rights of people with autism and other disabilities.
Ronald Mann, Unanimous court rebuffs higher standard for discrimination claims by children with disabilities, SCOTUSblog (Jun. 12, 2025, 6:32 PM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/06/unanimous-court-rebuffs-higher-standard-for-discrimination-claims-by-children-with-disabilities/
In A.J.T. v. Osseo Area Schools, Independent School District No. 279, the Supreme Court considered the obligation of schools to refrain from discriminating on the basis of a disability. Specifically, the justices considered whether students face a higher bar in challenging such activity than disabled individuals do in other contexts. Thursday’s opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, joined by all the justices, firmly rejected the higher standard adopted by the lower courts.
The case involved a pair of federal statutes that bar discrimination on the basis of disability, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Together with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, those statutes regulate the accommodations that local schools afford children with disabilities.
In part because of the detailed procedures the latter act establishes for identifying appropriate individualized educational programs, known as IEPs, for individual students, many lower courts have been reluctant to allow students to recover damages based on claims of discrimination without proving an actual intention on the part of the school districts to discriminate. The Supreme Court on Thursday rebuffed that approach, holding that the standard for proving discrimination is the same for all those with disabilities, students or otherwise.
