Docket Number: 98-536
Appealed From: U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit
Subjects: State responsibilities under the public services portion of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. 12112(a); community placement or institutionalization of the mentally ill; Fourteenth Amendment

At Issue: Whether a portion of the Americans With Disabilities Act compels the state to use community placement to treat and care for mentally disabled persons rather than a state mental institution. Also, whether that portion of the ADA exceeds Congress's enforcement power.

Decision: The court ruled that states must place certain mentally disabled people in community homes rather than hospitals.

• The full text of the Olmstead v. L.C. decision is available at the FindLaw Internet Legal Resources Web site.

• The full text of the 1997 decision in the 11th Circuit case, L.C. v. Olmstead, also is available at FindLaw.

• Full text of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Justice Department's ADA home page.

• The pertinent provision on equal employment opportunities for the disabled in the U.S. Code (42 U.S.C. 12112 (a)), is available at the Web site for the U.S. House of Representatives' Office of the Law Revision Counsel.

Sources: The Washington Post, Supreme Court, The United States Law Week (a Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. publication)