Social Movements & the Law

People with disabilities need good jobs too, and several U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) agencies assist people with disabilities in seeking meaningful work and succeeding once on the job. DOL also advises employers on effective strategies for recruiting and retaining qualified people with disabilities, as well as educates federal agencies and federal contractors and sub-contractors about their obligations related to affirmative action and nondiscrimination in hiring.

The Disability Rights Section works to achieve equal opportunity for people with disabilities in the United States by implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and Executive Order 12250. The Section's enforcement, regulatory, coordination, and technical assistance activities, along with an innovative mediation program, provide a multi-faceted and dynamic approach for carrying out this mission.

A guidance document that provides a brief overview of ten Federal laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities and provides information about the Federal agencies to contact for more information.

The Justice Department today announced that it reached an agreement with Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, to resolve the department’s findings of disability discrimination in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Under the agreement Amtrak will fix inaccessible stations and pay $2.25 million to victims hurt by its inaccessible stations.

An independent federal agency committed to disability policy leadership since 1978

Know your rights under federal law. Read about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which protects people’s rights regarding employment, public accommodations, state and local government services, and more. Learn about special accommodations for voters and know how to fight job discrimination.

As an integral part of the ABA’s Diversity and Inclusion Center, the Commission strives to eliminate bias around persons with disabilities, enhance diversity and inclusion, and foster the full and equal participation of law students and lawyers with disabilities in the profession.

An online resource for legal professionals, continuing legal education courses, law schools, students and others dedicated to protecting the rights of people with developmental disabilities.

DRA is a national and international organization dedicated to protecting and advancing the civil rights of people with disabilities. Run by and for people with

The DRBA is an online network of attorneys who specialize in disability civil rights law. Through the DRBA, disability rights attorneys share information, coordinate litigation and other legal representation strategies, and mentor lawyers and law students who are new to disability rights practice.

DREDF is dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities through legal advocacy, training, education, and public policy and legislative development.

Founded in 1975, Disability Rights Legal Center (DRLC) is a 501C-3 non-profit, public interest advocacy organization that champions the civil rights of people with disabilities through education, advocacy, and litigation.

People with disabilities face widespread discrimination, segregation, and exclusion. But federal disability rights laws can provide protection.

There are three especially important pieces of federal legislation that explicitly discuss disability rights: the Rehabilitation Act, IDEA, and the ADA.

This is a listing of local and national organizations that aim to empower individuals and influence political, economic, and social institutions with the goal of independent living for people with disabilities.

NDRN promotes the network’s capacity, ensures that P&As/CAPs remain strong and effective by providing training and fighting for people with disabilities.

JAN Home Page

Employees who are injured or become ill on the job are entitled to workers' compensation benefits and cannot be fired based on receiving them.

The ACDL advocates for the legal rights of persons with disabilities, envisioning a society that focuses on people’s abilities rather than disabilities.

By 2017 Pro Bono Publico Award Winner: Lydia X.Z. Brown| Northeastern University School of Law Each year, NALP confers the PSJD Pro Bono Publico Award, recognizing the significant contributions that law students make to underserved populations, the public interest community, and legal education...

The history of individuals with disabilities in America, featuring the establishment of institutions, social Darwinism, eugenics, the Civil Rights movement, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and more.

Three federal laws protect the rights of people with disabilities: IDEA, Section 504, and ADA. But which law does what? Here’s an overview.

While neurodiversity might be an unfamiliar word for many, its meaning is simple. We all have different brains. For the legal field, there is value in

Viviana Bonilla Lopez discusses her Fellowship and dedication to disability rights advocacy, in conversation with Equal Justice Works.

CHICAGO, Oct. 6, 2021 — The American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility released today a formal opinion to guide lawyers in situations when they and their clients do not share a common language, or the client

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's image as the "Notorious RBG" is familiar from a variety of merchandise, from T-shirts to scented candles. Her vigorous dissents on behalf of liberal values are celebrated. Her inspiring life story and formidable work ethic are well known from films and biographies for adults and children; even her workouts have been analyzed, as her fans absorb every detail of her life. But how much do most of us know about the ways her viewpoint has shaped the development of law in the United States from the 1970s onward? This collection of Justice Ginsburg's groundbreaking arguments, opinions, and dissents-from the 1970s through the Supreme Court's most recently completed term-celebrates Justice Ginsburg's enduring intellectual legacy and makes it more accessible for the reader who has not attended law school. Included are a broad range of her legal writings, from early arguments before the Supreme Court that demolished barriers to legal equality between men and women, to her most recent opinions and dissents on matters as diverse as the First Amendment's establishment clause and the rules concerning birthright citizenship. A summary of Ginsburg's life opens the book, and introductions to her writings explain the background, issues, and laws involved in each case. Justice Ginsburg has often chosen to speak from the bench when a decision is handed down in the Supreme Court, in a simplified version of her written opinion or dissent. These bench announcements are included for most of the cases in the book.

"The Black Power movement is usually associated with heroic, iconic figures, like Stokely Carmichael and Malcolm X, but largely missing from stories about the Black freedom struggle are the hundreds of ordinary foot soldiers who were just as essential to the movement. Stayed on Freedom presents a new history of Black Power by focusing on two unheralded organizers: Zoharah Robinson and Michael Simmons. Robinson was born in Memphis, raised by her grandmother who told her stories of slavery and taught her the value of self-reliance. Simmons was born in Philadelphia, a child of the Great Migration. They met in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, where Robinson was one of the only woman project directors in Mississippi Freedom Summer, after she had dropped out of college to work in the movement full-time. Falling in love while organizing against the war in Vietnam and raising the call for Black Power, their simultaneous commitment to each other and social change took them from SNCC, to the Nation of Islam, to a global movement, as they fought for social justice well after the 1960s. By centering the lives of Robinson and Simmons, Stayed On Freedom offers a history of Black Power that is more expansive, complex, and personal than those previously written. Historian Dan Berger shows how Black Power linked the political futures of African Americans with those of people in Angola, Cambodia, Cuba, South Africa, and the Soviet Union, making it a global movement for workers and women's rights, for peace and popular democracy. Robinson's and Simmons's activism blurs the divides -- between North and South, faith and secular, the US and the world, and the past and the present -- typically applied to Black Power. And, in contrast to conventional surveys of the history of civil rights, Stayed on Freedom is an intimate story anchored in lives of the people who made the movements move, where heroism mingles with uncertainty over decades of intensive political commitment. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews with Robinson and Simmons, their families and their friends, in addition to immense archival research, Berger weaves a joyous and intricate history of the Black Power movement, providing a powerful portrait of two people trying to make a life while working to make a better world"--