Last September, 17 states including Louisiana joined the lawsuit Texas v. Becerra against a new rule added to Section 504 by the Biden administration, asking the court to not only disregard the rule but to eliminate the 504 statute and its regulations completely, claiming the entire law is unconstitutional.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is a civil rights law that prevents discrimination against people with disabilities in federally funded programs. The law is why schools have created accommodation plans, referred to as 504 plans, for children with disabilities.

However, Section 504’s regulations cover much more than just schools. Alison Barkoff, health law and policy associate professor and program director at The George Washington University, said that 504 regulations cover all health and human services, ensuring people with disabilities have equal access to healthcare, including services offered to the blind and deaf as well as child welfare systems.

“For more than 40 years, these statues and these regulations have been really critical to fighting discrimination in health care and human services,” Barkoff said.

The new rule was the Biden administration’s attempt to expand discrimination prevention in medical treatment. The rule ensures medical treatment is never biased, especially regarding life-sustaining decisions made by professionals such as organ transplants, blood transfusions and assumptions about a patient’s quality of life.

New regulations would require most doctors’ offices to have an exam table and a weight scale be accessible to those with disabilities within two years. The law also calls for better community integration and web accessibility services for disabled individuals.

Steven Schwartz, senior counsel at the Center for Public Representation, said that most states are concerned with the cost of compliance with the new rule, particularly for Medicaid or Medicare health services. The lawsuit claims the entire section is arbitrary and invalid because it interferes with states’ discretion in providing disability services.

However, Schwartz said that the preamble of the new rule contains a sentence suggesting gender dysphoria could be considered a disability, potentially increasing access to services like gender-affirming care in the future.

Schwartz clarified that the rule itself had no mention of gender dysphoria. Yet, it triggered the initiative to file the lawsuit, and he worries this might cause other civil rights statutes based on race, sex, religion and more to also be overturned.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill supports the state’s participation in the lawsuit, comparing it to those that came up in response to the Title IX expansion under the Biden administration which sought to provide transgender people with additional protections in sports and education.

Howard Rosenblum, chief executive officer of the National Association of the Deaf, defended Section 504, saying it also gives people the right to fight for equal communication. In August 2020, NAD filed a lawsuit over the White House’s failure to include sign language interpreters during COVID-19 press briefings. The NAD won the case as the Trump Administration had violated Section 504.

Without the statute, cases like the NAD’s, as well as those against FEMA, USDA and transportation services that don’t provide equal access to disabled individuals, will be treated much differently.

One such case that could have been impacted by the elimination of Section 504 is that of Theo Braddy.

Braddy is a quadriplegic who broke his neck playing football, paralyzing him from the neck down since he was 15. Twelve years ago, Braddy had cancer in his leg and was told he was going to have to amputate it.

The doctors told Braddy the surgery shouldn’t be significant since he was already paralyzed, but Braddy said he was so upset with how he was treated and delayed the surgery, only to learn he never needed the amputation and almost lost his leg due to a doctor’s discrimination. Braddy tells his story as an exemplification for why he believes 504 provisions are necessary and must continue to be enforced.

“The 17 states cannot have the last word on this; we must have the last word, and our stories must be the last word,” Braddy said.