Save the Date! Join us for “At the Intersection of Disability Justice and Environmental & Climate Justice,” a hybrid convening on advancing equitable and accessible environmental & climate decisionmaking for people with disabilities. 📅 April 7 | 9 AM 📍 NYU Wagner (NYC) + Zoom tinyurl.com/yehrtr8x

Since the 2000s, more U.S. states have legalized MAiD, expanding end-of-life options while raising questions about equity and access. Explore this thread on how MAiD debates evolved—and why this history matters for equity, protection, & choice in end-of-life care. More: CRDJustice.org/maid [1/10]

Excited to share this new blog! I’ve been thinking about how mental health crisis response is framed as a service or policing question, but less often examined through a spatial justice lens. This piece is a starting point for applying that lens to crisis response. Would love to hear thoughts!

Mental health crises do not unfold on neutral terrain. Our new blog, “Understanding Mental Health Crisis Response Through a Spatial Lens,” examines how segregation, disinvestment, & crisis infrastructure shape exposure, interpretation, & institutional pathways. crdjustice.medium.com/understandin...

I'm thrilled to announce a new report I wrote with @ksavin.bsky.social and @calliefreitag.bsky.social on the impact of DOGE/Trump 2.0 turmoil on Social Security disability programs. As the title says, these programs have always been tough to navigate. But in the last year, they've gotten worse.

Back last year, Thom Tillis warned a group of us reporters that the One Big, Beautiful Bill would force states to cut home and community-based services. @slooterman.bsky.social reports how that is happening in Idaho. 19thnews.org/2026/03/idah...

This is what happens when border militarization eclipses civil rights enforcement and due process. Disabled immigrants are entitled to ADA compliance, meaningful language access & constitutional protections backed by independent oversight and real consequences. Access is not optional. It’s the law.

Nurul Amin Shah Alam crossed oceans to flee unimaginable violence, only to die here — where he should have been safe. The cruelty is endless.

February at CRDJ: A Recap ✨ From new research and educational resources to public analysis and upcoming events, February was full of critical work advancing racial & disability justice. Check out this thread for highlights of what we’ve been building and publishing! CRDJustice.org/resources [1/9]

MAiD debates didn’t disappear after the early 20th century. They reemerged in new ways. From the 1960s–1990s, patient rights and autonomy gained ground through landmark cases—while inequities shaped whose lives, choices, and voices were valued. More at CRDJustice.org/MAiD [1/10]

We’re excited to highlight our Civic Planning and Design Manager, Dimitri Nesbitt, who contributed mapping work to Engineered Conflict by David Stovall, a new book examining how housing policy, planning decisions, and state action have shaped structural violence in Black communities across Chicago.

Citation isn’t neutral. It shapes who is recognized, funded, and remembered. When marginalized scholars are not cited, it redistributes power and produces epistemic injustice. Learn more in this thread. Cite disabled people of color directly, intentionally, consistently. [1/10]

Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) debates didn’t emerge in a vacuum. They’re shaped by over a century of discourse on disability, social value, law, & medical ethics—including eugenics-era frameworks that devalued marginalized lives. This thread breaks it down. More at CRDJustice.org/MAiD [1/10]

Public policy & private profit are building a confinement-to-cash pipeline: the “Trump Triple Take.” This thread breaks down how institutionalization, debt, & exploited labor operate across carceral & institutional care systems. #StopTheTripleTake #PrisonIndustrialComplex #DisabilityJustice [1/7]

Black history is disability history. Disability justice is Black history. From slavery to mass incarceration, racism has produced disability while Black disabled people have always led movements for justice, care, and liberation. History isn’t neutral. Memory is resistance. [1/10]

Today we remember Rev. Jesse Jackson, whose decades of civil rights advocacy expanded opportunity and defended voting rights for all, and who insisted that D.C. residents deserve full democratic representation. May we carry his legacy forward as we continue the fight for freedom and equality.

The US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, a pioneer of progressive Democratic politics, close ally of Martin Luther King Jr, and two-time candidate for the presidential nomination, has died at 84. See his life in pictures: bit.ly/3OxOT3f

We submitted a public comment to DHS opposing the proposed expansion of biometric & genetic surveillance in immigration systems, citing concerns about racial bias, disability inaccessibility & criminalization, and threats to privacy, consent & due process. Read at www.crdjustice.org/public-comme...

New from CRDJ: Discrimination in Education Brief Schools often respond to disability and trauma with punishment, disproportionately impacting students of color and reinforcing the school-prison nexus. The brief calls for transformative, equity-centered approaches. Read: www.crdjustice.org/discrim

In December, we submitted a public comment letter to DHS on the proposed “Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility” rule, raising concerns about impacts on disabled people, immigrant families, and mixed-status households. Read more: www.crdjustice.org/public-comme...

In recent years, alternative mental health crisis response models have grown, yet key questions remain around design, implementation, and sustainability, especially in today’s political and funding landscape. Join us at AMSA’s upcoming virtual conference as we take up these questions. [1/4]

From the 312 to the 310, CRDJ has planted new roots at UCLA 🌴 Golden State Grooves is our latest CRDJams playlist, California vibes, same mission. Same movement. Same commitment to racial & disability justice. www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

New blog: Abolishing DHS: A Disability Justice Imperative This piece examines how immigration enforcement actively produces disability through protest force, detention conditions, medical neglect, & coercive control—and why reforms alone cannot address these harms. Read: medium.com/@crdjustice/...

Happening tomorrow! Join this interactive discussion on Intersectionality Guidance, featuring @kcaldwell.bsky.social. The webinar will explore how citizen data can inform intersectional analysis and better reflect lived experiences worldwide. 🕘 9–10:30 AM ET 🔗 zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Civil rights law is being rewritten in real time. 📄 This new CLiME report traces how federal policy and enforcement have narrowed racial equity protections and reframed discrimination itself. 👉 Read here: static1.squarespace.com/static/5b996... #RacialJustice #CivilRights

"NSPM-7 threatens core constitutional rights. The smearing of Alex Pretti and Renee Good is not simply a rhetorical tactic. It is part of a larger operation." The Smearing of Alex Pretti and NSPM-7 By @tomjoscelyn.bsky.social and @rgoodlaw.bsky.social

In Case v. Montana, the Supreme Court reaffirmed warrantless home entry under the emergency aid doctrine. Our latest blog examines how the Court applied that standard—and what it leaves unresolved when facts are uncertain. Read the full blog at medium.com/@crdjustice/...

Slowing revenue growth, growing spending demands, and federal Medicaid cuts are all contributing to tighter state budgets. Here’s what it all could mean for state budget debates and Medicaid policy this year: https://on.kff.org/45rYOND

DOGE likely perpetrated the most serious, far-reaching data breaches in human history, and we will be dealing with the consequences for years. Many DOGErs should have been, and still could be, prosecuted for these crimes.

To block modern gun laws, the justices only need to invoke concerns loosely tied to the 19th century To pass gun laws, legislators must rely on history, and be sure to set aside any history the Republican justices wish to forget * jazz hands * originalism! ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/wolfo...

Grateful for Sozosei’s work to decriminalize mental illness. Their National Strategic Research Framework brings together scholarship and policy to challenge criminalization. We especially value the inclusion of CRDJ’s Jamelia Morgan. www.sozoseifoundation.org/sozosei-lab-...

This week’s abrupt termination and reversal of federal mental health grants cannot be treated as isolated or inconsequential. Below is a brief overview of what happened, why it matters for alternative, non-police crisis response, and how it connects to broader federal priorities. A must read. [1/9]

Lynn Manning taught us that disability born of force is forced testimony. Bodies become disabled in many ways. But when the state disables someone through force, it shows exactly how power is willing to write itself into flesh.

New from CRDJ: Reading Between the Reports analyzes 9 major AI & disability reports. Together, they reveal fragmentation, not justice, and the urgent need for a rights-based, community-governed AI justice ecosystem that confronts racialized ableism. Out Now: www.crdjustice.org/disability-d...

I am pleased to be doing an AMA on r/AskHistorians @askhistorians.bsky.social today, you can ask me anything (within reason!) about my new book "Jim Crow in the Asylum: Psychiatry and Civil Rights in the American South" )published by @uncpress.bsky.social) here: www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...

New year, new U! 😎🌴🌞

CRDJ has joined the UCLA School of Law, expanding our work at the intersections of racial justice, disability justice, and critical law & policy. We’re so excited to join the amazing community working in these spaces in California, while also continuing our work in Chicago & the East Coast.

New blog by @jjjordynjensen.bsky.social on why police and carceral systems remain central to mental health crisis response, and how power, funding, and geography shape who gets care and who is routed toward confinement. Read the full blog at: nlawcrdj.medium.com/the-landscap...

🚨 A major civil rights change just happened. The U.S. DOJ just rescinded key Title VI regulations without public notice/comment, removing disparate impact enforcement and making it harder to challenge policies that harm marginalized communities across federally funded programs. Learn how. [1/10]

With @govpritzker.illinois.gov signing Illinois’ medical aid-in-dying bill into law TODAY, the stakes are clear. Real compassion means strengthening palliative care, mental health supports, HCBS, & assistance in living—not cost-saving shortcuts guiding end-of-life policy. CRDJustice.org/MAiD [1/7]

🎁 The 2025 Disability Holiday Gift Guide is LIVE! Shop disabled-owned small businesses, explore books on disability, and support disability-led causes—all curated by Kate Caldwell & Emily Ladau. Please share widely! Link: tr.ee/l-ilLWXWca Wishing everyone a warm, safe, & healthy holiday season. ✨

MAiD is framed as compassion—but where it expands, suicide rates rise & a two-tiered system emerges: care for some, lethal medication for others. Media narratives that normalize “dignified death” deepen this harm—especially for disabled, poor, and racialized people. More: CRDJustice.org/MAiD [1/8]

Accessing disaster aid can be overwhelming, especially for disabled people, elders, people of color, & low-income communities. FEMA is often the main system people are directed to after a disaster, but navigating it is not always transparent or easy. This guide breaks down the real steps. [1/7]

It’s easier to access help in dying than support to live. Disabled people wait months to years for care & housing while MAiD can move forward in weeks—showing what our systems prioritize. When death is cheaper than care, MAiD becomes the default, not a real choice. More: CRDJustice.org/MAiD [1/8]

“Dignity is the right to live — not pressure to die.” CRDJ's Dr. Kate Caldwell (@kcaldwell.bsky.social) in today’s @chicago.suntimes.com on Illinois’ “medical-aid-in-dying” bill. The End-of-Life Options Act now sits on @govpritzker.illinois.gov's desk. [1/3] 🔗 chicago.suntimes.com/letters-to-t...

MAiD promises safeguards, but the system relies on coercion, paperwork, and little oversight. Providers self-report, algorithms amplify bias, and people choose MAiD because they can’t afford care or housing. That isn’t consent—it’s economic coercion. Learn more: CRDJustice.org/MAiD [1/8]

Health care shouldn’t depend on your job or being seen as “productive.” Linking care to employment reinforces racist and ableist inequities, shutting out disabled people & communities of color. Health justice means decoupling care from work. Read the full blog: nlawcrdj.medium.com/health-justi...

Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) reframes disability as “suffering,” treating disability as the problem and death as the solution. When society denies access, support, & care, those failures get labeled “personal tragedy,” and death becomes the relief. Learn more: www.crdjustice.org/maid [1/10]

The LA fires exposed a major breakdown in government accountability. Even with protections in place, aid was slow, coordination stalled, & the response relied on prison labor & international crews—revealing the gap between law on paper versus reality. [1/7] crdjustice.org/inclusive-disaster-relief