Backlash leads Republican attorneys general to declare support for a landmark disability rights law

TOPEKA, Kan. – Republican state attorneys general are declaring their continued support for a landmark federal law protecting disabled people’s rights, after parents expressed fears of losing services for their disabled children because of a GOP lawsuit opposing transgender rights.

The attorneys general of 17 states, led by Texas, told a federal judge this week that a lawsuit they filed in September targets only a rule imposed last year by then-President Joe Biden’s administration declaring that transgender Americans are protected by a 1973 law barring discrimination against disabled people. The state officials said they are not attacking — and have never attacked — the law itself, which requires institutions receiving federal funds to make accommodations for disabled people.

The states’ lawsuit attracted little attention until about a month ago, when disability rights advocates first publicly highlighted parts they saw as potentially wiping out decades’ worth of legal protections for disabled people. The alarmed parents included John and Tayler Cantrell of Topeka, whose 4-year-old son, Cooper, has a medical condition that left half his brain dead at birth, and they see the anti-discrimination law as crucial for him and other children to thrive.

“It levels the playing field, giving every child, no matter their challenges, a fighting chance,” John Cantrell said during a news conference this week called by Democratic legislators.

The states are challenging a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services rule imposed in May. It says that under federal anti-discrimination laws, a disability can include gender dysphoria, which is the distress people feel when their gender identity doesn’t match the gender assigned at birth. The states fear losing federal funds for not recognizing transgender residents’ gender identities.

One count in the lawsuit is titled, “Section 504 is Unconstitutional,” referring to the key section of the 1973 anti-discrimination law, and another line asks a judge to bar HHS from “enforcing Section 504.” But the attorneys general said those words apply only to the specific rule.

“I think a lot of people who are not used to reading legal complaints took that to mean something else,” said Jeff LeMaster, a spokesperson for Attorney General Tim Griffin in Arkansas, one of the states involved.

In their filing, the attorneys general also said their lawsuit is on hold while President Donald Trump’s administration reviews the HHS rule. Trump has issued executive orders targeting transgender rights, and his administration could repeal the HHS rule.

Iowa’s Republican attorney general, Brenna Bird, argued that the Biden administration pursued the rule at the expense of disabled children.

“I am suing to make certain kids, and Americans with disabilities, have the support they need to succeed,” Bird said in a statement.

But Kansas state Rep. Alexis Simmons, a Topeka Democrat, said Republican officials’ zeal for targeting transgender people led them to also attack disabled Americans.

“It was our duty to amplify the voices of our constituents,” she said. “For them to be heard and action taken is exactly what we wanted.”