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American Civil Liberties Union Mourns Senator Edward Kennedy (08/26/2009)
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union today mourned the passing of Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) who succumbed to brain cancer Tuesday night.

Obama To Announce U.S. Signing Of International Treaty On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities (07/24/2009)
WASHINGTON – At a celebration today of the 19th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), President Obama will announce that the U.S. will sign the most comprehensive international treaty on the rights of persons with disabilities. If ratified by the Senate, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) will be the fourth major human rights treaty ever adopted by the U.S. and the first it has adopted in the 21st century. The American Civil Liberties Union welcomes President Obama's reengagement of the United States in international human rights efforts.

ACLU Praises House Passage of ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (09/17/2008)
The American Civil Liberties Union welcomes today’s passage of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) by the House of Representatives. The legislation, introduced by Representative Hoyer (D-MD) in the House and Senator Harkin (D-IA) in the Senate, rolls back two decades worth of legal decisions that have thwarted the original intent of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). The House passed the bill by a voice vote, as did the Senate last week.

Disability Backlogs Violate Due Process Rights (05/08/2008)
WASHINGTON, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union was encouraged by today’s Senate Finance Committee hearing on service delivery problems with the Social Security Administration (SSA) field offices. The SSA has struggled in processing disability claims in reasonable timeframes and the ACLU has concerns that a mandatory employment verification system would capsize the already overburdened agency.

Employment Verification Would Create a ‘No Work List’ in the U.S. (05/06/2008)
WASHINGTON – As the House Ways & Means subcommittee on Social Security met today to debate employment eligibility verification systems, the American Civil Liberties Union sounds its call for Congress not to erect barriers for Americans who seek employment. The hearing is to examine the impact that employment verification systems would have on the Social Security Administration (SSA), an already overburdened governmental agency.

Disability Rights - ACLU Position/Briefing Paper (01/01/1999)

Complaint Ligas v. Maram (07/28/2005)

ACLU Written Statement Submitted to the Senate Finance Committee (05/08/2008)

Written Statement of Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office, Submitted to the House Ways and Means Committee on Social Security Claim Delays for Disability (04/23/2008)

Sign On Letter to House of Representatives Urging Members to Vote Against the Class Action Fairness Act (02/23/2005)

Coalition Sign-On Letter Urging Exemption of Civil Rights and Wage Hour Cases from S. 5, the Class Action Fairness Act (02/02/2005)

ACLU Letter to the House Urging Support for H.R. 2282, the Equal Access to Justice Reform Act (03/11/2004)

Winter 1999 -- ACLU Briefing Paper #21 on Disability Rights (02/28/2002)
People with disabilities are the poorest, least employed, and least educated minority in America. At the end of 1995, it was estimated that one out of five people in the U.S. had some level of disability, one of ten, severe. Too often, people with disabilities have been treated as second class citizens, shunned and segregated by physical barriers and social stereotypes. They have been discriminated against in employment, schools, and housing, robbed of their personal autonomy, and too often, hidden away and forgotten by the larger society. By and large, people with disabilities continue to be excluded from the American dream: