Judge Decertifies Class Seeking Rights of Illinois Institutional Residents to LIve in the Community

On July 7, a federal district court issued an order decertifying an Illinois class in Elias v. Maram, a lawsuit seeking to provide individuals with developmental disabilities in Illinois the opportunity to live in the community.Advocates in Illinois had reached a settlement with the state to place 6,000 people in the community over a multi-year period. The suit, filed four years ago, alleges that Illinois does too little to offer community-based living options to people with disabilities as guaranteed in the Supreme Court’s 1999 Olmstead ruling. Under that decision, the court said that states have an obligation to provide care for people with disabilities in a community setting, where medically possible. However, according to the American Association for People with Disabilities, the Voice of the Retarded (VOR) rallied objections, leading the judge to decertify the class. The VOR stated their family members are best cared for in institutions and feared the settlement would divert funding from those facilities.