Georgia advocates sound alarm after DOJ memo threatens home-care rights

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — Thousands of disabled Georgians and their families are bracing for potential funding cuts after a newly released U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) legal opinion argued that federal law does not require states to prioritize home- and community-based services over institutionalization.

The June 18, 2026, opinion—written by OLC Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lanora Pettit and published on the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel opinions portal—reinterprets the landmark 1999 Supreme Court case Olmstead v. L.C.

The historic case originally began in Atlanta when two women, Lois Curtis and Elaine Wilson, sued Tommy Olmstead, the Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Human Resources, to escape confinement at Georgia Regional Hospital.

While decades of federal courts have interpreted the Olmstead ruling as a mandate to integrate disabled individuals into communities, the new DOJ memo argues that neither the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) nor the Rehabilitation Act actually imposes an “integration mandate” on states. Instead, Pettit’s opinion claims the ruling only limits “unjustified” isolation, leaving the definition of “justification”—such as state budget constraints—entirely up to state policymakers.

Advocates warn that the federal guidance signals a major rollback in civil rights enforcement, giving states a green light to shift funding away from home care.

For Nick Papadopoulos, 49, the threat is deeply personal after he spent nearly all of his 40s confined to a nursing home.

“It was like a horror movie,” Papadopoulos said of his decade-long institutionalization.

Papadopoulos eventually reclaimed his freedom through a state Medicaid waiver, which pays for daily caregivers to help him bathe, dress, and manage his insulin. He credits the hands-on support for giving him a life of dignity, allowing him to attend church, find work, and serve his community.

“I can’t do God’s work in there,” Papadopoulos said. “I can’t touch lives as I touch them out here.”

The newly released federal guidance argues that the setting of care is entirely up to individual states. This leaves state governments with the authority to decide whether to fund community-based independence or prioritize institutional care.

Currently, roughly 8,000 disabled Georgians remain on the state’s Medicaid waiver planning list, waiting for the same freedom Papadopoulos fought for 10 years to secure.

D’Arcy Robb, executive director of the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities, compared Papadopoulos’s decade in the nursing home to being incarcerated.

“This guy essentially lived in what he called a gulag,” Robb said. “I mean, it sounded like he was in jail. And there was no crime committed. He had a disability. He needed support.”

If funding cuts or policy changes force a return to institutional settings, Papadopoulos said the consequences for him would be absolute.

“I would rather die than go back there,” Papadopoulos said.

Unlike regular Medicaid, home- and community-based services waivers are not an entitlement in most states, leading to massive waitlists. In Georgia, disabled residents must wait years to secure a spot on specialized programs like the Independent Care Waiver Program (ICWP), the New Option Waiver (NOW), or the Comprehensive Support Waiver Program (COMP), which can be researched on the official Georgia government portal.

The state is currently debating how to manage its massive backlog. However, advocacy groups fear that the new federal guidance will undercut possible reform efforts and give state leaders an excuse to freeze or cut waiver funding.

Major national and local advocacy organizations—including the American Association of People with Disabilities, The Arc, and the Georgia Advocacy Office—have strongly condemned the DOJ’s memo, warning it could lead to the re-institutionalization of millions of Americans.

National legal defense groups are already exploring avenues to challenge the memo in federal court.

Meanwhile, local advocates are shifting their focus to the Georgia State Capitol, urging state lawmakers to ignore the federal memo and fully fund the state’s Medicaid waiver list in the upcoming legislative session.