On September 26, 2024, Ken Paxton, the Attorney General of Texas filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The lawsuit was joined by the attorneys general from the states of Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia. The Lawsuit was Texas v. Becerra.

The first part of the brief primarily addressed a new rule from the Biden administration that changed the gender dysphoria rule of Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requiring that gender dysphoria could be a disability under the law. The beginning of the lawsuit primarily addressed the rule and appeared to be broadside against transgender citizens. Toward the end of the lawsuit in a section called claims, the lawsuit switches to calling for the complete elimination of Section 504, calling the law unconstitutional. Count 3 of the claims relief is “Section 504 is unconstitutional” According to the brief “By enacting Section 504 29 U.S.C. § 794, Congress crossed the line distinguishing encouragement from coercion” (p.39) and “Because Section 504 is coercive, untethered to the federal interest in disability, and unfairly retroactive, the Rehabilitation Act is not constitutional…”

If the lawsuit is successful, this would effectively be the end of Section 504 and would free states from having to provide students with disabilities their civil rights under Section 504. Of course, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act codified the civil rights of persons with disabilities. The law has been very important to students with disabilities because it protects students covered by IDEA, and even protects students with disabilities who are not covered by the IDEA. According to a disability community briefing and an excellent webinar by the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), losing Section 504 would be a devastating loss of major civil rights for the disability community.

To voice your thoughts about possibly losing this important law, readers may want to consider contacting their senators and representatives. Senator email addresses can be found at https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm and your representative in the House can be found at https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative. Additionally, readers can use the legislative action center of the Council for Exceptional Children at https://exceptionalchildren.org/takeaction to address issues in special education.

Evidently, grassroots advocacy may be having an effect. The office of Alan WIlson, the Attorney General of South Carolina, reported getting almost 1000 calls opposing the lawsuit but none in favor. Wilson said he would remove South Carolina from the lawsuit. However, as of Friday, the state was still on the lawsuit.