Published in The KentStater.com September 24, 2026 issue by student reporter Quinn Schafer.

“You can’t assume the work is done,” a disability rights advocate and attorney told Kent State students and faculty during the University Libraries’ Constitution Day Celebration.

The Sept. 17 Constitution Day Celebration featured Katie Hunt Thomas, a disability rights attorney at the Ability Center of Greater Toledo.

“Even when you have a major success, you can’t assume that it’s just gonna continue. You have to be watchful and ready to respond,” Thomas said.

In June 2026, the Department of Justice released a legal memo arguing the Olmstead decision, a Supreme Court case that found that forcing people with disabilities to live in institutions is discrimination, does not mandate states to support community integration for people with disabilities.

“In the disability rights community, people are pretty nervous about [the DOJ memo] right now, even though it’s not legally enforceable,” Thomas said.

Thomas’ address covered the Constitution’s insufficiency in supporting people with disabilities, the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and a recent Department of Justice memo that may change the way states support people with disabilities.

She cited three U.S. Supreme Court cases to support her claim that the Constitution has been ineffective in protecting people with disabilities.

“We’re gonna start with a case called Baker v. Bell. We’re gonna talk about a case called Cleveland v. Cleveland Living Center, and then we’re gonna end with a case called Olmstead,” Thomas said.

Thomas examined the use of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and the equal protection clause to provide civil rights to people with disabilities in these cases.

“Unlike other [marginalized] groups, state and local governments only need a rational basis tied to a legitimate purpose to treat people with disabilities differently in their statutes, their ordinances and in action,” Thomas said. “Equal protection analysis and the 14th Amendment of the Constitution have not been sufficient to address disability rights in the United States.”

The Constitution’s failure to provide people with disabilities civil rights led to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 after a huge lobbying effort by the disability rights community.

 “People with disabilities felt like they needed to take their own action, and they organized, and they got a law passed,” Thomas said. “ADA was much broader and offered much more protection than the Constitution does, in our current jurisprudence, for people with disabilities.”

Federal law requires that all educational institutions receiving federal funding provide an educational program on Sept. 17 to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution.

For the past several years, University Libraries has partnered with Chris Banks, an attorney and political science professor, to select expert guest speakers for Kent State’s Constitution Day Celebration. This year’s celebration featured Thomas’ address on disability protections in the U.S., questions from an expert student panel, and cake.

“We hope to engender learning and reflection related to the role the Constitution plays in our society,” University Libraries Dean Ken Burhanna said.

A panel of four students with an interest in legal studies asked Thomas eight questions about the Constitution’s power to protect people with disabilities and the state’s role in supporting people with disabilities. Then, audience members asked four questions about disability advocacy and the effects of the June DOJ memo.

Thomas closed her address by highlighting the work that her organization and other disability rights organizations are doing to challenge this memo.

“We’re working on this with national groups to present alternative viewpoints to institutionalization and show success stories in community-based living,” Thomas said. “We will not go back.”