April 12, 2025 Story by: Editor
The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund and 23 other disability advocacy organizations have filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in a case pending before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division, titled Hickson v. St. David’s Healthcare Partnership, No. 24-50959.
The appellate court will decide whether people with disabilities can bring a lawsuit under Section 504 based on disability discrimination in medical treatment.
The case was brought on behalf of Michael Hickson, a 46-year-old Black man with disabilities who died in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic after his doctors stopped giving him life-sustaining treatment.
Although Mr. Hickson was assessed as having a 70-percent chance of survival, the doctor told his wife, “as of right now, his quality of life, he doesn’t have much of one” He distinguished Mr. Hickson from other patients who were being treated aggressively for COVID–19, stating, “his quality of life is different than theirs. They were walking, talking.”
Mr. Hickson’s wife and estate filed suit in a district court in Texas alleging disability discrimination under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, among other claims. The district court dismissed the case, ruling that decisions about medical treatment may be medical malpractice but cannot be challenged as disability discrimination under Section 504.
If the Fifth Circuit agrees with the district court, people with disabilities in the Fifth Circuit will not be able to sue to challenge disability discrimination in medical treatment under Section 504. This would strip disabled patients of important legal remedies for discrimination in healthcare.
The amicus brief affirms the right of patients with disabilities like Mr. Hickson to challenge disability discrimination in medical treatment under Section 504, citing statutory language, regulations, case law, and legislative history, as well as guidance documents published in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The brief reviews persistent ableism in healthcare which causes people with disabilities, and in particular Black people with disabilities, to experience worse health outcomes.
The following organizations signed onto the brief as amici:
The Arc of the United States
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network
The Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Center for Public Representation
Coelho Center for Disability Law, Policy and Innovation
Deaf Equality
Disability Law United
Disability Rights Advocates
Disability Rights Legal Center
Disability Rights Mississippi
Disability Rights Washington
Institute for Patients’ Rights
National Council on Independent Living
New Disabled South
Not Dead Yet
TASH
The National Association of the Deaf
The National Federation of the Blind
The National Health Law Program
The National Women’s Law Center
United Spinal Association
World Institute on Disability
Source: D.R.E.D.F.
