On October 30, 2026, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), together with fifteen other disability rights organizations, filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled v. Hochul. Written by DREDF, the brief supports disabled New Yorkers and disability organizations challenging New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It urges the court to reverse the district court’s dismissal of the case and questions the district court’s finding that the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the law because they had not been physician-certified as having six-months or less to live.
The brief explains that the law affects disabled people and the care they receive long before any terminal diagnosis. It shapes how physicians approach conversations about life-sustaining treatment and reinforces longstanding medical biases that devalue disabled lives. By signaling that disability, dependence, and the need for personal care can justify death as a medical response, the law creates concrete, present harms — not just hypothetical future ones.
