CONTACT: Julia Endicott
978-877-3871
jendicott@drme.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 25, 2025
Disability Rights Maine Condemns Executive Order Taking Away Civil Liberties
Augusta –Disability Rights Maine (DRM) is deeply concerned by yesterday’s Executive Order “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets.” The Order directs the Attorney General to seek “the reversal of Federal or State judicial precedents and the termination of consent decrees that impede the United States’ policy of encouraging civil commitment of individuals with mental illness who pose risks to themselves or the public or are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves in appropriate facilities for appropriate periods of time.” In short, it authorizes increased involuntary commitment of people experiencing homelessness, including individuals with psychiatric labels.
“This order is a horrific backsliding of decades of progress to protect and advance the rights of disabled people. Institutionalizing people under the guise of humane treatment is a false narrative designed to stigmatize and isolate. Forced institutionalization is often violent, harmful, and expensive. What unhoused people with disabilities need is real, robust investments into supportive housing, peer support, and community-based services,” stated Executive Director, Kim Moody.
Decades of research and the experiences of people with disabilities themselves have shown that people thrive when they are provided with the tools to make their own choices, not when those choices are stripped away.
Disability Rights Maine remains committed to defending the rights of all Mainers and will continue working with the State of Maine and our partners nationally to oppose any effort that violates the civil rights of our community members.
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Disability Rights Maine is Maine’s Protection & Advocacy organization. Our mission is to advance justice and equality by enforcing rights and expanding opportunities for people with disabilities in Maine.