TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Julia Wilburn on Sep 17, 2024

U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger has ruled that a federal lawsuit alleging Tennessee’s mental health and disability agencies discriminated against deaf individuals living in privately run group homes can move forward. The Tennessee Lookout reports that attorneys for the state attempted to dismiss all claims brought by six individuals who say they were denied the ability to communicate and deprived of sign language interpreters and communication technologies in group homes. The state argued that Tennessee's mental health and disability agencies are not responsible for the way private group homes operate, but according to Trauger's decision, federal law “recognizes that a government agency’s decision to rely on a privatize-and-license model, rather than a direct services model, does not inherently excuse it from its antidiscrimination obligations in performing the underlying public services.”