We are writing to you as Idahoans — parents of disabled children, disabled adults, caregivers, educators, and neighbors — to ask you to take a clear public stand in defense of the rights of Idaho's disabled residents.
On June 18, 2026, the Department of Justice issued a memo reinterpreting Olmstead v. L.C., the 1999 Supreme Court decision that for 27 years has protected the right of disabled Americans to receive services in their communities rather than in institutions. On July 20, the DOJ declared it would no longer rely on its own 2011 Olmstead enforcement guidance. And in federal court in Texas, the DOJ has joined a motion to erase the Section 504 integration rule entirely — the rule that has been the legal backbone of community-based disability services across this country.
Eighteen governors have already written to Attorney General Todd Blanche urging him not to walk back these protections. Every one of them is a Democrat. We are asking you to be the first Republican governor to join them — because the right of disabled people to live in their communities is not a partisan issue. It has advanced under Republican and Democratic administrations alike. It should be defended by both.
We ask you to sign that letter. And we ask you to go further.
Idaho has already made choices that have left our disabled residents more vulnerable: the elimination of the Family and Personal Care Services program that supported nearly 1,200 disabled children, the $21.8 million cut to residential care provider rates, the motion to repeal Medicaid expansion that was considered this session. These decisions were made while Olmstead enforcement still existed. Now it doesn't.
We are asking you, Governor Little, to publicly commit to the following:
That Idaho will not use the federal rollback of Olmstead enforcement as justification to further reduce community-based services for disabled Idahoans. That Idaho will not pursue, expand, or accelerate any policy that shifts disabled residents from community settings toward institutional care. That Idaho will restore the Family and Personal Care Services program for disabled children whose families depended on it. And that you will make clear to Idaho's legislature that the rights of disabled citizens are not conditional on the state's budget surplus.
The people signing this letter are your constituents. Our children, our family members, and we ourselves depend on the community supports your administration controls. We are not asking Idaho to wait for federal enforcement to return. We are asking you to lead.

Respectfully,
The undersigned citizens of Idaho