Federal judge: lawsuit by deaf people, denied services in Tennessee group homes, will move ahead

The Fred D. Thompson U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building in Nashville, Tenn., site of federal trials. A federal lawsuit alleging the state has violated the rights of deaf individuals in group homes will proceed.(Photo John Partipilo)

A federal lawsuit alleging Tennessee’s mental health and disability agencies discriminated against deaf individuals living in group homes will go forward, a federal judge ruled.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger shut down efforts by state lawyers to dismiss all claims brought by six individuals, who say they were denied the ability to communicate, deprived of sign language interpreters and communication technologies.

Attorneys for the state had argued, in part, that the state’s mental health and disability agencies aren’t responsible for the way private group homes operate.

Private group home providers contract with the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (DMHSAS) and the Tennessee Department of Disability and Aging (formerly the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, or DIDD) to provide 24-7 residential care for people with disabilities, paid for with public funds.

Lawsuit: Deaf people deprived of ASL interpreters in state-funded programs

It is in these homes that individuals lived in isolation, denied the tools to communicate, the lawsuit claims. One of the plaintiffs was handed a number to a suicide hotline after being discharged from a hospital with depression. He couldn’t call because he hadn’t been provided with technology that enables deaf people to use phones in his group home.

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,” the decision said.

The judge dismissed the individual plaintiffs’ claims for monetary damages for alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, finding that state agencies have sovereign immunity. However, she allowed other claims for damages under a separate federal Rehabilitation Act law to go forward.

The case was originally filed in 2022 and is now set for trial in September 2025.

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