AUSTIN, Texas — Disability rights advocates gathered on the south steps of the Texas Capitol on Friday to demand Texas withdraw from Texas v. Kennedy, a lawsuit opponents say attacks Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
The rally, organized by ADAPT of Texas, the Personal Attendant Coalition of Texas, Rolling with the Homies and other groups, ran from noon to 2 p.m.
State Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, told the crowd she has watched “in horror and heartbreak” as courts erode legal protections for vulnerable communities. She accused Attorney General Ken Paxton of spending taxpayer money to pursue a lawsuit that would exclude and institutionalize people with disabilities.
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Lauren B. Peña, the 2026 Republican nominee for Texas’ 37th Congressional District, also called on the state to drop the suit. Peña, who said she is a human trafficking survivor with a disabled daughter and lives in federal housing in East Austin, described residents there being carried up and down stairs by firefighters to reach medical appointments due to inaccessible conditions. She called the issue a matter of “human dignity” that crosses party lines.
Nathan and Jill Taylor, parents of a son with a severe intellectual disability, said the lawsuit threatens school accommodations and in-home care programs that keep families like theirs together rather than pushing children toward institutionalization.
Organizers pressed Gov. Greg Abbott and Paxton to remove Texas from the lawsuit.
CBS Austin reached out to Abbott and Paxton’s offices for comment.