07/09/2026
We need to talk about something that worries us.
A few weeks ago, the Department of Justice released a legal opinion that would create an approach towards people with disabilities of separate and unequal. Instead of promoting inclusion, it would enforce isolation. The potential and abilities within people with differing abilities would be devalued and destroyed.
At a personal level, it would mean my son John would not have had access to an education and would never have developed to the point where he could start a business and create jobs. We would all be worse off.
A Little Background
The Department of Justice opinion targets Olmstead v. L.C., the 1999 Supreme Court decision that helped guarantee people with disabilities the right to live, learn, and work alongside everyone else, not separated out, not shut away. The DOJ's own memo admits its reading goes against how courts have understood this for 25 years. That's not a small thing. That's the federal government signaling it may stop defending a right that took decades to win.
We're speaking up because so much is at stake.
John went through the Huntington school district. He wasn't set apart. He was in the classroom with everybody else, sitting with his peers, joining after-school programs, getting the same education every kid in that district got. That gave him the chance to find out what he was capable of, right alongside kids who were figuring out the same thing about themselves.
That's why John is who he is today. Co-founder of John's Crazy Socks. A young man who has shipped over 500,000 packages to 94 countries. A boss who's created real jobs, with real paychecks, for people with differing abilities. None of that happens if John spends those years somewhere else, learning something less, around no one but people just like him.
It wasn't only John who benefited, either. Every kid in those classrooms grew up knowing a friend with Down syndrome, not as something unusual, just as part of who was in the room. That's what integration does. It doesn't just change one life. It changes what a whole generation believes is normal.
We can't let that get undone.
The law hasn't changed yet; Olmstead still stands, the ADA still stands. But laws only protect people if they're enforced, and this memo is the federal government looking for a way out. That's why we're saying something now, while it still matters.
If you believe people with differing abilities belong in our schools, our workplaces, and our communities, not separated out of them, this is the moment to say so. Share this post. Call your representatives. Support organizations like the National Down Syndrome Society, who are fighting this in the courts and in Congress. Don't wait until the damage is done.
We built this company on the belief that people with differing abilities can do more than anyone expects, if we just give them the chance. We're not going to stay quiet while that chance gets taken away from the next generation.
