Today, ASAN learned that the DC Circuit Court refused to reconsider a court ruling that allows the Judge Rotenberg Center to continue using skin shocks on disabled people. ASAN is outraged at the DC Circuit’s decision. ASAN calls on the FDA to do whatever it takes to reinstate a ban by immediately reintroducing a new rule that would address the court’s concerns while effectively banning these devices. The disability community has fought for decades against this torture – enough is enough.
In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the use of skin shock devices on people with disabilities – a practice that the United Nations has recognized as torture. The ban was supported by decades of advocacy and extensive research. The Judge Rotenberg Center sued in order to keep using the devices. The case went before three judges on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Two out of those three judges sided with the Judge Rotenberg Center, striking down the ban. As a result, the Judge Rotenberg Center can continue subjecting disabled people to painful electric shocks on a daily basis. The FDA asked for a chance to argue its case before all of the judges on the DC Circuit, instead of just three. This is called a rehearing en banc. But the DC Circuit has said that it would not allow a rehearing en banc.
The DC Circuit’s decision was based on the fact that the FDA banned some uses of shock devices but not others. The FDA said that shocks could not be used on disabled people, but that devices people chose to use to stop smoking were okay. The DC Circuit said that the FDA could not decide how a device could or couldn’t be used.
The FDA should immediately issue a new rule that addresses the court’s ruling. The rule will have to ban all uses of skin shock devices like the ones used at the Judge Rotenberg Center. The devices used at the Judge Rotenberg Center are very different from devices used for other purposes, so this should be easy for the FDA to do.
We call on the FDA to take immediate action to make sure that a new rule can go into effect as soon as possible. Disabled children and adults are being tortured every day. They cannot afford to wait any longer.
Our community has fought long and hard to end the Judge Rotenberg Center’s torture of disabled people. ASAN will continue to collaborate with state and federal policymakers, including the FDA, to end all forms of abuse against disabled people. We will not rest until no disabled person is subjected to torture in the name of “treatment.”
For more information, contact Sam Crane, ASAN’s Legal Director, at
[email protected].
ASAN’s strategy going forward seems logical but as I wrote in the OP “This is truly a real-life horror story where you think the monster is dead and it keeps coming back to life. The disability advocacy groups have been trying unsuccessfully to stop this real-life nightmare since the 1980s!!”. It is just beyond my ability to have much hope at this point. This failure a huge black mark against the autism rights and disability rights movements.