Disability Law Center v. Cox et. al.

The ACLU Disability Rights Program, the ACLU of Utah Foundation, Inc. (ACLU of Utah), and the Disability Law Center (DLC) filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Utah against the State of Utah seeking to block the implementation of SB199.

This bill, which was signed into law by Gov. Cox in March 2025, creates a new, more restrictive guardianship for a vague category of adults with “severe” intellectual disabilities. If allowed to go into effect, this law would deny Utahns with disabilities their constitutional right to due process and discriminate against them of rights in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

SB199 creates a separate guardianship system for those with a “severe” intellectual disability. But for a court to agree to use this guardianship, a physician or psychologist must merely describe an intellectual disability as “severe.” This new guardianship would allow a guardian to restrict who a person could talk to, and it denies protections to people subject to guardianship under the State’s guardianship bill of rights. The law would also not require counsel for individuals under certain conditions when the person seeking the guardianship is a parent, grandparent, or sibling. SB199 flips the current preference in state law for a limited guardianship to a full one for this subgroup.