The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that persons with mental disabilities are afforded the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs. Segregation of such individuals in psychiatric facilities violates the act.

In 1995, L.C. filed an action challenging her confinement in a regional psychiatric hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. L.C. claimed that her continued confinement in the hospital, which segregates persons with mental disabilities, violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). LC. claimed that the state's failure to provide her with care in the most integrated setting possible violates Title II of the ADA. Title II of the ADA prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in the provision of public services by state and local governments. The ADA also requires that a public entity shall administer services, programs and activities in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of qualified individuals with disabilities. The district court found that L.C. and E.W. had been unfairly segregated and ruled in their favor. The state appealed.

The Circuit Court affirmed the district court's ruling that segregation of E.W. and L.C. violated the ADA and that they could have been placed in an integrated community-based program. The court held that: "the state has violated the core principal underlying the ADA's integration mandate. Placement in the community provides an integrated treatment setting, allowing disabled individuals to interact with non-disabled persons—an opportunity permitted only in limited circumstances within the walls of segregated state institutions. . . ."