In Shift, Supreme Court Moves Away From ‘Mental Retardation’

By Michelle Diament

June 3, 2014


In striking down a strict IQ cutoff for determining who has intellectual disability, the U.S. Supreme Court also acted to update the language it uses to describe the condition. (Shutterstock)

A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling clarifying what constitutes intellectual disability also marked a major milestone in efforts to put an end to use of the term “mental retardation.”

For the first time ever, the nation’s highest court used the term intellectual disability in its decision last week in a case known as Hall v. Florida.

“Previous opinions of this court have employed the term ‘mental retardation.’ This opinion uses the term ‘intellectual disability’ to describe the identical phenomenon,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the court’s majority opinion.

In explaining the court’s change, Kennedy pointed to use of the updated language in the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Kennedy also cited Rosa’s Law, a 2010 act requiring “intellectual disability” and “individual with an intellectual disability” to be used in lieu of “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” in federal health, education and labor policy.

http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2014/06/03/in-shift-supreme-retardation/19411/