Disability Law Stories: A Disability Studies and Critical Race (Dis/Crit) Legal Analysis

Though Critical Race Studies scholars and Disability Legal Studies scholars have developed analyses accounting for the role of race and disability in the law, respectively, neither has sufficiently attended to the complexity in accounting for both race and disability at the same time. In this dissertation, I introduce a Disability Studies and Critical Race (Dis/Crit) Legal Analysis framework. Utilizing Dis/Crit Legal Analysis, I unearth how race and disability play a role in the Burger Supreme Court (1969-1986) cases related to competency to stand trial, insanity as a criminal defense, and competency to be executed. Using “storytelling” as methodology, I contextualize three Supreme Court cases by delving into the historical trajectories of the areas of law at play, the stories of the lives of the petitioners who cases made their way to the Supreme Court, and the social and political milieu during those cases. By analyzing this area of law through this framework, I discover the disconnect between theory and practice, the contingency and role of racism and ableism in America, and the strategies employed to assist disabled clients caught in the criminal legal system whether or not they reinforce a broken system.