Tchoukhrova v. Gonzales

A recent decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit finds that a Russian boy and his parents are all eligible for asylum because of the persecution they faced at home, on account of the boy's cerebral palsy. That persecution included (for the boy) beatings, forced institutionalization, withheld medical treatment, denied access to schooling, and verbal abuse from strangers in public. The parents were pelted with stones, lost their jobs, were pressured to stop advocating for disability rights, and had their car vandalized. The ruling finds:

"Because the parents and their disabled child incur harm as a unit, it is appropriate to combine family members into a single social group for purposes of asylum and withholding [of removal]."

Read the whole decision here.