This paper interrogates the language of the legal precedents of the Americans with Disabilities

Act (ADA) and their function, including the 1891 Immigration Law and the series of ugly laws
that spanned from the late nineteenth century until the early twentieth century. Legislative
language is used to construct and deploy static definitions of normalcy and disability, relying on
objective evidence couched in medical and scientific discourse. The purpose of this paper is to
uncover the legislative precedents of the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act
(ADAAA) that were motivated by the eugenicist imperative to strengthen the image of a
productive and robust nation. I begin by outlining eugenicist logic and demonstrate how it
functions within a semiotic system. Then, I will introduce the process by which eugenicist logic
works within legal semiotics. Lastly, I will provide three examples of how this process functions
in the legislative language and implementation of the 1891 Immigration Act, the ugly laws and
the ADAAA. Ultimately, I will demonstrate how all three provide evidence of a pattern of
semiotic systems that pathologize human difference and manages these differences so as to
segregate and disenfranchise in the name of nationalism.