Disability Law Commons^™

To Bar Or Not To Bar: Title I Of The Ada And After-Acquired Evidence Of A Plaintiff's Failure To Satisfy Job Prerequisites, Kathryn Johnson-Monfort

William & Mary Business Law Review

Through enactment of Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, Congress unequivocally resolved to prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability in the workplace. However, distortions have since created loopholes through which disability-based employment discrimination may freely slip. An enforcement regulation promulgated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enables such circumvention of the ADA by creating an additional prima facie requirement: a plaintiff must not only be able to perform the essential functions of the position as required by the statute, but must also satisfy all job-related requirements of the position as demanded by the …

Workplace Wellness Programs: Empirical Doubt, Legal Ambiguity, And Conceptual Confusion, Camila Strassle, Benjamin E. Berkman

William & Mary Law Review

Federal laws that protect workers from insurance discrimination and infringement of health privacy include exceptions for wellness programs that are “voluntary” and “reasonably designed” to improve health. Initially, these exceptions were intended to give employers the flexibility to create innovative wellness programs that would appeal to workers, increase productivity, and protect the workforce from preventable health conditions.

Yet a detailed look at the scientific literature reveals that wellness program efficacy is quite disputed, and even highly touted examples of program success have been shown to be unreliable. Meanwhile, the latest administrative regulations on wellness programs were vacated by a district …

A Reasonable Solution For Working Parents: Expanding Reasonable Accommodation Under The Americans With Disabilities Act To Parents Of Children With Disabilities, Katherine Lease

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

There is a growing intersection between a woman’s child-rearing and work responsibilities, but federal law inadequately addresses this issue. For mothers who have a child with a disability, they face increased parenting demands, which often lead to detrimental changes in their employment status and negative perceptions of their work ability and commitment. Many women face expectations to simultaneously be the perfect mother and the ideal worker, but this is largely unattainable when faced with the demands of raising a child with a disability.

This Note will explore the development and inadequacy of the current protection against association discrimination, that is, …

Self-Perception Of Disability And Prospects For Employment Among U.S. Veterans, Christopher L. Griffin Jr., Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Disability Cause Lawyers, Michael E. Waterstone, Michael Ashley Stein, David B. Wilkins

William & Mary Law Review

There is a vast and growing cause lawyering literature demonstrating how attorneys and their relationship to social justice movements matter greatly for law’s ability to engender progress. But to date, there has been no examination of the work of ADA disability cause lawyers as cause lawyers. Similarly, despite an extensive literature focused on the ADA’s revolutionary civil rights aspects and the manner in which the Supreme Court’s interpretation of that statute has stymied potential transformation of American society, no academic accounts of disability law have focused on the lawyers who bring these cases. This Article responds to these scholarly voids. …

Assessing Post-Ada Employment: Some Econometric Evidence And Policy Considerations, John J. Donohue Iii, Michael Ashley Stein, Christopher L. Griffin Jr., Sascha Becker

Faculty Publications

This article explores the relationship between the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the relative labor market outcomes for people with disabilities. Using individual-level longitudinal data from 1981 to 1996 derived from the previously unexploited Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we examine the possible effect of the ADA on (1) annual weeks worked; (2) annual earnings; and (3) hourly wages for a sample of 7,120 unique male household heads between the ages of 21 and 65, as well as for a subset of 1,437 individuals appearing every year from 1981 to 1996. Our analysis of the larger sample suggests …

Disability And Employment Discrimination At The Rehnquist Court, Anita Silvers, Michael E. Waterstone, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Emergency Preparedness And Disability, Michael E. Waterstone, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Disability, Disparate Impact, And Class Actions, Michael Ashley Stein, Michael E. Waterstone

Faculty Publications

Following Title VII's enactment, group-based employment discrimination actions flourished due to disparate impact theory and the class action device. Courts recognized that subordination that defined a group's social identity was also sufficient legally to bind members together, even when relief had to be issued individually. Woven through these cases was a notion of panethnicity that united inherently unrelated groups into a common identity, for example, Asian Americans. Stringent judicial interpretation subsequently eroded both legal frameworks and it has become increasingly difficult to assert collective employment actions, even against discriminatory practices affecting an entire group. This deconstruction has immensely disadvantaged persons …

Same Struggle, Different Difference: Ada Accommodations As Antidiscrimination, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was heralded as an "emancipation proclamation" for people with disabilities, one that would achieve their equality primarily through its reasonable accommodation requirements. Nevertheless, both legal commentators and Supreme Court Justices assert that the ADA's employment mandates distinguish the ADA from earlier antidiscrimination measures, most notably Title VII, because providing accommodations results in something more than equality for the disabled. The Article challenges this prevalent belief by arguing that ADA-mandated accommodations are consistent with other antidiscrimination measures in that each remedies exclusion from employment opportunity by questioning the inherency of established workplace norms, and by …

Reasonable Accommodation Of Workplace Disabilities, Stewart J. Schwab, Steven L. Willborn

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Labor Force Participation And Income Of Individuals With Disabilities In Sheltered And Competitive Employment: Cross-Sectional And Longitudinal Analyses Of Seven States During The 1980s And 1990s, Peter Blanck, Helen A. Schartz, Kevin M. Schartz

William & Mary Law Review

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the labor force participation and wages of individuals with disabilities who have transitioned from facility-based (i.e., sheltered) work to employment in integrated and competitive settings. The investigators had access to data from seven states on the labor force participation and wages of more than 3000 individuals with disabilities who have moved from institutional to community placements over the past two decades.

Among the findings: the majority of individuals in these geographically diverse samples were unemployed over time; sheltered employment prepared some individuals for entry into employment in integrated settings and resulted in …

Identity And Disability In The Workplace, Susanne M. Bruyere, William A. Erickson, Joshua T. Ferrentino

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Disabiling The Ada: Essences, Better Angels, And Unprincipled Neutrality Claims, Aviam Soifer

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Disability, Employment Policy, And The Supreme Court, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

War, Society, And Disability: Some Thoughts On Applying Under-Utilized Methodologies, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Labor Markets, Rationality, And Workers With Disabilities, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Empirical Implications Of Title I, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Employing The Alcoholic Under The Americans With Disabilities Act Of 1990, Wendy K. Voss

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Fourth Bite At The Apple: A Study Of The Operation And Utility Of The Social Security Administration's Appeals Council, Charles H. Koch Jr., David A. Koplow

Faculty Publications

The Social Security Administration's Appeals Council performs the fourth and final administrative evaluation of appealed disability claims. Very little information about the Appeals Council has been available to claimants and their representatives, even though claimants must request Appeals Council review before filing an appeal in federal court. In response to criticism and controversy surrounding this obscure branch of the Social Security Administration, the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) asked Professors Koch and Koplow to study the Appeals Council's effectiveness in disability claims and adjudication. In this Article, the authors examine Appeals Council operations and the Council's relationship to …

Employment Rights Of Handicapped Individuals: Statutory And Judicial Parameters, Toni M. Massaro

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.