Law Commons^™

Who Says You're Disabled? The Role Of Medical Evidence In The Ada Definition Of Disability, Deirdre M. Smith

Faculty Publications

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), enacted by Congress seventeen years ago, offered disabled people a hope of equality and access that has not been fulfilled. ¹ Court decisions halt an overwhelming majority of claims, particularly in the employment context, at the summary judgment stage. ² A key mechanism for fencing out disabled people's claims is the pernicious requirement, based upon the very construction of disability that the ADA's proponents aimed to dispel, that medical evidence is required as a threshold matter to demonstrate that the plaintiff is entitled to seek protection under the statute. ³ The medical evidence requirement …

Maine Law Magazine - Issue No. 86, University Of Maine School Of Law

Maine Law Magazine

Contents

• News Briefs
• Feature: Life, Work, Balance
• Feature: Bankruptcy
• Around Campus
• Faculty Notes
• Giving Back
• Alumni Feature

A Panoptic Approach To Information Policy: Utilizing A More Balanced Theory Of Property In Order To Ensure The Existence Of A Prodigious Public Domain, Christine Galbraith Davik

Faculty Publications

Public access to ideas and information is critically important to creativity, competition, innovation, and a democratic culture. Nonetheless, material that belongs in the public domain is increasingly being transformed into private property. Data which was once freely available has become inaccessible as a result of legislatively or judicially sanctioned technological and contractual constraints. This is due in large part to the fact that lawmakers promulgating legislation and judges resolving disputes concerning data have failed to adequately take into account the multi-dimensional problems involved in controversies concerning access to ideas and information. The focus is often inappropriately centered on the tangible …

Damages In Tort Litigation: Thoughts On Race And Remedies, 1865-2007, Jennifer Wriggins

Faculty Publications

The relationship between remedies and race in U.S. tort law merits attention. This essay first challenges the boundary between civil rights and tort remedies by highlighting a stunning but previously overlooked 1959 Fifth Circuit case where an individual tort remedy served as a significant civil rights remedy in the integration of public transportation throughout the South. Second, the essay focuses on the relationship between race and damages from 1865 to the present. It argues that the torts system provided access to indigent plaintiffs of all races during periods when poor people were otherwise denied legal representation in every other context. …

Researching Initiatives And Referenda: A Guide For Maine, Christine I. Dulac

Faculty Publications

This article discusses the history of the initiative and referendum process in Maine, including the steps needed to get an initiative or referendum on the State ballot. Part II of this paper discusses the early history of the initiative and referendum processes in Maine. Part III discusses recent use of initiatives in Maine. Part IV discusses the basics of the initiative and referendum processes in Maine, including a discussion of the differences between the People's Veto and a referendum, both used in Maine as mechanisms for the people to vote on whether a particular piece of legislation should take effect. …