Law Commons^™

Employers And The Privatization Of Public Health, Sharona Hoffman

Faculty Publications

This Article focuses on the role of employers in public health and argues that they constitute increasingly important actors in the U.S. public health arena. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, a series of judicial decisions and newly enacted statutes enfeebled the public health powers of the federal and state governments. In a 2023 statement, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch clearly articulated his antagonism towards government-initiated COVID-19 interventions, describing them as “the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country.” All too many share his views.

Employers may be highly motivated to safeguard their workers’ …

Reasonably Accommodating Employment Discrimination Law, William Corbett

Journal Articles

The law of accommodations within employment discrimination law evolved significantly in 2023. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) was enacted by Congress and signed by President Biden in 2022, and it became effective on June 27, 2023. The Act creates a statutory duty for covered employers to make reasonable accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions. Two days after the effective date of the PWFA, the Supreme Court rendered a decision in Groff v. DeJoy in which the Court clarified the meaning of the “undue hardship” limitation on the duty of employers under Title VII to reasonably accommodate religious …

Mindful Debiasing: Meditation As A Tool To Address Disability Discrimination, Elizabeth F. Emens

Faculty Scholarship

Antidiscrimination law is at a critical juncture. The law prohibits formal and explicit systems of exclusion, but much bias nonetheless persists. New tools are needed. This Article argues that mindfulness meditation may be a powerful strategy in the battle against disability discrimination. This Article sets out eight reasons that disability bias is particularly intractable. The Article then draws on empirical, philosophical, and scholarly sources to identify mechanisms through which mindfulness meditation can address these dynamics. The Article concludes by presenting concrete doctrinal implications of bringing mindfulness to bear on disability discrimination. This Article thus contributes to the established fields of …

Covid-19 Employee Health Checks, Remote Work, And Disability Law, Elizabeth Pendo

All Faculty Scholarship

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities, about 61 million individuals in the U.S. The law’s protections in the workplace are especially important during COVID-19, which has worsened pre-existing disparities experienced by people with disabilities. The ADA also applies to new strategies to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection in the workplace. This Chapter will focus on two strategies that impact individuals with and without disabilities – employee health screening, testing and vaccination policies, and new or expanded remote work programs.

The Americans With Disabilities Act And Healthcare Employer-Mandated Vaccinations, Y. Tony Yang, Elizabeth Pendo, Dorit Rubinstein Reiss

All Faculty Scholarship

Battles around workplace vaccination policies often focus on the annual influenza vaccine, but many healthcare employers impose requirements for additional vaccines because of the increased likelihood that employees in this sector will interact with populations at increased risk of acquiring or experiencing harmful sequelae of vaccine-preventable diseases. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and many states recommend healthcare employees receive numerous vaccines, including measles, mumps, and rubella (“MMR”); tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (“Tdap”). However, recent outbreaks of once-eliminated diseases that are now resurgent and the rising antivaccination movement raise questions about how far employers can go to mandate …

Something To Talk About, Joni Hersch, Jennifer Bennett Shinall

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

To avoid the appearance of sex discrimination that would violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, both Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidance and a common misunderstanding of the law have resulted in little or no information about family status being provided in pre-employment interviews. To investigate whether concealing family information actually improves women’s employment prospects, we conduct an original experimental study fielded on more than 3,000 subjects. Our study provides the first ever evidence that concealing personal information lowers female applicants’ hiring prospects. Subjects overwhelmingly preferred to hire candidates who provided information, regardless of content. Any explanation improved …

Toward An "Unqualified" Otherwise Qualified Standard: Job Prerequisites And Reasonable Accommodation Under The Americans With Disabilities Acts, John E. Rumel

Articles

No abstract provided.

Substantial Limitations: Reflections On The Adaaa, Kerri Lynn Stone

Faculty Publications

This Article advocates several ways to reform the American with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) and its jurisprudence. It begins with the premise that the “otherwise qualified,” “reasonable accommodation,” and “undue hardship” analyses are questions that call for a focus on, respectively, the plaintiff at issue, the accommodation at issue, and the employer at issue. The article calls for the abolition of the need to demonstrate a major life activity limitation required for coverage under the statute in accommodation cases, noting that this has already effectively occurred in the context of the rest of the ADA’s antidiscrimination jurisprudence. …

Disabling Complexity: The Americans With Disabilities Act Of 1990 And Its Interaction With Other Federal Laws, Tory L. Lucas

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Given the daunting breadth, depth, and sheer volume of federal legislation impacting the labor and employment arena, the task of understanding how all of the federal legislation - not to mention state and local legislation and all corresponding regulations and caselaw - interrelates may be an impossible task even for legal experts. One vital area of federal employment legislation involves protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (“ADA”) seeks “to provide a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities.” To fulfill the ADA's vision to protect …

So What If I'M Gonna Hurt Myself: The Ada's Direct Threat Defense, Tory L. Lucas

Faculty Publications and Presentations

A high-beam walking ironworker atop a skyscraper develops a severe case of vertigo. A power saw operator develops narcolepsy. Must the employers of these individuals with disabilities tolerate the risk that they pose to their own safety in fear of facing disability discrimination charges by removing the employees from their jobs? The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) clearly provides a defense to a discrimination claim by an individual with a disability when the employer takes action based on the individual’s posing a direct threat to the health or safety of other individuals in the workplace. This is commonly …

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

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Reasonable Accommodation Under The Ada: Are Employers Required To Participate In The Interactive Process? The Courts Say "Yes" But The Law Says "No", John R. Autry

Louis Jackson National Student Writing Competition

No abstract provided.

Reasonable Accommodation As Part And Parcel Of The Antidiscrimination Project, Mary Crossley

Articles

Numerous commentators have characterized the ADA's reasonable accommodation mandate - which sometimes requires employers to take affirmative steps that treat an individual with a disability differently from other workers - as a departure from the fundamental precepts of antidiscrimination law. These characterizations, however, fail to appreciate either the insights offered by disability theorists regarding the sources of inequality experienced by people with disabilities or the intrinsic conceptual kinship between the ADA's accommodation requirement and disparate impact liability and hostile environment liability under Title VII. Disability theory scholarship affirms that society's historic disregard for and devaluation of people with disabilities has …

After The Fall: The Employer's Duty To Accommodate Employee Religious Practices Under Title Vii After Ansonia Board Of Education V. Philbrook, Peter Zablotsky

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.