Law Commons^™

Disabling Lawyering: Buck V. Bell And The Road To A More Inclusive Legal Practice, Jacob Izak Abudaram

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be and Ally. By Emily Ladau and Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell By Paul A. Lombardo.

Cognitive Decline And The Workplace, Sharona Hoffman

Faculty Publications

Cognitive decline will increasingly become a workplace concern because of three intersecting trends. First, the American population is aging. In 2019, 16.5 percent of the population, or fifty-four million people, were age 65 and over, and the number is expected to increase to seventy-eight million by 2025. Dementia is not uncommon among older adults, and by the age of eighty-five, between twenty-five and fifty percent of individuals suffer from this condition. Second, individuals are postponing retirement and prolonging their working lives. For example, about a quarter of physicians are over sixty-five, as are fifteen percent of attorneys. The average age …

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.

Disability Discrimination In Higher Education: The Enabling Spirit Of American Disability Legislation In Conflict With Judicial Interpretation, Travis Murray

Student Scholarship

Disabled individuals have historically been treated as second-class citizens in the United States. While improvements have certainly been made over time, disabled individuals still face significant barriers to enjoying full and equal participation in society. Higher education is one aspect of American society still lacking proportional representation of the disabled community. To try and understand why disabled Americans fail to thrive in higher education at rates approaching those of non-disabled individuals, this paper will examine the following: how the history of disability discrimination in America influenced passage of powerful anti-discrimination legislation; how American courts have generally interpreted that legislation to …

Olmstead V. L.C.: The Supreme Court Case, Samuel R. Bagenstos, Irv Gornstein, Michael Gottesman, Jennifer Mathis

Articles

You have an incredible luxury here at Georgetown Law. You have faculty who are engaged in the world like two of my colleagues on this panel. To my immediate left is Professor Michael Gottesman (Georgetown University Law Center) who argued the case on behalf of Lois and Elaine, and to my next far left, Professor Irv Gornstein (Georgetown University Law Center) who argued the case on behalf of the United States. Between them is Jennifer Mathis (The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law) who has spent, I think, most of her career at the Bazelon Center litigating, and organizing, and …

Substance Use Disorder, Discrimination, And The Cares Act: Using Disability Law To Strengthen New Protections, Kelly K. Dineen, Elizabeth Pendo

All Faculty Scholarship

The COVID-19 pandemic is having devastating consequences for people with substance use disorders (SUD). SUD is a chronic health condition—like people with other chronic health conditions, people with SUD experience periods of remission and periods of exacerbation and relapse. Unlike people with most other chronic conditions, people with SUD who experience a relapse may face criminal charges and incarceration. They are chronically disadvantaged by pervasive social stigma, discrimination, and structural inequities. People with SUD are also at higher risk for both contracting the SARS-CoV-19 virus and experiencing poorer outcomes. Meanwhile, there are early indications that pandemic conditions have led to …

Step Therapy: Legal And Ethical Implications Of A Cost-Cutting Measure, Sharona Hoffman

Faculty Publications

The very high and ever-increasing costs of medical care in the United States are well-recognized and much discussed. Health insurers have employed a variety of strategies in an effort to control their expenditures, including one that is common but has received relatively little attention: step therapy. Step therapy programs require patients to try less expensive treatments and find them to be ineffective or otherwise problematic before the insurer will approve a more high-priced option. This Article is the first law journal piece dedicated to analyzing this important cost control measure.

The Article explores the strengths and weaknesses of step therapy …

Meaningful Access And Disability Discrimination: The Role Of Social Science And Other Empirical Evidence, Mark Weber

College of Law Faculty

In cases alleging disability discrimination in the provision of state and local government services, courts frequently hold that plaintiffs’ claims depend on the question whether, despite the disadvantage that government actions impose, the plaintiffs nevertheless receive meaningful access to the government services. Whether people with disabilities actually have meaningful access is in reality a factual question, one on which social science and other empirically supported facts should matter. But courts frequently ignore evidence about the nature and level of access that people with disabilities have to government programs when decisions regarding those programs are being challenged. This Article catalogues judicial …

Ending-Life Decisions: Some Disability Perspectives, Mary Crossley

Articles

In the forty years since Quinlan, disability has been present in the conversation within medicine, bioethics, and law about the acceptability of death-hastening medical decisions, but it has at times been viewed as an interloper, an uninvited guest to the party, or perhaps the guest whom the host was obliged to invite, but whose presence was not entirely welcomed. Notwithstanding some short-term reversals and counter-currents, the steady arc of end-of-life law during the past four decades has been towards liberalization of ending-life choices by and for patients who are severely compromised or near the end of their lives. During …

Intent In Disability Discrimination Law: Social Science Insights And Comparisons To Race And Sex Discrimination, Mark Weber

College of Law Faculty

This Essay is part of an extensive research project concerning the intent that must be shown in order to obtain judicial relief under the American disability discrimination laws. This Essay focuses on social science research about intent and its relation to the law, comparing disability to race and sex discrimination. It describes research about race and sex and notes that evidence of pervasive but unacknowledged discriminatory thinking is significant. Although the law could bar race and sex discrimination that is not intentional, it has not been interpreted to do so, particularly in contexts other than employment. Social science research indicates …

The Accessibility For Manitobans Act: Ambitions And Achievements In Antidiscrimination And Citizen Participation, Laverne Jacobs, Britney De Costa, Victoria Cino

Law Publications

The Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA) was enacted in December, 2013. Manitoba is the second Canadian province to enact accessibility standards legislation. The first province was Ontario, which enacted the Ontarians with Disabilities Act in 2001, and, later, a more fortified and enforceable Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005. The AMA presents a strong set of philosophical and social goals. Its philosophical goals mark accessibility as a human right, and aim to improve the health, independence and well-being of persons with disabilities. The AMA’s social goals have the potential to make a positive impact on the development of equality …

Mi Casa Es Su Casa: The Benefits Of A Hud Mediation Program For Resolving Housing Accommodation Or Modification Disputes Between Landlords And Tenants With Disabilities, Adam Knobler

Pepperdine Law Review

After first providing a background on federal housing laws that prohibit discrimination based on disability, this article then proceeds to describe and analyze the remedies available to tenants who have experienced disability discrimination. The article concludes that, not only are such remedies as filing a complaint or pursuing litigation difficult and time-consuming, they could also damage the long-term relationship between the parties and preclude the possibility of creative remedies that satisfy the needs of both parties. The article finishes by proposing that HUD develop an agency-wide mediation program based on the model of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) mediation …

Accidentally On Purpose: Intent In Disability Discrimination Law, Mark Weber

College of Law Faculty

American disability discrimination laws contain few intent requirements. Yet courts frequently demand showings of intent in disability discrimination lawsuits. Intent requirements arose almost by accident: through a false statutory analogy; by repetition of obsolete judicial language; and by doctrine developed to avoid a nonexistent conflict with another law. Demanding that section 504 and Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) claimants show intent imposes a burden not found in those statutes or their interpretive regulations. This Article provides reasons not to impose intent requirements for liability or monetary relief in section 504 and ADA cases concerning reasonable accommodations. It demonstrates that no …

Accidentally On Purpose: Intent In Disability Discrimination Law, Mark C. Weber

Mark C. Weber

American disability discrimination laws contain few intent requirements. Yet courts frequently demand showings of intent in disability discrimination lawsuits. Intent requirements arose almost by accident: through a false statutory analogy; by repetition of obsolete judicial language; and by doctrine developed to avoid a nonexistent conflict with another law. Demanding that section 504 and Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) claimants show intent imposes a burden not found in those statutes or their interpretive regulations. This Article provides reasons not to impose intent requirements for liability or monetary relief in section 504 and ADA cases concerning reasonable accommodations. It demonstrates that no …

Disability Cultural Competence In The Medical Profession, Mary Crossley

Articles

People with disabilities make up 19% of the U.S. population, and many of them are heavier consumers of health care than people without disabilities. Yet relatively few physicians – the persons responsible for providing medical care to this significant fraction of the patient population – have disabilities themselves, and the percentage of medical students with disabilities is even smaller. This Essay highlights how the relative rareness of doctors with disabilities may contribute to a generally low level of understanding within the medical profession of the social context of disability and how non-medical factors affect the health of people with disabilities. …

Normalizing Disability In Families, Mary Crossley

Articles

In “Selection against Disability: Abortion, ART, and Access,” Alicia Ouellette probes a particularly vexing point of intersection between ART (assisted reproductive technology) and abortion: how negative assumptions about the capacities of disabled persons and the value of life with disability infect both prospective parents’ prenatal decisions about what pregnancies to pursue and fertility doctors’ decisions about providing services to disabled adults. This commentary on Ouellette’s contribution to the symposium titled “Intersections in Reproduction: Perspectives on Abortion and Assisted Reproductive Technologies" first briefly describes Ouellette’s key points and her article’s most valuable contributions. It then suggests further expanding the frame of …

In Defense Of Idea Due Process, Mark Weber

College of Law Faculty

Due Process hearing rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act are under attack. A major professional group and several academic commentators charge that the hearings system advantages middle class parents, that it is expensive, that it is futile, and that it is unmanageable. Some critics would abandon individual rights to a hearing and review in favor of bureaucratic enforcement or administrative mechanisms that do not include the right to an individual hearing before a neutral decision maker. This Article defends the right to a due process hearing. It contends that some criticisms of hearing rights are simply erroneous, and …

In Defense Of Idea Due Process, Mark C. Weber

Mark C. Weber

Due Process hearing rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act are under attack. A major professional group and several academic commentators charge that the hearings system advantages middle class parents, that it is expensive, that it is futile, and that it is unmanageable. Some critics would abandon individual rights to a hearing and review in favor of bureaucratic enforcement or administrative mechanisms that do not include the right to an individual hearing before a neutral decision maker. This Article defends the right to a due process hearing. It contends that some criticisms of hearing rights are simply erroneous, and …

Idea Class Actions After Wal-Mart V. Dukes, Mark C. Weber

Mark C. Weber

Wal-Mart v. Dukes overturned the certification of a class of a million and a half female employees alleging sex discrimination in Wal-Mart’s salary and promotion decisions. The Supreme Court ruled that the case did not satisfy the requirement that a class have a common question of law or fact, and said that the remedy sought was not the type of relief available under the portion of the class action rule permitting mandatory class actions. Over the last two years, courts have struggled with how to apply the ruling, especially how to apply it beyond its immediate context of employment discrimination …

Giving Meaning To 'Meaningful Access' In Medicaid Managed Care, Mary Crossley

Articles

As states seek to shift Medicaid recipients with disabilities out of traditional fee-for-service settings and into managed care plans, vexing questions arise about the impact on access to needed care and providers for beneficiaries with medically complex needs. With many states expanding their Medicaid program as part of health care reform and cost-containment pressures continuing to mount, this movement will likely accelerate over the next several years. This Article examines the possibility that disability discrimination law might provide a mechanism for prodding states in the planning stage to anticipate and plan for likely access issues, as well as for challenging …

A Submission To The Australian Law Reform Commission On Copyright And The Digital Economy: Disability Rights, Matthew Rimmer Dr

Matthew Rimmer

RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendation 1 The Australian Government should take legislative action to implement Article 30 (3) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006, which provides that ‘States Parties shall take all appropriate steps, in accordance with international law, to ensure that laws protecting intellectual property rights do not constitute an unreasonable or discriminatory barrier to access by persons with disabilities to cultural materials’. This will involve revising the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) – and addressing any direct or indirect disability discrimination.

Recommendation 2 The Australian Law Reform Commission should consider revising the Copyright Act 1968 …

Technical Standards For Admission To Medical Schools: Deaf Candidates Don't Get No Respect, Michael A. Schwartz

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

Medical schools utilize a set of technical standards used to screen applicants with disabilities, and one of the standards, which deals with communication, requires the applicant to be capable of speech and hearing. To the extent that medical schools exclude an applicant with a hearing impairment on the ground that the applicant cannot hear and speak, such exclusion would be (and should be) a violation of federal law. Schools must engage in an individualized assessment of how a Deaf medical candidate would satisfy the communication standard. The notion of an “undifferentiated graduate,” where all graduates qualify for practice in any …

Framing Disability, Elizabeth F. Emens

Faculty Scholarship

Mainstream attitudes toward disability lag behind U.S. law. This tension between attitudes and law reflects a wider gap between the ideas about disability pervasive in mainstream society — what this Article calls the "outside" view — and the ideas about disability common within the disability community — what this Article calls the "inside" view. The outside perspective tends to misunderstand and mischaracterize aspects of the experience, theory, and law of disability.

The law can help to close this gap in attitudes by changing the conditions in which attitudes are formed or reinforced. Thus, this Article proposes using framing rules to …

Wrongful Termination Claims In The Supreme Court Of Canada: Coming Up Short, Dianne Pothier

Dalhousie Law Journal

The author concludes that the Supreme Court of Canada's narrow interpretations in Wal-Mart and Honda undermine the purposes of collective bargaining and human rights legislation, respectively Wal-Mart involves an unfair labour practice complaint following the closing of a store in Jonquibre, Quebec. The author contests the analysis of the Supreme Court of Canada, as being far removed from the context of the real difficulties in dealing with determined anti-union employers, instead facilitating statutory evasion. Honda involves a claim for wrongful dismissal, where the issue at the Supreme Court of Canada level is one of remedy, premised on the dismissal amounting …

The Common Law Of Disability Discrimination, Mark C. Weber

Mark C. Weber

In many cases alleging race and sex discrimination, plaintiffs append common law claims to cases asserting federal or state statutory causes of action. In other race and sex cases, plaintiffs put forward these common law claims without making any federal or state statutory claims. Less frequent, and much less frequently discussed by scholars, are common law claims for conduct constituting disability discrimination. Nevertheless, there are sound theoretical and practical reasons to develop a common law of disability discrimination. On the theoretical side of the discussion, federal statutory disability discrimination claims are not exclusive, and the common law can both draw …

Wrongful Termination Claims In The Supreme Court Of Canada: Coming Up Short, Dianne Pothier

Dianne Pothier Collection

The author concludes that the Supreme Court of Canada's narrow interpretations in Wal-Mart and Honda undermine the purposes of collective bargaining and human rights legislation, respectively Wal-Mart involves an unfair labour practice complaint following the closing of a store in Jonquibre, Quebec. The author contests the analysis of the Supreme Court of Canada, as being far removed from the context of the real difficulties in dealing with determined anti-union employers, instead facilitating statutory evasion. Honda involves a claim for wrongful dismissal, where the issue at the Supreme Court of Canada level is one of remedy, premised on the dismissal amounting …

Sixteen Years Of Litigation Under The Arkansas Civil Rights Act: Where We Have Been And Where We Are Going, Michael Mosley, Robert Beard, Paul Charton

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unreasonable Accommodation And Due Hardship, Mark Weber

College of Law Faculty

This Article analyzes authoritative sources concerning the Americans with Disabilities Act accommodation requirement and concludes: (1) Reasonable accommodation and undue hardship are two sides of the same coin. The statutory duty is accommodation up to the limit of hardship, and reasonable accommodation should not be a separate hurdle for claimants to surmount apart from the undue hardship defense. There is no such thing as “unreasonable accommodation” or “due hardship.” (2) The duty to accommodate is a substantial obligation, one that may be expensive to satisfy, and one that is not subject to a cost-benefits balance, but rather a cost-resources balance; …

Tackling Disability Discrimination At Work: Toward A Systematic Approach, Dianne Pothier

Dianne Pothier Collection

Approaching disability discrimination in systemic terms is the most fundamental challenge that disability human rights law currently faces. Achieving fundamental change in relation to disability at work necessitates challenging able-bodied norms. To that end, a social construction of disability entails adapting the environment to meet the needs of those with a variety of dis-abilities. Tackling disability discrimination requires contesting what is deemed “normal” be­cause it is the way most able-bodied persons function, necessitating a thorough understanding of adverse effects discrimination, which looks behind purportedly neutral practices to uncover detrimental effects on those who do not function “normally”.

The fact that …