Disability Law Commons^™

The Witchcraft Act And The Cost Of Inaction: Afchpr On The Persecution Of Persons With Albinism, Aly Orvis

Human Rights Brief

On February 5, 2025, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (“AfCHPR”) issued a landmark ruling in Centre for Human Rights and Others v. United Republic of Tanzania, holding that Tanzania had violated the rights of persons with albinism (“PWA”) by failing to protect them from systematic discrimination, violence, and ritual killings. The applicants, a human rights organization advocating for PWA, argued that the Tanzanian government’s inaction and weak legal framework fostered an environment of impunity for attacks against PWA, including violations of Article 2, the right to non-discrimination, of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (“ACHPR”). …

Through A Glass Darkly: How Securities Disclosures Give A Distorted View Of The Economy, Gerald F. Davis

Seattle University Law Review

Our understanding of the American economy often relies on stylized facts derived from mandatory disclosures by listed corporations. Data vendors like Standard & Poor’s vacuum up 10Ks and proxy statements into databases, and scholars distill these into tentative maps. This may have been adequate for a postwar economy centered on asset-heavy manufacturers, but it is increasingly out of step with an information-based economy. Companies listed on the stock market are fewer in number and less representative than they were, light in tangible assets and people, and heavy on IP. Basic facts such as what industry they are in are increasingly …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Corporate Scenarios: Drawing Lessons From History, Madison Condon

Seattle University Law Review

As corporations are increasingly pressed to reveal information about their exposure to climate-related risks, they are often asked to undertake and disclose the outcome of “scenario analysis.” In this exercise, corporations, including financial institutions, examine how their business would fare under different pathways the future may take. One oft-used scenario, for example, is the International Energy Agency’s “Net-Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Energy Sector.” This Essay presents a history of the use of scenarios as a corporate planning tool, particularly in the oil industry, arguing that it is key for understanding our present moment and the role of …

Shareholder Expression In A Time Of Heightened Political Tension, Aaron A. Dhir

Seattle University Law Review

In this article, I provide context for my forthcoming research project on shareholder proposals and racial equity audits. Since the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020, progressive shareholder actors have increasingly used the proposal mechanism to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice-related goals. These proposals have frequently gone beyond requesting the usual corporate fare of diversity trainings, intersectionality workshops, affinity groups, etc. Instead, a more ambitious type of proposal asks corporate America to conduct racial equity audits, defined as “an independent, objective and holistic analysis of a company’s policies, practices, products, services and efforts to combat systemic racism …

Corporate Governance Speech, Sarah C. Haan

Seattle University Law Review

The State has always regulated the intra-firm communications that make corporate governance possible, most commonly by mandating disclosures of information by a corporation to its shareholders. Some such laws are labeled “securities regulation,” but securities regulation is a broad category that extends to speech by actors who are outside the corporate enterprise as well. Also, the conventional securities regulation category does not capture all such laws; other examples, including informationforcing mandates, can be found in state corporate law. This Article uses the term “corporate governance speech” to describe the communications among shareholders, directors, and officers through which corporate governance is …

Dark Accounting Matter, Colleen Honigsberg

Seattle University Law Review

Physicists calculate that approximately 85% of the matter in the universe is composed of “dark matter” that “does not absorb, reflect, or emit electromagnetic radiation and is therefore difficult to detect.” The S&P 500 currently trades at a price-to-book value of 4.2, suggesting that book value accounts for less than 20% of the S&P 500’s market value. The remaining 80% appears nowhere in these firms’ balance sheets—it is invisible to contemporary accounting techniques and constitutes “dark accounting matter.”

Some “dark accounting matter” is composed of factors commonly described as components of “ESG.” Human capital, for example, is an intangible asset …

The Employees’ Dilemma: Balancing Internal Reporting, Whistleblowing, And Insider Trading Risks, Geeyoung Min

Seattle University Law Review

The Essay examines how recent developments in insider trading regulations and whistleblower reward programs can lead to unintended and counterproductive results of discouraging employees from using internal reporting channels within corporate compliance programs. While the presence of a robust and well-functioning corporate compliance program is a critical factor both in mitigating the level of public enforcement actions against companies and in protecting corporate managers from liability in private litigation, these programs often provide little incentive for employees to report potential misconduct internally.

Corporate compliance programs are designed to promote the upward information flow within the company, which is essential for …

How The Antidiscrimination Law Of Commercial Transactions Really Works, Helen Norton

Seattle University Law Review

A variety of businesses now cite 303 Creative when seeking First Amendment protection for their refusal to serve certain customers based on those customers’ protected class status. How this litigation will play out remains to be seen. But future courts need not, and should not, repeat the 303 Creative Court’s misunderstanding of how the antidiscrimination law of commercial transactions actually works.

Part I of this Essay explains the Court’s longstanding understanding of the antidiscrimination law of commercial transactions, and then describes the Court’s failure to engage with this precedent in 303 Creative. Part II then identifies the 303 Creative decision’s …

Strengthening The Right To Accessible Web Sites For Consumers With Disabilities Through The Development Of A Clear Test For The Nexus Rule Under Title Iii Of The Americans With Disabilities Act, Jonathan Lazar

Loyola Consumer Law Review

Currently, most of the U.S. Federal disability rights laws expressly require accessible websites for people with disabilities, either in the statute or the regulation. There is one major exception: for websites of public accommodations under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the scope of accessibility coverage is determined by a combination of case law and agency interpretations, rather than expressly in the statute or regulations. To make it more complex, there is a three-way circuit split as to whether websites of public accommodations covered under Title III are required to have accessible websites. The predominant view in the …

Green Dividends: A Case Study In Green Dividends And The Conditions For Private Ordering Solutions, Anne M. Tucker

Seattle University Law Review

This Essay introduces a novel private ordering solution to facilitate corporate investments in pro-social and environmental initiatives: Green dividends. Green dividends are an optional increase in shareholder dividends that are returned to the company to be reinvested in environmental initiatives or kept by a shareholder.

Green dividends pose an alternative to the current gridlocked debate that corporations can’t, won’t, shouldn’t, and shouldn’t even try to act in pro-social or environmental ways. Turning the common refrains on their head converts each narrative into an element for a successful private ordering solution: authority, accountability, shareholder buy-in, and government- backed enforcement. With Green …

Does Climate Disclosure Work To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Emerging Evidence Suggests Cautious Optimism, Cynthia A. Williams

Seattle University Law Review

Significant regulatory resources have been spent developing global, voluntary climate and sustainability disclosure standards, such as the TCFD, TNRD, and ISSB’s Sustainability and Climate Disclosure standards, or domestically required disclosures, such as in the EU and in the U.S. Thus, it is important to evaluate whether this disclosure, particularly voluntary, qualitative disclosure, will have the power to shift the allocation of capital, will have a significant effect on the management of climate risk within firms, and ultimately will reduce climate change risk and biodiversity loss.

In this Article, several interrelated questions will be discussed. First, what does the empirical evidence …

Crip The Law: Representation As A Key Component Of Liberation Lawyering, Marissa Ditkowsky

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

A Bloody Mess: Why Blood Plasma Donation Centers Are Not Public Accommodations Subject To Title Iii Of The Americans With Disabilities Act, Kevin D. Marshall

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Private Religious Schools And Disability Discrimination, Kevin Timpe

Touro Law Review

In the lead-up to the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), religious institutions and organizations lobbied to be exempt. Because they were successful in securing an exemption to most of the ADA’s requirements, religious private schools maintain the legal right to refuse admission to disabled students or to fail to give them various legal protections. After considering the arguments given in its favor, the paper critiques this exemption on moral grounds. It then suggests that these considerations should lead to a reexamination of the legal right such schools have to discriminate against disabled individuals, especially in those cases …

A Holistic Treatment Team For Autism: The Professional Education Benefits Of A Medical-Legal Partnership For Autism Involving Students From Graduate Programs In Law, Applied Behavior Analysis, And Occupational Therapy, Melina Healey, Kayla Finuf, Karrie Lindeman, Rena B. Purohit, Linda Rini

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

This article will outline the distinct special education and related service needs of children with autism and describe a new model for a medical-legal partnership tailored to address those needs and educate the professionals who work with children with autism. We will share results supporting the use of this model from a series of Interprofessional Education (“IPE”) case studies and consultations the authors conducted through interdisciplinary coursework shared among several graduate schools within Touro University. Part I explains the legal and client-centered framework within which the medical-legal partnership operates. Part II identifies the advantages of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) and …

Private Religious Schools And Disability Discrimination, Kevin Timpe

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

In the lead-up to the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), religious institutions and organizations lobbied to be exempt. Because they were successful in securing an exemption to most of the ADA’s requirements, religious private schools maintain the legal right to refuse admission to disabled students or to fail to give them various legal protections. After considering the arguments given in its favor, the paper critiques this exemption on moral grounds. It then suggests that these considerations should lead to a reexamination of the legal right such schools have to discriminate against disabled individuals, especially in those cases …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Voting Matters: Materiality Considerations And The Shareholder Vote, Renee M. Jones

Seattle University Law Review

For the shareholder franchise to have meaning, shareholders must have access to relevant information to inform their voting decisions. The securities laws’ disclosure requirements play an essential role in informing the shareholder vote.

This Essay focuses on the question of the materiality of information in the context of shareholder voting. It addresses the question of whether ESG-related information is material, positioning the materiality inquiry within the context of shareholders’ voting decisions. It explores the definition of materiality with a focus on the “reasonable investor” concept embedded within the definition. The Essay argues that the implicit expectations of many commentators that …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Understanding The Big Three’S Wavering Support Of Environmental And Social Shareholder Proposals, Jeff Schwartz, Jefferson Jensen

Seattle University Law Review

Because of their substantial equity portfolios, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street (the Big 3) are central players in corporate governance. It is, therefore, critical to understand how they vote. One puzzle is that their support for shareholder proposals on environmental and social matters appears to waiver. In 2020, for instance, BlackRock supported 11.1% of environmental proposals at S&P 500 firms. In 2021, it seemingly reversed course, supporting 55.2%. It then flipped again, supporting 32.1% in 2022. Such statistics suggest that the Big 3 are constantly changing their views on these topics. This Article seeks to better understand whether this is …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Public School Integration Of Children With Handicaps After Smith V. Robinson: "Separate But Equal" Revisited?, Robert J. Goodwin

Maine Law Review

Under the direction of Chief Justice Burger the United States Supreme Court has issued several opinions limiting the availability of federal causes of action. While one benefit of this trend may be a reduction in the volume of federal litigation, the costs may include the limitation of substantive federal rights. The recent Supreme Court decision in Smith v. Robinson narrowly construed the availability of certain federal causes of action, and it illustrates how such a ruling, although procedural on its surface, in reality can operate to erode substantive rights. In Smith the Court concluded that a handicapped child could not …

Handicapped Workers: Who Should Bear The Burden Of Proving Job Qualifications?, June Zellers Schau

Maine Law Review

Joining a growing number of jurisdictions in 1973, the Maine Legislature amended the fair employment sections of the Maine Human Rights Act (the MHRA) to extend equal employment opportunity protection to all physically disabled workers. Nearly a decade later the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, defined unlawful employer treatment of handicapped workers in Maine Human Rights Commission v. Canadian Pacific, Ltd. The Law Court held that an employment decision based on a worker's handicap constitutes an admission of discrimination that shifts the burden of persuasion to the employer to prove either that all workers with similar …

Silent Suffering: Demanding Individual Accountability For Sexual Assault Against Disabled Children In School Environments, Stephanie Flores

Journal of Law and Policy

Disabled children are among the most vulnerable in society, particularly in school environments where they depend on the actions and care of others for their safety. These children face significantly higher risks of sexual abuse than their non-disabled peers, and school officials' negligence can exacerbate this danger. Despite the prevalence of such cases, the Fifth Circuit's refusal to recognize school officials’ liability under the state-created danger doctrine, as seen in Fisher v. Moore, deprives disabled children of adequate legal recourse under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The decision holds that school officials cannot be held personally liable for the peer-inflicted sexual …

Disability Discrimination By Clinical Algorithm, Elizabeth Pendo, Jennifer D. Oliva

Articles

In response to America’s escalating drug poisoning crisis, the federal government has funded, incentivized, and mandated that states adopt and implement prescription drug monitoring programs (“PDMPs”) to electronically surveil controlled substances and other “drugs of concern.” State PDMPs utilize proprietary, predictive software platforms that deploy algorithms to determine whether a patient is at risk for drug misuse, drug diversion, doctor shopping, or substance use disorder. PDMPs have never been validated by a federal agency or peer review, yet states have mandated their use throughout the health care delivery system.

Research demonstrates that clinical overreliance on the risk scores generated by …

Accommodating Incompetency In Immigration Court, Elizabeth Jordan

Northwestern University Law Review

In criminal law, an individual must be deemed competent to stand trial, yet our immigration courts routinely order the deportation of incompetent noncitizens. A removal proceeding against a noncitizen—where an outcome of deportation often risks life-threatening harm—continues apace even if the noncitizen has been deemed incompetent by the immigration judge. In place of halting proceedings, the immigration judge imposes “safeguards” pursuant to a provision of the immigration code that neither defines nor explains the term. In practice, judges’ application of the term “safeguards” is often absurd. The implications of continuing a proceeding against a noncitizen with a disability affecting competency …

Reimagining Judicial Review Of Student Requests For Remote Instruction As An Ada Accommodation In Higher Education, Hannah E. Auten

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reasonable Accommodation And Non-Invidious Discrimination Under The Maine Human Rights Act, Stuart W. Tisdale Jr.

Maine Law Review

"Invidious," through its Latin root invidia, for envy, hints at the dangers of arbitrary discrimination. Statutes, for instance, that distribute social or economic benefits and allocate burdens in a patently arbitrary manner alienate the burdened class. Such laws tear at the social fabric by instilling resentment and bitterness in the disfavored group. At an extreme they encourage rebellion. The famous Carolene Products footnote, in which Justice Stone suggested that the Court would apply a heightened standard of judicial review to statutes affecting "discrete and insular minorities," draws an implicit connection between invidiousness and fundamental unfairness. Invidiousness thus refers to the …

Standing At The Crossroads: An Analysis Of The Circuit Split Over Ada Tester Standing, Jennifer Tedisco

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

This Article analyzes the circuit split concerning whether self-appointed testers without intent to travel or book a reservation have Article III standing to sue hotels forfailing to disclose accessibility information on their websites in violation of an Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") regulation. This Article ultimately argues that these testers should have standing under an informational injury and/or stigmatic injury rationale. However, negative perceptions ofADA testers coupled with the Supreme Court's recent standing decisions haveput the private enforcement of the ADA and other disability rights statutes in jeopardy. In hopes ofpreserving the ability oftesters to bring suit against hotels and …