Disability Law Commons^™

Continuing Combat At Home: How Judges And Attorneys Can Improve Their Handling Of Combat Veterans With Ptsd In Criminal Courts, Jeffrey Lewis Wieand Jr.

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Medicating The Ada - Sutton V. United Airlines, Inc.: Considering Mitigating Measures To Define Disability, Ian D. Thompson

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cedar Rapids Community School District V. Garret F.: A High Price For Equal Education , Kristie Harding

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federal Efforts To Achieve Mental Health Parity: A Step In The Right Direction, But Discrimination Remains, Lucas Quass

Legislation and Policy Brief

Prior to the 1970s, many healthcare plans in the U.S. offered benefits without discriminating between mental health and general healthcare coverage. In the 1970s and 1980s, the cost of healthcare increased dramatically and employers eliminated or limited mental health benefits in an attempt to reduce insurance costs. To manage insurance costs, employers began using more cost sharing mechanisms and benefit caps on mental health benefits. However, these limitations were not applied equally to mental health and general health benefits and a coverage disparity was created. Today, insurers often do not provide coverage for mental health on the same terms as …

The Americans With Disabilities Act: Should The Amendments To The Act Help Individuals With Mental Illness?, Abigail J. Schopick

Legislation and Policy Brief

On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). The ADA was intended to eliminate discrimination against individuals with disabilities by expanding the Rehabilitation Act (Rehab Act) to cover people with disabilities in need of coverage from a non-federal employer or entity. Unfortunately, due to a number of Supreme Court cases narrowing the focus of the ADA, the individuals that were intended by Congress to have full protection under the law were no longer assured adequate coverage. In 2008, in response to the narrowing of the definition of disability and …

I'M So Lonesome I Could Cry ... But Could I Sue?: Whether 'Interacting With Others' Is A Major Life Activity Under The Ada, Bryan P. Stephenson

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing V. Williams: A Case Of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Weakens The Grip Of The Americans With Disabilities Act, Andrea Kloehn Naef

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Section 5 Power After Tennessee V. Lane, William D. Araiza

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Aclu And The Propriety Of Dispute Resolution In Civil Rights Controversies, Amber Mckinney

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Section I examines the history, purpose, and methodology of the American Civil Liberties Union. Section II discusses the historical development and use of Alternative Dispute Resolution. Section III, Part A provides examples of its use in environmental controversies, Americans with Disabilities Act disputes, and employment conflicts. Section III, Part B explains the arguments for and against the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Civil Rights Controversies. Section IV, Part A looks at examples of the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution by the American Civil Liberties Union, while Part B provides insight into the interplay of Alternative Dispute Resolution and the …

New Amendments To Resolving Special Education Disputes: Any Good Ideas?, Demetra Edwards

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article first analyzes the state of affairs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), prior to the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, and the affects that the 1997 reauthorization alternative dispute resolution amendments had on special education law. Next, this article will address the appropriateness of the newly enacted negotiation and settlement methods, specifically the resolution session provision, and the benefits and detriments for resolving special education issues using these processes. This article will further discuss the amendments regarding attorneys' fees, and finally the House's failed proposal for voluntary binding arbitration and …

Available Dispute Resolution Processes Within The Reauthorized Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (Ideia) Of 2004: Where Do Mediation Principles Fit In? , Andrea F. Blau

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The Individual Disabilities Education Act of 1997 first offered mediation processes to parents and school systems as an available dispute resolution process. Congress mandated that mediation be made available whenever a due process hearing was filed. The intent was to assist parents and school systems in resolving their differences regarding the educational needs for children with disabilities through increased discussions and collaborative efforts; this would reduce the need for costly and adversarial litigation. Alternative dispute resolution processes have taken an increasingly dominant role within the newly reauthorized IDEIA of 2004, reflecting Congressional promotion of parent and district collaboration for achieving …

The Disability History Mystery: Assessing The Employer's Reasonable Accommodation Obligation In "Record Of Disability" Cases, Michael D. Moberly

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

On Equal Footing: Does Accommodating Athletes With Disabilities Destroy The Competitive Playing Field Or Level It?, Sarah J. Wild

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Common-Law Interpretation Of Appropriate Education: The Road Not Taken In Rowley, Mark Weber

College of Law Faculty

Thirty years old in 2012, Board of Education v. Rowley is the case that established a some-benefit or floor-of-opportunity standard for the services public school districts must provide to children who have disabilities. But the some-benefit approach is by no means the only one the Court could have adopted. It could have endorsed the view of the lower courts that each child with a disability must be given the opportunity to achieve his or her potential commensurate with the opportunity offered other children. Or it could have adopted a standard based on achievement of the child’s full potential or the …

Confine Is Fine: Have The Non-Dangerous Mentally Ill Lost Their Right To Liberty? An Empirical Study To Unravel The Psychiatrist’S Crystal Ball, Donald H. Stone

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article will examine the reverse trend in civil commitment laws in the wake of recent tragedies and discuss the effect of broader civil commitment standards on the care and treatment of the mentally ill. The 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, the 2011 shooting of Congresswoman Giffords, and the 2012 Aurora movie theatre shooting have spurred fierce debates about the dangerousness of mentally ill and serve as cautionary tale about what happens when warning signs go unnoticed and opportunities for early intervention missed. This piece will explore the misconception about the role medication and inpatient civil commitments should play in prevention …

Impairment As Protected Status: A New Universality For Disability Rights, Michelle A. Travis

Georgia Law Review

This Article analyzes the fundamental change to federal
civil rights law that Congress accomplished through the
ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (the ADAAA). Congress
enacted the ADAAA in response to a series of United States
Supreme Court opinions that had narrowly interpreted the
definition of disability in the Americans with Disabilities
Act of 1990. Although many commentators have
recognized the ADAAA's intent to restore the class of
individuals with disabilities to the breadth that Congress
originally intended, this Article argues that the ADAAA
accomplished something more significant: it extricated
disability from the broader concept of impairment. As a
result, the …

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 …

Disabling Attitudes: U.S. Disability Law And The Ada Amendments Act, Elizabeth F. Emens

Faculty Scholarship

This is a crucial juncture for U.S. disability law. In 2008, Congress passed the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA), which aims to reverse the courts’ narrowing interpretations of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. This legislative intervention provides an important lens through which to consider attitudes toward disability, both because the success of the ADAAA will depend on judicial attitudes, and because the changes rendered by the ADAAA shed light on pervasive societal attitudes. This Essay makes three main points. First, the ADAAA intervenes in the developing doctrine on disability discrimination in important ways; in so doing, however, the ADAAA …

Whither The Disability Rights Movement?, Robert W. Pratt

Michigan Law Review

While reading this book in 2010, almost twenty years to the date after President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disability Act ("ADA"), one realizes how much the world of politics has changed. It is difficult to remember a time when such major legislation passed the U.S. Senate by a vote of 91 to 6 and the House of Representatives by 377 to 28. Even more surprising, as we look back to 1990, is the fact that the executive branch was controlled by a different political party than the legislative branch. Contrast this legislative record with the milieu surrounding …

Fragmented Lives: Disability Discrimination And The Role Of "Environment-Framing", Ani B. Satz

Faculty Articles

This Article presents a novel theory that courts undermine the purpose of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by implicitly embracing environment-frames that disfavor disability protections. Courts employ environment-frames at two stages of judicial analysis under the Act: the disability eligibility and remedy stages. In determining whether a plaintiff is in the statutorily protected class, courts typically use a broad environment-frame to assess limitation of a "major life activity. " The larger the environment-frame, the more likely a court will view an individual as able to perform a major life activity in some portion of her environment and deny her …

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 …

It's More Than Ramps: Housing Accessibility For People With Disabilities, Kim Borowicz, Hillary Coustan

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Sub-Minimum Wage Or Sub-Human? The Potential Impact On The Civil Rights Of People With Disabilities In Employment, Laura C. Hoffman

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Ending The Disconnect For The Deaf Community: How Amendments To The Federal Regulations Can Realign The Ada With Its Purpose, Hayley M. Koteen

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Missing The Forest For The Trees: Forest Grove School District V. T.A., Theresa Kraft

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) guarantees children who qualify as children with disabilities the right to receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE). There are many points at which parents and school districts may disagree regarding the provision of a FAPE, but as the U.S. Supreme Court has determined in Forest Grove School District v. T.A., when parents and a school district disagree regarding whether children should be identified as children with disabilities, an appropriate remedy could be tuition reimbursement.”

What Best To Protect Transsexuals From Discrimination: Using Current Legislation Or Adopting A New Judicial Framework, S. Elizabeth Malloy

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This article specifically examines the issues and controversies that transsexual individuals have encountered as a result of their lack of protection under anti-discrimination laws, particularly the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Title VII. Part I is an overview of our society's binary sex/gender system and how this system serves to exclude and disenfranchise transsexuals. Part II examines the relationship between disability law and transsexuals, both explaining why they were excluded from the ADA and how state disability laws have provided more protection. Part III discusses how transsexuals have fared under a Title VII sex discrimination approach. This section also …

Decriminalizing Students With Disabilities, Dean Hill Rivkin

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Weight Discrimination: Disability Litigation And Public Policy, Tessa Jania

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Shutting Off The School-To-Prison Pipeline For Status Offenders With Education-Related Disabilities, Joseph B. Tulman, Douglas M. Weck

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Service Learning Project: Disability, Access And Health Care, Elizabeth Pendo

All Faculty Scholarship

Last summer, I was thinking about a public service project for my disability discrimination law course. I teach the course in fall, and try to incorporate a project each year. At the same time, I was working on a project looking at barriers to health care for people with disabilities. Some of the barriers are well known, such as lower average incomes, disproportionate poverty, and issues with insurance coverage, to name just a few. I was looking at barriers of a different type, however: those posed by physically inaccessible facilities and equipment. This was a new area for me. Like …