Disability Law Commons^™

Race, Sex And Genes At Work: Uncovering The Lessons Of Norman-Bloodsaw, Elizabeth Pendo

All Faculty Scholarship

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (“GINA”) is the first federal, uniform protection against the use of genetic information in both the workplace and health insurance. Signed into law on May 21, 2008, GINA prohibits an employer or health insurer from acquiring or using an individual’s genetic information, with some exceptions. One of the goals of GINA is to eradicate actual, or perceived, discrimination based on genetic information in the workplace and in health insurance. Although the threat of genetic discrimination is often discussed in universal terms - as something that could happen to any of us - the …

Book Review Of Unspeakable: The Story Of Junius Wilson, Michael Ashley Stein, Aviam Soifer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Disability By Any Other Name Is Still A Disability: Log Cabin, The Disability Spectrum, And The Ada (Aa), Gabrielle L. Goodwin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In EEOC v. Lee's Log Cabin, the Seventh Circuit followed the Supreme Court precedent of the last decade that has increasingly narrowed the determination of what constitutes a disabled individual under the Americans with Disabilities Act. In 2008, Congress passed the ADA Amendments Act in an attempt to restore the ADA to its original purpose and the original vision of the ADA's drafters and supporters. Whether these amendments will produce dramatic changes in the way the administrative agencies and courts apply the ADA remains to be seen. Nonetheless, the only way the ADA or its amendments will successfully protect against …

Introduction: Challenging The School-To-Prison Pipeline, Deborah N. Archer

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Disabled Lawyers Have Arrived; Have They Been Welcomed With Open Arms Into The Profession? An Empirical Study Of The Disabled Lawyer, Donald H. Stone

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article proceeds in seven parts. Part I briefly outlines the ADA's position on reasonable accommodations. Part II addresses how law firms are reacting and responding to the fact that they employ lawyers with mood disorders, such as depression or bipolar disorder, attorneys with learning disabilities, and individuals with alcohol or drug addiction. What disabilities are most often represented? Are lawyers with disabilities apt to receive work modifications to accommodate their disability? Are attorneys with mental illness provided with less stressful case assignments? Are lawyers with substance use disorders and alcohol or drug addiction assigned co-counsel to monitor or offer …

Introducing The New And Improved Americans With Disabilities Act: Assessing The Ada Amendments Act Of 2008, Alex B. Long

NULR Online

No abstract provided.

Restoring The Ada And Beyond: Disability In The 21st Century, Robert L. Burgdorf

Journal Articles

Perhaps it was imprudent for me to agree, in response to the request of the symposium organizers, to address the future of disability law. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Neils Bohr supposedly once said that "[p]rediction is very difficult, especially about the future."' Columnist and author Jim Bishop wrote, "The future is an opaque mirror. Anyone who tries to look into it sees nothing but the dim outlines of an old and worried face." 2 Prognosticating is a very tricky and uncertain undertaking. I cannot pretend to have any particular gift for crystal ball gazing in disability matters. When I joined the …

Independent Protection And Advocacy: Th E Role Of Counsel In Institutional Settings, Karen O. Talley

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

“Equality, I Spoke Th At Word/As If A Wedding Vow”: Mental Disability Law And How We Treat Marginalized Persons, Michael J. Perlin, John Douard

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Involuntary Outpatient Commitment: Some Th Oughts On Promoting A Meaningful Dialogue Between Mental Health Advocates And Lawmakers, Henry A. Dlugacz

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Designing The Architecture For Integrating Accommodation: An Institutionalist Commentary, Susan P. Sturm

Faculty Scholarship

Integrating Accommodation, by Elizabeth F. Emens, reshapes the framework for evaluating workplace accommodations to assure consideration of their third-party benefits. In an ingenious move, the article extends the contact hypothesis, which conventionally emphasizes the attitudinal benefits of integrating diverse groups, to the impact of integrating the accommodations made so that disabled people can effectively participate in the workplace. The article shows how accommodations benefit third parties by improving their workplace conditions and thus have the potential to change attitudes toward disability, accommodation, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The Ada Amendments Act Of 2008, Chai R. Feldblum, Kevin Barry, Emily A. Benfer

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The goal of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was to create a civil rights law protecting people with disabilities from discrimination on the basis of their disabilities. Disability rights advocates in 1990 were victorious in their efforts to open doors for people with disabilities and to change the country's outlook and acceptance of people with disabilities. These advocates believed that the terms of the ADA, based as they were on Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, combined with the legislative history of the ADA, would provide clear instructions to the courts that the ADA was intended to provide broad …

Abbott, Aids, And The Ada: Why A Per Se Disability Rule For Hiv/Aids Is Both Just And A Must, Scott Thompson

Publications

HIV/AIDS should be classified as a per se disability under the Americans with Disablities Act. Such a ruling is justified by the plain language of the act itself, legislative history, administrative regulations, and court precedent. Absent such a ruling, individuals with HIV must demonstrate that they have (1) an mental or physical impairment, (2) that substantially limits (3) a major life activity. While most courts to address the applicability of the ADA to individuals with HIV/AIDS have found that such individuals are disabled because HIV impairs the major life activity of reproduction, such an interpretation leaves open the possibility that …

Disabling Prejudice, Michael E. Waterstone, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Integrating Accommodation, Elizabeth F. Emens

Faculty Scholarship

Courts and agencies interpreting the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) generally assume that workplace accommodations benefit individual employees with disabilities and impose costs on employers and, at times, coworkers. This belief reflects a failure to recognize a key feature of ADA accommodations: their benefits to third parties. Numerous accommodations – from ramps to ergonomic furniture to telecommuting initiatives – can create benefits for coworkers, both disabled and nondisabled, as well as for the growing group of employees with impairments that are not limiting enough to constitute disabilities under the ADA. Much attention has been paid to how the integration of …

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 …

Yes, There Is A Duty To Accommodate Someone "Regarded As" Disabled Under The Ada, Marsha R. Peterson

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Equal Access To Post-Secondary Education: The Sisyphean Impact Of Flagging Test Scores Of Persons With Disabilities, Helia Garrido Hull

Faculty Scholarship

In view of the social stigma associated with disabilities, and the inherent costs of providing accommodations to disabled students, the opportunity for bias within the admissions selection process is clear. As a result, the practice of flagging standardized tests has come under increasing scrutiny. The practice of distinguishing test takers having a disability from those who do not runs counter to the social policy of inclusion, and prevents disabled individuals from enjoying the benefits of equal citizenship. Part II of this paper provides a brief overview of the prejudice disabled individuals have endured throughout history, and discusses some early movements …

Disability And The Social Contract, Anita Silvers, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

You Take My Space, I Take Your Air: An Empirical Study Of Disabled Parking And Motor Vehicle Laws For Persons With Disabilities, Donald H. Stone

All Faculty Scholarship

Reserved parking and specialized treatment are necessary to permit individuals with disabilities access to goods, services, and employment opportunities on an equal basis with the general public. Why are disabled drivers entitled to disabled parking spots? What is the procedure for an individual with a disability to receive special disability registration license plates? What is the role of the Medical Advisory Board in reviewing the ability of disabled drivers to get behind the wheel? What, if any, obligation or responsibility does a physician treating a disabled driver have to notify the Department of Motor Vehicles of the patient's condition or …

Shape Stops Story, Elizabeth F. Emens

Faculty Scholarship

Storytelling and resistance are powerful tools of both lawyering and individual identity, as I argue in this brief essay published in Narrative as part of a dialogue on disability, narrative, and law with Rosemarie Garland-Thompson and Ellen Barton. Garland-Thompson's work shows us the life-affirming potential of storytelling, its role in shaping disability identity, and its role in communicating that identity to the outside world. By contrast, Barton powerfully shows how those same life-affirming narratives can force a certain kind of storytelling, can create a mandate to tell one story and not another. In short, Barton reminds us of the need …

Disability And Employment Discrimination At The Rehnquist Court, Anita Silvers, Michael E. Waterstone, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Mental Health Courts And Title Ii Of The Ada: Accessibility To State Court Systems For Individuals With Mental Disabilities And The Need For Diversion, S. Elizabeth Malloy

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Access to the judicial system, a fundamental right that has paramount importance in our society, can often present obstacles to people with disabilities in a variety of significant ways. Yet Title II mandates that state and local judicial facilities be accessible to individuals with disabilities. Recent shifts in paradigmatic approaches to special populations such as drug offenders and offenders with mental disabilities have lead to the creation of mental health courts specifically designed to address the needs of the persons with mental disabilities in order to avoid incarceration. Early outcomes in states like Ohio suggest mental health courts may better …

The Elusive Protected Class - Who Is Worthy Under The Americans With Disabilities Act, Elizabeth Fordyce

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

A Veil Of Genetic Ignorance - Protecting Genetic Privacy To Ensure Equality, Radhika Rao

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Disability, Disparate Impact, And Class Actions, Michael Ashley Stein, Michael E. Waterstone

Faculty Publications

Following Title VII's enactment, group-based employment discrimination actions flourished due to disparate impact theory and the class action device. Courts recognized that subordination that defined a group's social identity was also sufficient legally to bind members together, even when relief had to be issued individually. Woven through these cases was a notion of panethnicity that united inherently unrelated groups into a common identity, for example, Asian Americans. Stringent judicial interpretation subsequently eroded both legal frameworks and it has become increasingly difficult to assert collective employment actions, even against discriminatory practices affecting an entire group. This deconstruction has immensely disadvantaged persons …

Connecting Care And Challenge: Tapping Our Human Potential - Inclusive Education: A Review Of Programming And Services In New Brunswick, A. Wayne Mackay

Reports & Public Policy Documents

Due to the short time frame for this Review, this cannot be considered an exhaustive report. There is however quite a massive volume of information and sources introduced here touching on the particulars required by the Terms of Reference.

In section I we present legal considerations that have an impact on education in various ways, all of which are related to inclusion and the application of equality rights in Canada. Those considerations include accommodation of students with disabilities, the student-teacher relationship, discipline, safe-schools, and a framework for analysis: the new 3 R’s in education: Rights, Responsibilities and Relationships. Included are …

The Sympathetic Discriminator: Mental Illness, Hedonic Costs, And The Ada, Elizabeth F. Emens

Faculty Scholarship

Social discrimination against people with mental illness is widespread. Treating people differently on the basis of mental illness does not provoke the same moral outrage as that inspired by differential treatment on the basis of race, sex, or even physical disability. Indeed, many people would freely admit preferring someone who does not have a mental illness as a neighbor, dinner party guest, parent, partner, or person in the next seat on the subway. Moreover, more than ten years after the Americans with Disabilities Act (the "ADA" or "Act") expressly prohibited private employers from discriminating on the basis of mental, as …

The Untold Story Of The Rest Of The Americans With Disabilities Act, Michael Waterstone

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA")' can be described as the All-Star team of civil rights legislation. The framers of the ADA sought to create sweeping change in nearly every facet of the lives of people with disabilities. To achieve these ambitious goals, the framers assembled the best and brightest parts of other civil rights legislation: pieces of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 04 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Fair Housing Act. The end result was a comprehensive statute with three major parts: …

Taking The Stand: The Lessons Of The Three Men Who Took The Japanese American Internment To Court, Lorraine K. Bannai

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.