Disability Law Commons^™

Disability Rights And Inclusion: A Multidisciplinary Conference, Samuel J. Levine

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Locking Up Potential: Why Children Need Access To Special Education Services In Solitary, Lauren Edwards

Touro Law Review

Correctional facilities across the country are consistently failing to provide adequate special education to disabled children who are placed in solitary confinement due to inadequate funding, untrained staff, and lack of consensus on how to implement a program. This Note compares the special education services that disabled children are entitled to under the Free Appropriate Public Education (“FAPE”) statute with the education they receive during incarceration. This Note also discusses suggestions for implementing meaningful special education when a child is isolated. When disabled children are placed in solitary confinement and deprived of education tailored to their specific needs and abilities, …

Special Issues Facing People Who Use Drugs And How Sensitive Lawyers Can Help: Three Case Studies From Rutgers Law Associate, Andrew J. Rothman

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Love In The Disabilities Paradigm: A Normal Person’S Need For Healing, Randy Lee

Touro Law Review

We function in a disabilities paradigm where people are broken in a multitude of ways and where, having recognized their brokenness, we seek in our benevolence to remake these broken people in our own image. There is, however, another paradigm in which one might live, a paradigm of love. In that paradigm, people are not divided between “normal” and “broken” but live together on a common spectrum of light. In this paradigm, people are not so much “disabled” as they are waiting to be believed in, and in this paradigm, the greatest need for healing is in the capacity to …

Dignity, Equality, And The Duty Of Assistance, Itamar Rosensweig, Shua Mermelstein

Touro Law Review

Jewish law obligates each person to assist and respect his fellow. This includes a wide-range of interpersonal obligations, such as the duty to support the less advantaged, the duty to rescue from danger, and the duty to “love your fellow” and promote his success. In this article, we argue that these interpersonal obligations are rooted in Judaism’s conception of the person as endowed with dignity. This dignity is grounded in the notion of tzelem Elokim, in the metaphysical conception of man created in the divine image (Imago Dei). We argue that this metaphysical basis for human dignity imposes duties upon …

Fundamental Alteration Limits On Disability Rights: Spread, Specifications, And The Quality Of Education, Adam M. Samaha

Touro Law Review

Fundamental alteration limits are now remarkably prevalent in disability rights law, even if the underpinnings of those limits are not well understood. This article explores the spread, specification, and normative problematics of those limits on disability accommodation and modification claims, with special attention to claims involving education. Often legal sources are vague regarding the content of fundamental alteration limits, but the article suggests that leading options include preservation of a program’s (1) nature, (2) details, (3) purposes, or (4) quality, including training and competition. Although several of these options seem unproductive, directing attention to quality training and fair competition among …

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 …

Mental Health In Prison: The Unintended But Catastrophic Effects Of Deinstitutionalization, Felicia Mulholland

Touro Law Review

Prisons and jails are not adequately equipped to manage the ever-growing population of mentally ill inmates. Despite deinstitutionalization efforts, prisons have steadily become the new psychiatric hospitals and unfortunately, because of the lack of treatment and the ability to properly supervise this population of inmates, these individuals are dying by their own hands at an alarming rate. This Note argues that the lack of proper care for mentally ill inmates is a violation of their constitutional right, despite their incarcerated status. The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) should incorporate more concrete and universal rules and regulations for the …

Confidentiality, Warning And Aids: A Proposal To Protect Patients, Third Parties And Physicians

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fat Rights, Public Health Oppression And Prejudice, And The “Obesity Epidemic”, Nicholas D. Lawson

Touro Law Review

The pervasiveness, frequency, and intensity of fat shaming, bullying, and harassment experienced by fat people is well-documented, and three quarters of the American public support antidiscrimination protections for fat people. Yet fat people generally remain unprotected from discrimination under federal and state law in all but two jurisdictions. This Article traces these problems to the agendas of public health leaders, organizations (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization), and associated industries, which are fighting an “obesity epidemic.” It describes some of their fat-shaming strategies and persistent public-health-crisis framings, as well as sensationalized presentations of research …

The Americans With Disabilities Act Amendments Act: What About Reasonable Accommodation? Where Are We Now?, Teressa Elliott, Kathleen A. Carnes

Touro Law Review

The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (“ADAAA”) was passed in 2008 and became effective on January 1, 2009. There are issues regarding reasonable accommodation that have arisen in connection with this Act. This article first explains what changes were made to the ADA’s employment-related provisions with the ADAAA and also explains the relevant U.S. Supreme Court cases that led to passage of the ADAAA. Reasonable accommodation under the Act and reasonable accommodation cases are then discussed as well as the U.S. Airways v. Barnett case. We then end with ways to interpret these cases for guidance and the conclusion …

Improper Distinction Under The Ada Leads To An Irrational Outcome: Favoring One Life Over Another, Daniel Frederick Parise

Touro Law Review

Society has a distorted view of those battling addiction and essentially marks them with a sign of disgrace; however, what society may not fully understand is that addiction is a disability beyond the afflicted individual’s control. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health indicates that 19.7 million Americans have battled a substance use disorder in their life. Of the 19.7 million Americans who battled illicit substance use disorders, approximately seventy-four percent also struggled with alcohol use disorder.

Based on these statistics, it is clear that illicit drug use disorders are often interconnected with alcohol use disorders. However, Congress makes …

Once Mentally Ill, Always A Danger? Lifetime Bans On Gun Ownership Under Fire Following Involuntary Commitment, Amanda Pendel

Touro Law Review

18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(4) imposes a lifetime ban on those who have been involuntarily committed to a mental institution from purchasing, or possessing a firearm, regardless of an extended passage of time, or a finding that the individual is unlikely to pose a danger to themselves or the public. Three circuits have created a split concerning the constitutionality of this statute. The Third Circuit held in Beers v. Attorney General United States that those involuntarily committed were outside of the scope of the Second Amendment; therefore, the § 922(g)(4)’s categorical ban is constitutional. Next, the Ninth Circuit in Mai v. …

This Aggression Will Not Stand, Schools: The Need For Federal Legislation Protecting Bullied Students With Disabilities, Russell A. Vogel

Touro Law Review

A boy with Autism comes home from school, visibly upset. His parents ask him why, and he responds that nobody in his class likes him. To his parents’ horror, they learn that their son’s teacher encouraged a class discussion about why they dislike their son. When the boy’s parents complain to the school about this issue, school administrators brush it aside. The next day, students sitting near the boy move their desks away from him and taunt him for the way he acts every time he tries to socialize with them. The boy then refuses to go to school each …

Foreword To The Symposium: Jewish Law In Comparative Context, Samuel J. Levine

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Deliberate Indifference Standard: A Broken Promise To Protect And Serve The Mentally Ill, Katherine R. Carroll

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Leave Your Stereotypes At The Door: The Importance Of Context In The Halls Of Congress And The Garden Of Torah, Rabbi Michael Levy

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

How Increased Legal Representation Can Close The Gap In Special Education Discrepancies, Todd Carney

Touro Law Review

This piece looks at how the existing education regime has led to disparities between white and minority students. The paper finds that the disparity gets even worse when special education is factored in. The reason so many low-income and minority students with disabilities receive such a poor education is that they do not have the proper legal representation to demand the rights that they are guaran- teed under US law. This paper looks at how low-income and minority families have been cheated out of proper legal representation in other areas and how receiving the necessary legal representation can lead to …

Qualified Does Not Mean Over Qualified: The Ada’S Accommodation Of Last Resort Should Not Be A Competition!, Dana Ortiz-Tulla

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

For All Who Have Borne The Battle: A Wish List For The Incoming Secretary Of The United States Department Of Veterans Affairs, Benjamin Pomerance

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rights And Obligations: Commemorating The 30th Anniversary Of The Americans With Disabilities Act Of 1990, Sharon Shapiro-Lacks

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Jewish And American Disability Law And On The God Who Makes All Things Good, Randy Lee

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Book Review Essay: Invisibility, Inclusivity & Fraternity: Was Yosef On The Spectrum? Understanding Joseph Through Torah, Midrash And Classical Jewish Sources (Samuel J. Levine, Urim Publications (2019)), Stephen A. Rosenbaum

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Every Student Succeeds Act: Are Schools Making Sure Every Student Succeeds?, Laura Adler-Greene

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Endrew F. Clairvoyance, Mark C. Weber

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Battling Implicit Bias In The Idea To Advocate For African American Students With Disabilities, Dustin Rynders

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Free Appropriate Public Education After Endrew F. V. Douglas County School District (2017), Terrye Conroy, Mitchell L. Yell

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mixed Signals: What Can We Expect From The Supreme Court In This Post-Ada Amendments Act Era?, Nicole Buonocore Porter

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Foreword To The Symposium: Current Issues In Disability Rights Law, Samuel J. Levine

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Disability Rights Protections For Transgender People, Kevin M. Barry, Jennifer L. Levi

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.