Disability Law Commons^™

Preface, Journal Of Law Reform

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

A preface to a University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform symposium entitled The Americans With Disabilities Act: Directions for Reform.

Constitutional Doctrine As Paring Tool: The Struggle For "Relevant" Evidence In University Of Alabama V. Garrett, Pamela Brandwein

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article examines the difficulties involved in translating the social model of disability into the idiom of constitutional law. The immediate focus is University of Alabama v. Garrett. Both parts of this Article consider how disability rights claims collide with a discourse of legitimacy in constitutional law. Part I focuses on the arguments presented in several major Briefs filed in support of Garrett. Constitutional doctrines are conceived as paring tools and it is shown how the Court used these doctrines to easily pare down the body of evidence Garrett's lawyers sought to claim as relevant in justifying the ADA …

Civil War Pension Attorneys And Disability Politics, Peter Blanck, Chen Song

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Professor Blanck and Dr. Song provide a detailed examination of the pension disability program established after the Civil War for Union Army Veterans. They use many original sources and perform several statistical analyses as the basis for their summary. They draw parallels between this disability program and the ADA, and they point out that current ADA plaintiffs encounter many of the same social, political and even scientific issues that Union Army veterans dealt with when applying for their disability pensions. The Article demonstrates that history can help predict the trends within, and evolution of the ADA--essentially leading to a better …

The Death Of Section 504, Ruth Colker

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article argues that the passage of the ADA had an unexpected consequence, namely the narrowing of the rights that were understood to exist under Section 504. Section 504 covered two broad areas of the law: the law of employment for individuals employed by entities receiving federal financial assistance and the law of education for students attending primary, secondary or higher education. The effect on the law of employment, which I will discuss in Part II, has been immediate and dramatic. The effect on the law of education, discussed in Part III, cannot yet be fully documented. Recent decisions, however, …

Reforming Disability Nondiscrimination Laws: A Comparative Perspective, Stanley S. Herr

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Comparing the law and policies of other countries concerning disability rights to ours can help us understand how we may strengthen those rights and heighten compliance with nondiscrimination laws. Since it took effect in 1992, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been a leading example of such comprehensive legislation on behalf of people with disabilities. Along with the United Nations Standard Rules on Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, the ADA has inspired many countries to develop their own disability nondiscrimination laws and remedial agencies. This process must work in both directions, however, and laws and agencies from …

Litigating Age And Disability Claims Against State And Local Government Employers In The New "Federalism" Era, Ivan E. Bodensteiner, Rosalie Levinson

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Something Borrowed, Something Blue: Why Disability Law Claims Are Different, S. Elizabeth Malloy

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Described as one of the century's most significant pieces of civil rights legislation, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990' has been widely hailed as establishing a new foundation for disability policy Senator Harkin, the primary sponsor of the law, called it "the 20th century Emancipation Proclamation for all persons with disabilities." President Bush predicted that the Act would "open up all aspects of American life to individuals with disabilities" and end the "unjustified segregation and exclusion of persons with disabilities from the mainstream of American life."

Congress enacted the ADA to ensure "equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living …

The Applicability Of The Ada To Private Internet Web Sites, Carrie L. Kiedrowski

Cleveland State Law Review

This article proposes that private commercial web sites are considered places of public accommodation; consequently, private Internet web sites must be accessible to people with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Part I introduces the thesis of this article. Part II sets out the historical inception of the legal rights of accessibility for people with disabilities in public and private entities. Additionally, Part II describes recent federal actions mandating accessibility of government related web sites. Part III addresses the question of whether Internet web sites are considered places of public accommodation under the ADA, including an analysis of supporting …

Giving New Meaning To "Handicap": The Americans With Disabilities Act And Its Uneasy Relationship With Professional Sports In Pga Tour, Inc. V. Martin, William E. Spruill

University of Richmond Law Review

Imagine that an all-star batter for the New York Yankees had a circulatory disease that made it difficult and painful for him to run. Would Major League Baseball be forced to permit a designated base runner to run for the disabled batter starting from home plate? Consider Jim Abbott, the successful major league pitcher who was born without a right arm. Under the Americans With Disabilities Act ("ADA"), could Abbott, who pitched well for many years in the American League, which has the designated hitter rule, force the National League, which does not, to exempt him from its batting requirement? …

Re-Interpreting The Effect Of Rights: Career Narratives And The Americans With Disabilities Act, David Engel, Frank W. Munger

Articles & Chapters

This article examines how the employment rights guaranteed by the Americans

with Disabilities Act (ADA) affect the careers of individuals with disabilities. The

article draws on in-depth interviews with sixty adults who provided extended life

story narratives, describing early family and educational experiences and later

experiences with employment. Their detailed accounts offer insights into the

sometimes subtle role rights play in peoples lives and careers. Relatively few

rights violations actually lead to explicit or formal invocations of the law. The

effect of the ADA on careers can be profound but is primarily indirect or

symbolic. Moreover, other factors affect the …

Forward To Fundamental Alteration: Addressing Ada Title Ii Integration Lawsuits After Olmstead V. L. C, Steve Calandrillo, Jefferson D.E. Smith

Articles

In 1999, the Supreme Court reviewed the case of Olmstead v. L.C. by Zimring, which has been called the Brown v. Board of Education for the law of disability discrimination. The Court ultimately agreed with the Department of Justice ("DOJ") and held that the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), along with its supplementary Integration Regulation, requires a State that offers treatment to persons with disabilities to provide such treatment in a community setting where such a placement would not be an unreasonable change or a fundamental alteration in the State's program. Advocates of community care have long argued that such …

Disability Benefits And The Ada After Cleveland V. Policy Management Systems, Jessica Barth

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Discrimination Cases In The Supreme Court’S 1998 Term, Eileen Kaufman

Scholarly Works

In the Supreme Court's 1997 Term, the Supreme Court had decided a record number of statutory discrimination cases. However, that record was exceeded in the Supreme Court's 1998 Term with the Court addressing issues arising under Title VII, which covers discrimination in employment; Title IX, which covers discrimination in schools; and most significantly, the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination based on disability. Overall, the term scored significant victories for employers who were given considerable latitude to set their own physical characteristic standards and who were, to a large extent, immunized from liability for punitive damages. There was an …

Is Hiv Disability Under The Americans With Disabilities Act: Unanswered Questions After Bragdon V. Abbott, Connie Mayer

Journal of Law and Health

Prior to the passage of the ADA in 1990, the term "individual with a handicap" had been clearly established under federal disability laws to include all people with HIV. Every reported decision under the Rehabilitation Act and the Fair Housing Amendment Act had determined that asymptomatic HIV was protected as a per se disability. Prior to 1997, only a few Courts had faced the issue of whether a plaintiff with asymptomatic HIV was disabled under the ADA. In 1997, the Fourth and First Circuit Courts of Appeal decided cases in direct conflict with one another, opening the door for the …

Reconsidering The Americans With Disabilities Act, Miranda Mcgowan

Georgia Law Review

The Supreme Court's Americans with Disabilities Act decisions in Sutton v. United Air Lines and its companion cases have been extensively criticized as inconsistent with the ADA's purpose and legislative history. In Sutton, the Court held that corrective measures used by an individual to alleviate the effects of a physical or mental impairment should be taken into account when assessing whether a person has a disability under the ADA. The Court's ruling rejected the EEOC's interpretive guidance and the approach taken by a majority of circuit courts. As a practical matter, Sutton significantly curtails the class of persons deemed to …

The Wrong Tool For The Right Job: Are Commercial Websites Places Of Public Accommodation Under The Americans With Disabilities Act Of 1990?, Patrick Maroney

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The text of the ADA does not support such an extension. The interpretative canons of "noscitur a sociis" and "ejusdem generis" dictate that "places of public accommodation" refer exclusively to physical facilities. The canons also sufficiently resolve any possible statutory ambiguities, thereby foreclosing the opportunity for contrary agency interpretations. Although the intentionally broad purpose and design of the ADA make the statute an attractive avenue for advocates of online expansion, that same purpose and design limit the ADA to physical facilities. This note addresses the issues in two parts. First, it presents the arguments just listed. Second, it recognizes the …

Empirical Implications Of Title I, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Winning The Battle, Losing The War?: Judicial Scrutiny Of Prisoners' Statutory Claims Under The Americans With Disabilities Act, Christopher J. Burke

Michigan Law Review

When he was convicted in 1994 of drunken driving, escape, and resisting arrest, Ronald Yeskey was sentenced to serve 18 to 36 months in a Pennsylvania prison. In addition, the judge recommended that Yeskey be sent to a motivational boot camp operated by the state. Upon successful completion of the boot camp program, Yeskey's sentence would then be reduced to six months. Although he eagerly wanted to participate, the prison refused him entrance into the boot camp program because of his history of hypertension, and also denied him admission into an alternative program for the disabled. As a result, he …

Current Issues Regarding The Americans With Disabilities Act, John-Paul Motley

Vanderbilt Law Review

President George Bush, noting that "statistics consistently demonstrate that disabled people are the poorest, least educated, and largest minority in America," signed the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") into law in 1990. The ADA prohibits private employers from discriminating against a "qualified individual with a disability" in employment decisions. The Act defines a disability in one of three ways: (1) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; (2) a record of such an impairment; or (3) being regarded by others as having such an impairment. The ADA also prohibits employers from inquiring into …

The Rights Of Bar Examination Applicants With Disabilities In The United States, Edwin R. Hazen, Robert D. Dinerstein

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Institute Brief: Recreation In The Community, Maria Paiewonsky, Susan Tufts

The Institute Brief Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

Recommendations from community recreation providers on how to include youth with disabilities in recreation programs.

Mr. Peanut Goes To Court: Accomodating An Individuals Peanut Allergy In Schools And Day Care Centers Under The Americans Wtih Disabilities Act, Marie Plicka

Journal of Law and Health

This article explores the ADA and the interpretive case law, as it pertains to schools and day care centers, in hopes of better understanding the purpose of the statute as well as to predict its future. Part II of this article provides a brie explanation of peanut allergies. Part III contains an overview of Title II and Title III of the ADA and their interpretive regulations. Part IV analyzes whether an individual asserting a Title II claim under the ADA, where the relief sought is also available under the Individual with Disabilities Education Act before asserting his or her ADA …

"Half-Wracked Prejudice Leaped Forth:" Sanism, Pretextuality, And Why And How Mental Disability Law Developed As It Did, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

Mental disability law jurisprudence is often incoherent Much of its incoherence can be explained by two concepts that dominate this area of the law: sanism (the irrational prejudices that cause, and are reflected in, prevailing social attitudes toward mentally disabled persons, and those so perceived) and pretextuality (the courts' acceptance -- either implicit or explicit -- of testimonial dishonesty and their decisions to engage in dishonest decisionmaking in mental disability law cases). Mental disability law is frequently premised on stereotypes and on prejudice, on typification and fear. These distortions reflect sanism; cases that sanction the use of such stereotypes and …

Tools For Inclusion: Americans With Disabilities Act (Ada) Title 1: Employment, Joe Marrone

Tools for Inclusion Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

Brief overview of the concepts and scope of the Americans with Disabilities Act, plus resource lists.

Tools For Inclusion: The Americans With Disabilities Act: General Overview, Karen Zimbrich

Tools for Inclusion Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

Brief overview of the concepts and scope of the Americans with Disabilities Act, plus resource lists.

Civil Rights And Self-Concept: Life Stories Of Law, Disability And Employment, Frank W. Munger, David M. Engel

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court, 1997 Term -- Leading Cases -- Federal Statutes And Regulations -- Americans With Disabilities Act -- Asymptomatic Hiv, Peter Nicolas

Articles

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Purely Reproductive Disorders Under The Americans With Disabilities Act, Todd Lebowitz

Michigan Law Review

Approximately 2.8 million American couples suffer from infertility, a condition generally defined by the medical community as the failure to conceive after one year of unprotected intercourse. During the past thirty years, diagnostic and therapeutic techniques for treating infertility have improved drastically, enabling many previously infertile couples to bear children. These techniques, however, involve considerable expense and inconvenience, frequently requiring patients to take time off from work. Disputes with employers may follow, sometimes resulting in the infertile employee's termination. Some terminated employees, claiming that infertility constitutes a disability, then sue their former employers under the Americans with Disabilities Act of …

Accomodating Vulnerabilities To Environmental Tobacco Smoke: A Prism For Understanding The Ada, Wendy E. Parmet, Mark A. Gottlieb, Richard A. Daynard

Journal of Law and Health

This Article explores the use of the ADA to challenge smoking policies and the fears and questions that such a use raises. We argue that a careful appreciation of the ADA's application to ETS-related claims should temper the worries of both those who see such claims as trivializing the ADA and those who worry that such claims may impose enormous burdens on American businesses. Rather, we suggest that the ADA in this instance, as in others, provides a limited but critical vehicle for ensuring that individuals with disabilities may fully participate in public life. We suggest further that the issues …

Reasonable Accommodations And Awkward Compromises: Issues Concerning Learning Disabled Students And Professional Schools In The Law School Context, Lisa A. Eichhorn

Faculty Publications

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, colleges and universities are prohibited from discriminating against qualified students with learning disabilities and must reasonably accommodate such disabilities so that students have a genuine opportunity to complete academic programs successfully. Not surprisingly, just like their non-disabled peers, a number of learning disabled college graduates are choosing to enter professions such as law and medicine. Their entry into professional schools has raised a number of legal issues concerning their qualification to matriculate, their need for accommodations, and their eventual ability to practice successfully. …