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                Court to Rule in ADA Case

Disabilities Debate Hinges on Right to Sue States Under U.S. Law

Joan Biskupic (Washington Post) writes:
The Supreme Court said yesterday it would decide whether state workers
are covered by a watershed federal law that protects people with
disabilities from discrimination. The case, likely to have wide
ramifications for the nation's handicapped, raises the stakes in a court
term that already is one of the most significant in years.

The specific dispute concerns whether states, like private employers,
can be sued under a section of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
intended to prevent bias on the job. But an eventual ruling also could
determine whether states can be sued under the ADA for excluding the
disabled from services or limiting their access to public facilities.

As such, the case--brought by a Florida prison guard who says he was
denied a promotion partly because of a heart condition--could produce
one of the most important rulings to date on the law passed a decade ago
to open doors and economic opportunities for disabled persons.

Like the abortion and gay rights cases recently taken up by the
justices, the disabilities dispute will be argued in April; a ruling is
expected by late June, when the court usually recesses.

The case could offer the Rehnquist majority another opportunity in its
drive to pare down the power of Congress and boost state autonomy. A
five-justice majority has repeatedly struck down federal laws that allow
individuals to sue when they believe states have violated their rights.
The court has held Congress to a high standard in determining whether
lawmakers validly lifted states' usual 11th Amendment immunity from
being sued in federal court.

Just 11 days ago, the majority ruled that state workers who were
discriminated against because of their age could not sue their employers
under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act.  That decision
in Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents arose from a trio of cases,
including one brought by the Florida prison guard in yesterday's case.
Wellington Dickson said he lost out on the promotion because of his age
and because the department refused to accommodate his heart condition.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which looked at the
scope of both the age discrimination and disability rights law, ruled
against Dickson on the age question and for him on the disabilities
issue. In its 1998 decision, the 11th Circuit said Congress properly
used its power to enforce civil rights by specifically determining in
the ADA that "individuals with disabilities are a discrete and insular
minority . . . faced with restrictions [and] subjected to a history of
purposeful unequal treatment."

Yesterday the high court accepted the agency's appeal of that ruling in
Florida Department of Corrections v. Dickson.

Joan Biskupic
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 22, 2000; Page A11

--
Fred Fay
Chair, Justice For All
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http://www.jfanow.org

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