Many years ago I represented a public entity that was the subject of an adverse licensing decision. In that particular situation, the public entity had a group home for persons with a certain type of disability. The Medicaid certification inspection was done in such a way so that the disabilities of the people living in
Title II
Using the rehabilitation act to get around sovereign immunity in Title II cases
By William Goren on
Under Tennessee v. Lane, the equal protection class persons with disabilities fall into is going to depend upon the facts and circumstances of the individual case. That equal protection class is also going to dictate how likely a state is going to be able to defend on the grounds of sovereign immunity. The question…
If a child has an IEP and gets a service dog, must they exhaust administrative remedies before proceeding to the court house if the school refuses the service dog?
By William Goren on
Previously, I have talked about service dog v. therapy dogs. I have also talked about the administrative regulations from the Department of Justice with respect to the difference between service dogs and other kinds of dogs that a person with a disability may have with respect to how they would likely hold up under…
Affirmative action and persons with disabilities part two and did OFCCP set up a constititutional challenge to torpedo all of it
I do not normally blog more than once a week. You would be surprised how time-consuming writing a blog entry really is. Also, I don’t like to have blog entries that cannibalize each other. Rather, I like to have a blog entry get a chance to stand on its own for a while. That gives…
Would having a disability protect you from being terminated for harassing others?
By William Goren on
Consider: Employee/volunteer/Intern… with a disability is sexually harassing his or her coworkers. The disability is such that the employee/volunteer is unlikely to stop. The hiring authority terminates the employee/volunteer and the employee/volunteer sues the hiring authority for disability discrimination. This sounds very much like what could’ve been the case with the former Mayor of San…
Police response and ADA liability part two
By William Goren on
In a prior blog entry, I discussed a situation where the police intentionally aggravated a person with a disability pre-existing condition eventually leading to that person’s death. The court in that case held that the police force could be liable for violating title II of the ADA. This particular blog entry will once again…
IDEA, Rehab Act, and the ADA: Have to keep in mind all three
By William Goren on
Back in 1997, I wrote an article for the Florida bar Journal discussing the relationship between the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act. I have had the good fortune to see that article cited numerous times in various law review articles. If I were to update that article today,…
ADA compliance auditing: higher education version
By William Goren on
In a previous blog entry, I talked about a case that illustrated what not to do if you are a place of higher education seeking to dismiss a student with a disability from your program. This particular blog entry will briefly talk about another case involving a medical school and then explore the concept of…
Police response and ADA liability
By William Goren on
In a comment to a prior blog post, I mentioned a case, Gipson v. Popeye’s Chicken and Biscuits, where a court, the Northern District of Georgia, found no ADA liability when a police officer not knowing the ADA, told a person who otherwise had a right to be in a restaurant with his service…
Suing a state court system for disability discrimination: it can be done but it’s complicated
By William Goren on
What happens if a state court system discriminates against a person with a disability? That was the situation in Prakel v. State of Indiana, 2013 WL 3287691 (S.D. Ind. June 28, 2013). In this case, a deaf individual (while the court refers to him as hearing impaired, I use the term deaf because you…