As I mentioned last week, I have a whole bunch of cases to blog on my pipeline. It took me quite a bit to decide on what to blog on. Ultimately, I decided to blog on Doe v. Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation, a decision that came down from the United States District Court of
rational basis
Another Arrow in the Bag for Plaintiffs when it Comes to Disability Discrimination by Governmental Entities
Before getting started on the blog of the week, I want to express my condolences to the Bush family on the passing of George H.W. Bush. He signed the Americans With Disabilities Act on June 26 of 1990. His son also has a powerful legacy in that regards as he signed the ADAAA. Simply put,…
Transgender: Equal Protection, Due Process, and ADA
One of the topics that we have discussed before (see here for example), is transgender individuals alleging that they have been the victims of disability discrimination. Recently, transgender plaintiffs have also had success in alleging that they are the victims of sex discrimination as sex discrimination includes stereotyping based on gender, which by…
Fisher II and Its Impact on Affirmative-Action Programs for Persons with Disabilities
I am a member of the Society for Human Resources Management. The manager of workplace law content for the Society for Human Resources Management is a gentleman named Allen Smith, J.D. He wrote an excellent article a few days ago discussing Fisher II, the affirmative action case in academia just decided by the United States…
Batson Challenges and Persons With Disabilities: Now You Will See More of Them
In October 2012, I posted a blog entry discussing Batson challenges and persons with disabilities. Since that time I have attended many a networking event, CLE, or other law related event. At those events, if a person tells me they are a litigator, criminal or civil, I always ask them if they have ever…
Looking at Defenses in a Title II case
This particular blog entry will look at possible defenses that may be raised in a title II case. As is usual, there are different categories. Here we have case of the week, the court’s response to the arguments raised by the defendants in the case, and takeaways. Feel free to focus on any and/or all…
Professional licensing authorities and sovereign immunity
Recently, I talked about a decision from the 11th circuit which displayed a very good understanding of disability, in that case deafness, in a way that you do not often see in judicial decisions. Oftentimes when you are reading a case, you wonder whether a judge gets “disability,” so to speak. This particular blog entry…
Before doing a postemployment medical exam, do you need reasonable suspicion, probable cause, good cause, none of the above?
The ADA requires that an entity subject to the act cannot require a medical examination and cannot make inquiries of an employee as to whether that employee is an individual with a disability or as to the nature of the severity of the employee’s disability unless that examination or inquiry is job-related and consistent with…
Sovereign immunity principles outside of sovereign immunity claims and the importance of self-evaluation and transition plans
In a previous blog entry, I talked about the principle of sovereign immunity as it applies to persons with disabilities. As mentioned in that blog entry, a state, including an arm of the state, is not going to be forced to waive its sovereign immunity with respect to disability discrimination in employment matters.…
Persons with disabilities and peremptory challenges
Few cases today actually go to trial. However, the ones that do go to trial involving juries necessarily mean that a jury has to be picked first. Jurors aren’t so much picked as they are eliminated. With respect to jury selection, there are three kinds of jury challenges. First, there is a peremptory challenge. Peremptory…