For years (every edition of my book starting with the very first edition published in 2000 has had a chapter on the ADA and sports), I’ve written about how the ADA applies to sports. The United States Department of Education Office of Civil Rights has just issued a guidance dealing with their section 504 regulations
title I
I wanna be a lifeguard with apologies to blotto part 2
In a prior blog entry, I talked about a case out of Michigan whereby the District Court granted summary judgment to the County when the county refused to hire a person who wanted to be a lifeguard because he was deaf. Well now the Sixth Circuit has weighed in and has reversed the district…
All by myself (with apologies to Eric Carmen): to file suit under title III of the ADA, do you have to first exhaust administrative remedies?
Title I of the Americans With Disabilities Act requires that a person seeking to file a claim for employment discrimination must first file a claim with the EEOC or a substantially equivalent state agency and receive a right to sue letter before proceeding in court. What if you wish to file a claim under title…
“Regarded as” and title II and are there different rules for “direct threat” depending upon the context
Recently, I read a case out of the Western District of Pennsylvania which I found absolutely fascinating. In this particular case, the court dealt with three issues. First, does the plaintiff have a disability at all? Second, does “regarded as” even apply outside of the title I context? Finally, was the plaintiff a direct threat…
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.…
Olmstead evolves
In Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581 (1999), United States Supreme Court held that it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act for for a State to have a system that did not allow persons with mental illness to be treated in the community. Since that time, the United States government has been very aggressive…
Are the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act the same?
Case law dealing with the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act will often say say that the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act are governed by the same standards. Eg. Greer v. Richardson Independent School District, 2012 WL 833367, *12 fn 1 (fifth Cir. March 14, 2012). That said, are…
Is a Mixed Motive Jury Instruction Dead under the Americans with Disabilities Act? Rehabilitation Act?
At the top of the legal resources section on this page, you will see a link to an article that I wrote regarding whether a mixed motive jury instruction is available under the Americans with Disabilities Act. A mixed motive jury instruction is an instruction that says that liability can exist if the plaintiff can…