FW: Supreme Court Abandons ADA Case

For US members-
Interesting news on the legal front.  The US Supreme Court has now abandoned
both cases it was taking on the issue of the whether or not ADA Title II was
constitutional.  This was a possible challenge to the applicability of the
ADA to state and local government.  According to a prominent civil right law
firm, "There is good reason to believe that the efforts of the disability
rights movement and the political ramifications of an anti-ADA stance
convinced both the States of Florida and Arkansas to settle with the
plaintiffs rather than argue that the ADA is unconstitutional."  (Disability
Rights Education and Defense Fund)
http://www.dredf.org/title2.html 
     
Cynthia D. Waddell

---------------------------------------------------
Cynthia D. Waddell   
ADA Coordinator
City Manager Department
City of San Jose, CA USA
801 North First Street, Room 460
San Jose, CA  95110-1704
(408)277-4034
(408)971-0134 TTY
(408)277-3885 FAX
http://www.rit.edu/~easi/webcast/cynthia.htm
http://www.aasa.dshs.wa.gov/access/waddell.htm 



-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Humphrey [mailto:mikehumphrey@ap.net] 
Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2000 9:10 AM
To: Michael Humphrey
Subject: Supreme Court Abandons ADA Case


March 2, 2000 

High court abandons disability suit

By Richard Carelli
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON - Dropping a high-profile states' rights case yesterday, the
Supreme Court backed out of deciding whether state employees are protected
by a key federal antidiscrimination law. 

The justices dismissed an Arkansas dispute concerning the Americans With
Disabilities Act that they had agreed in January to review. They cited a
rule most often invoked when an out-of-court settlement has been reached. 

The court dropped a similar Florida case just last week after it also was
the subject of an out-of-court settlement. 

Both cases had been watched closely because the court's view of the ADA and
of states' 11th Amendment immunity from being sued in federal courts could
have determined whether anyone could invoke the ADA and sue a state for
alleged discrimination based on a disability. 

The Arkansas case, Alsbrook v. Arkansas, concerned Christopher Alsbrook,
who worked as a police officer in Maumelle, Ark., for three years before
being denied a job with the Little Rock police because he did not meet the
state's vision requirement. He sued the Arkansas Commission on Law
Enforcement Standards and Training.

The agency then notified the Maumelle Police Department that Alsbrook was
not certified for law-enforcement duties. Maumelle officials subsequently
barred Alsbrook from doing police-related work. 

A federal appeals court threw out his case, ruling 6-4 that Congress was
not authorized to allow ADA lawsuits against state employers. 

©2000 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.

Received on Thursday, 2 March 2000 14:49:36 UTC