Understanding the ADA

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William Goren

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Last week, the United States Supreme Court heard the trio of LGBT cases. I was previously on record as saying that I expected sexual orientation to be a difficult call, and the transgender plaintiff would win because discrimination occurring against transgender individuals is usually based upon stereotypes. I then read the transcript of the oral argument, and it certainly didn’t work out that way. Reading tea leaves from the oral arguments is next to impossible but here goes anyway. You might ask what does LGBT rights have to do with disability discrimination. The answer to that is it does for…
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Chicago Pizza NOT Domino’s:-) Before getting started on the blog of the week, a couple of housekeeping matters are in order. First, I am delighted that you have decided to visit my blog on my birthday (October 8). For trivia nuts, it is also the anniversary of the great Chicago fire. Second, Yom Kippur starts tonight. I wish everyone the best with that. Finally, both National League series are going to a game five. Wishing all of your teams good luck with that. Congratulations to the Yankees for moving on and to the Minnesota Twins on a great season. Yesterday,…
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Things have been absolutely crazy this week between client matters, the Jewish new year, and speaking engagements. I do want to wish everyone celebrating a happy new year. As everyone knows, I have a very strong interest in the intersection of the ADA and sports. In the very first edition of my book, which was published in 2000, I had a chapter on the ADA and sports. All of the subsequent editions have had a chapter on that as well. Finally, it isn’t unusual for me to write on the issues of disability discrimination and sports here on my…
September 20, 2019 by Leave a Comment Next week, my daughter is on break. She has one of those schedules where they are on for six weeks and then off for one week. They do get two weeks for winter vacation. So, since my schedule is likely to be all over the place next week, I thought I would do another blog this week since the 11th Circuit came down with a very important decision on September 17, 2019. Previously, we have blogged twice on the case, here. The case involved the question of whether the Department…
September 16, 2019 by Leave a Comment Today’s blog entry will focus on the decision from the 11th Circuit decided September 12, 2019, on the Massage Envy case we discussed here. In this decision, the 11th Circuit affirmed the opinion of the lower court holding that regarded as does not apply to fear of a future disability. As mentioned in the original blog entry on this case, the lower courts are split on this question. I do look for a Circuit Court split in the future on the matters discussed in this blog entry. Since we have…
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September 11, 2019 by Leave a Comment   Previously, we have discussed here and here whether a plasma center is a place of public accommodation under title III. That discussion shows there is already a split in the Circuit Courts on the issue. On August 30, 2019, the Third Circuit weighed in on this in Matheis v. CSL Plasma Inc., A published decision. They came down in favor of a plasma center as a place of public accommodation. The facts in this case are pretty straightforward. Here, you have a retired police officer with PTSD who routinely and…
Today’s blog entry explores the question of when does a statute of limitations begin to run in an ADA case not dealing with a failure to accommodate. It also explores the question what might an ADA grievance procedure look like. Our case of the day is Endres v. Northeastern Ohio Medical University decided by the Sixth Circuit on August 30, 2019. As usual, blog entry is divided into categories and they are: key facts; ADA statute of limitations was not missed; due process claims and qualified immunity; what does due process in a disciplinary matter look like; and takeaways. Of…
August 26, 2019 by Leave a Comment Today’s blog entry is a case that I have blogged on before twice, here and here. On August 15, 2019, the 11th Circuit came down with its second decision on this case, here. Since I have blogged on it before twice, there isn’t any need to cover the facts except through the court’s reasoning. The prior appeal to the 11th Circuit just discussed the civil rights aspect of the case and not the ADA. This appeal to the 11th Circuit discussed the ADA and revisited the civil rights claims.…
Before starting on today’s blog entry, I do want to wish a speedy recovery to Justice Ginsburg. Regardless of your political views or your jurisprudential views, you can’t argue that Justice Ginsburg is not one of the legal titans of the late 20th and early 21st century. Wishing her a speedy recovery. Today’s blog entry is a case that came down from the Ninth Circuit holding that causation for title I claims are, “but for.” We will explore the court’s reasoning, and then in the counterargument/thoughts section, I will proceed to tear that reasoning apart. Definitely, look for a petition…
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I now have an embarrassment of riches. A whole bunch of cases in my pipeline. It happens sometimes that way. Before I get started, if you are the father of a daughter that plays athletics or a daughter that played athletics and wants a book that explains the impact that can have on a person, then you can’t do better than this book, State by Melissa Isaacson. In the interest of full disclosure, her book covers the time of my last three years at the same high school and my freshman year in college. She was one year behind…
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August 12, 2019 by Leave a Comment Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the Olmstead at 20 conference held at Georgia State law school here in Atlanta Georgia. Hats off to Susan Goico who led the organization of the conference. It brought together leading people from all over the country who are doing the work of disability inclusion. It was absolutely fabulous, and I met a lot of great people. Some of whom I had already knew and had been in touch with, but had never met. Congratulations again for a great conference. With respect to…
School is coming up for many. Here in Atlanta, many started August 1 if not the Monday of that week. By the end of this week, just about everybody in metro Atlanta will have started school. My daughter started her second year of high school on August 1. So, this week is her first full week of her sophomore year. Good luck to everybody who has kids starting school. Our case of the week, Tauscher v. Phoenix Association of Realtors Inc. (the defense does business at the Phoenix Association of Realtors), recently decided by the Ninth Circuit, which can be…
Today’s blog entry is a two-for-one. First off, with respect to being late this week, my daughter started her second year of high school today. So, this week was her last week of summer break, and as you can imagine, things were pretty hectic around here. But, we are now back to the school routine. Turning to the blog entry of the day, as mentioned above, it is a two-for-one. First, the blog will explore the issue of whether obesity is a disability. We will explore a very interesting case from the State of Washington. Second, what happens if you…
July 26, 2019 by Leave a Comment Today is the 29th anniversary of the ADA. Things have gotten much better, but there is a long way to go. Also, we can’t forget about the effect that the amendments had as well. Hats off to both George H.W. and George W. <!– –> Filed Under: General Reader Interactions This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.…
I am back from the Windy City. We had a good time. We did the family thing. We got some time to ourselves as well. The weather was not too bad. Before moving on to the blog entry of the day, my wife and I are huge Queer Eye fans. A new season of the show dropped on Friday. We have been busily watching. An episode we just watched talked about an organization called disabled but not really, headed by a remarkable person who truly believes that becoming a person with a disability/disabled turned around his life in positive…
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Before getting started on the blog of the week, some housekeeping matters. First, my blog was late this week. My daughter came home from camp on Monday, and so my time is different than it usually is. Second, starting tomorrow, my family will be in Chicago visiting both sides of the family. So, no blog entry this coming week. Today’s blog entry talks about the FSMB (Federation of State Medical Boards), and their policy on physician impairments, here, which are typically applied to medical licensing boards and to PHPs. By way of full disclosure, I have consulted on cases involving…