Overlawyered » disabled rights

Disabled rights roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:15:03 +0000

On party-line vote, Sacramento Dems turn down bill to curb ADA access shakedown suits [ATRF, KABC, Sacramento Bee (auto-plays video ad)]
Illinois sues local schools for not developing standards for disabled athletic competition [Chicago Tribune]
Open secret: criminals exploit federally mandated IP Relay disabled-phone system [Henderson]
Judge certifies nationwide ADA accessibility suit against Hollister over stepped entrances to its stores [Law Week Colorado via Disability Law]
In settlement, AMC movie chain agrees to install captioning, audio-description at Illinois theaters [ABC Chicago]
“Has the Expanded Definition of Disability under the ADAA Gone Too Far?” [Russell Cawyer]
“Fake handicaps a growing problem for disabled sports” [Der Spiegel]

Tags: ADA filing mills, disability & schools, disabled rights, Illinois, movies film and videos, sports, telecommunications

Disabled rights roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

International law roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:41:52 +0000

U.N. rapporteur lectures U.S. on Indian rights, calls for “some form of land restoration” [IPSNews] “So, the UN Wants the U.S. to Return Land to Indian Tribes…” [Claudia Rosett] In Chapters 10 and 11 of Schools for Misrule, I discuss the growing cooperation between Indian land-claim activists in this country and international organizations both within and without of the U.N. system. (More: I expand theme into a Daily Caller piece).
“Union Uses NAFTA To Fight Alabama Immigration Law” [Sean Higgins, IBD]
“UN hunger expert investigates Canada” [Hillel Neuer, National Post]“Everyone’s grievances can thus be transformed into human rights violations” [Jacob Mchangama and Aaron Rhodes, Freedom Rights Project, PDF]
Admittedly, at a “lefty Quaker school in the Northeast”: “You know international law is getting some traction when your fourth-grader is being taught about the Convention on the Rights of the Child.” [Peter Spiro, OJ]
New Third Circuit opinion in remanded U.S. v. Bond case, which tested limits of treaty power, could tee up issue for another SCOTUS outing [Spiro/OJ, FedSoc Blog, Liberty and Law; earlier]
“Canada’s Much Better and Very Different Alien Tort Statute” [Ku/OJ]
Implementation of United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) could draw inspiration from U.S. experience with institutional reform lawsuits [Michael Perlin via Bagenstos]

Tags: alien, Canada, child, disabled rights, immigration law, Indian tribes, international human rights, international law

International law roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

FMLA leave meets ADA “reasonable accommodation”

Walter Olson — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:50:45 +0000

The intersection of the Americans with Disabilities Act’s “reasonable accommodation” mandate with the Family and Medical Leave Act’s mandate of unpaid time off for illness has long posed a head-scratcher for employers. The EEOC is planning to issue clarifying guidelines on leave-as-accommodation, but organized employers fear the commission’s very liberal leadership may be working up new and extra-onerous legal interpretations. [Bloomberg Business Week; EEOC; Susan Lessack, Pepper Hamilton; Marie Larsen, Recruiter.com]

Tags: disabled rights, workplace

FMLA leave meets ADA “reasonable accommodation” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Labor and employment law roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:40:33 +0000

Arbitrator: felonious Montgomery County, Maryland cops should keep disability pay [Examiner] “Cop who took naked photos of rape victim can keep pension” [NY Post] Cop who pepper-sprayed UC Davis protesters is still on job, and maybe that’s how they’d have it [Radley Balko]
“Billions in retroactive liability” in pharma detailer wage/hour action before SCOTUS [Marcia Coyle, NLJ] And USA Today chose a faulty “worker discontent” theme on wage/hour case, since as class actions these suits are lawyer-driven;
Australia: “Worker injured during sex gets compensation payout” [News.com.au]
“Courts are finally starting to apply ADAAA—and it ain’t pretty” [Jon Hyman] ADA: “Judge Rules In Favor of Fired Employee With Bipolar Disorder” [ABC]
NLRB goes after Hyatt on employee handbook language [Gary Shapiro, Examiner] Union claims Indiana right-to-work law violates Thirteenth Amendment ban on slavery [James Sherk, NRO]
EEOC: sex discrimination law bars bias against transgender employees [AP, Hyman] “EEOC Obtains Substantial Settlement in Obesity Discrimination Suit” [Disabilities Law]
Law journal prediction: adherents of racism will claim Title VII protection [Lawrence D. Rosenthal, Temple L. Rev. via Workplace Prof]

Tags: Australia, disabled rights, EEOC, labor unions, Maryland, obesity, police, transgender, wage and hour suits, workers' compensation

Labor and employment law roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

EEOC: Employers have no right to ask what prescription drugs employees are on

Walter Olson — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 04:02:37 +0000

Even if they’re operating heavy machinery, and even if the drugs are of the type that make users drowsy, twitchy or agitated. It’s all part of the ban on employee medical inquiries under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Eighth Circuit has backed up the agency’s position that questions do not become permissible until the employer has in hand objective evidence of impairment, the sort you can take to a judge. Evidence like, you know, there having been a serious accident. I explain at Cato at Liberty.

Tags: disabled rights, EEOC, safety

EEOC: Employers have no right to ask what prescription drugs employees are on is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Ex-Worker Sues City Over Service Dog For Paprika Allergy”

Walter Olson — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 04:29:02 +0000

“A former city worker is suing Indianapolis after she claims the city failed to accommodate the service dog she needs due to her severe allergy to paprika.” The city had already removed certain foods from its vending machines but declined to accept a service dog as reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) because a co-worker was allergic to dogs. [WRTV]

Tags: allergies, disabled rights, Indiana, service animals

“Ex-Worker Sues City Over Service Dog For Paprika Allergy” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Spokane: we won’t pay off cop over DUI hit-run

Walter Olson — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:49:11 +0000

“The Spokane City Council voted [unanimously Feb. 27] against a settlement in which a Spokane police officer fired in 2009 after a DUI and hit and run, would have been rehired and received $275,000. … Councilmember Mike Fagan said during the City Council meeting, ‘I not only say no, but I say hell no.’” [KREM] Attorney Bob Dunn, representing former officer Brad Thoma, said “his client was fired after the city refused to accommodate Thoma following a doctor’s diagnosis of alcoholism. ‘Disability law clearly identifies that alcoholism is just that a disability. Washington follows the ADA.’ The case started in 2009 when Thoma hit another vehicle while driving drunk then fled the scene.” Dunn said he would file a $4 million suit on behalf of Thoma. [same]

Tags: alcohol, disabled rights, police, Washington state

Spokane: we won’t pay off cop over DUI hit-run is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“James Bovard: The Wrong Way to Help the Disabled”

Walter Olson — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:09:03 +0000

“A 7 percent hiring quota for government contractors is unfair and unwise.” [WSJ] My contribution on the subject is here (more).

More: David Harsanyi at Human Events (quoting my February piece).

Tags: disabled rights, racial quotas, workplace

“James Bovard: The Wrong Way to Help the Disabled” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Reassignment as reasonable accommodation: mandatory or not?”

Walter Olson — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:17:40 +0000

When employees request reassignment to other jobs within an organization as an accommodation to their disability, is the employer obliged to do so even though other more qualified employees are in contention those same jobs? Or is it enough to assure the disabled employee fair consideration in a competitive process? The federal circuit courts are split on the issue, which could tee things up for Supreme Court consideration at some point. [Jon Hyman]

Tags: disabled rights, workplace

“Reassignment as reasonable accommodation: mandatory or not?” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

$17,000 restaurant dumpster ramp

Walter Olson — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:16:26 +0000

Because it’s important to keep future wheelchair-using employees in contention for the task of hauling the trash out back, and also because money spent on compliance doesn’t really count as money the way, say, an agency’s budget does. [Patterico](& Alkon).

Tags: California, disabled rights

$17,000 restaurant dumpster ramp is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system