Bill Expanding Protection for Disabled Gets Final Congressional OK
A bill expanding protections for workers with disabilities has gotten final approval of Congress.
The White House said President Bush would sign the measure, the New York Times reports.
The legislation is intended to override court decisions that denied workplace protection for people whose disabilities could be controlled by medication or other measures. The bill amends the Americans With Disabilities Act, which had protected people who were “substantially limited” by a disability, the Daily Journal reports (sub. req.).
Two U.S. Supreme Court rulings had set a high bar for what is considered a substantial limitation. One of them, Sutton v. United Airlines, held that mitigating measures should be considered when determining whether a disability exists.
Some courts had cited the Supreme Court decisions in denying protection for people with epilepsy, diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis and other ailments, lawmakers said. The bill says mitigating measures such as prescription drugs, hearing aids and artificial limbs should not be taken into account when considering whether a person is disabled.
The bill says “an impairment that is episodic or in remission is a disability if it would substantially limit a major life activity when active.”
Seyfarth Shaw partner Camille Olson, chair of the firm’s practice group on complex discrimination litigation, said the new law will likely spark lawsuits by plaintiffs seeking to test it.
“The ADA Amendments Act undoes the Supreme Court’s decisions on lawsuits brought under the ADA for over a decade, and every federal and state court decision that hinged on the reasoning of the Supreme Court’s decisions on those lawsuits is now brought into question and may be wiped away,” she said in a statement.
Updated at 9:50 a.m. to include the statement by Camille Olson.
