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Guardian Gazette - http://www.handi-stop.com
Disability Rights Would Be Undermined by Appointment of More Right-Wing Justices to the Supreme Court!
September 15, 2000-The U.S. Supreme Court is the final authority on civil rights for people with disabilities. It decides what the Constitution permits and the Bill of Rights protects. But as many as three of the nine justices who make those decisions are likely to be replaced by the next President. That could mean disaster for the ADA and other laws protecting people with disabilities.
The U.S. Supreme Court Is Just One or Two Votes Away from Disaster on:
* The Americans with Disabilities Act * Protections against housing discrimination * Equal educational opportunities
We Can't Count on the Supreme Court to Support the Americans with Disabilities Act.
* The right-wing justices on the Supreme Court need only one or two more votes on their side to strike down the Americans with Disabilities Act. With one or two more votes on their side, they'll succeed.
The threat to disability rights is closer than you think. On October 11, the Supreme Court will hear the case of Patricia Garrett, a nurse who lost her job because she had cancer. Ms. Garrett's employer, the State of Alabama, claims it cannot be sued for discrimination under the ADA. It argues that Congress does not have the authority to make states liable under the ADA and is asking the Supreme Court to rule that part of the ADA unconstitutional. Unbelievable as it seems, several lower courts have agreed with Alabama and held that the ADA cannot be used by people with disabilities who have been discriminated against by a state.
We Can't Count on the Court to Protect People with Disabilities from Housing Discrimination
* Right-wing justices have already tried to gut fair-housing protections for people with disabilities.
Congress secured the right to housing choice for people with disabilities through the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988. Since then, many new doors have opened. The FHAA prohibits discrimination by landlords and realtors; it also requires local governments to waive or modify local zoning and land-use rules that limit housing opportunities for people with disabilities. In 1998-99, the disability community and its allies turned aside attempts in Congress to gut the act's disability protections. Now, conservative challenges to the constitutionality of the FHAA are making their way through the federal appeals courts, building on Supreme Court decisions striking down other civil rights laws that affect state and
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