News Release

NCD #02-391
October 30, 2002
Contact: Mark S. Quigley
202-272-2004
202-272-2074 TTY
mquigley@ncd.gov

National Council on Disability Releases Americans with Disabilities Act and the Supreme Court Policy Paper

WASHINGTON--The National Council on Disability (NCD) today released A Carefully Constructed Law, the newest addition to the ongoing policy brief series analyzing and responding to certain problematic aspects of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court.

A Carefully Constructed Law (http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/carefullyconstructedlaw.html) responds to the supposed uncertainties and ambiguities that the Supreme Court has perceived that the ADA was not carefully considered nor carefully written by explaining how the Congress carefully considered, negotiated, and fine-tuned the ADA before enacting it, as well as the 25 years of methodical Congressional study that preceded its passage.

In future papers in this series, NCD will examine various specific substantive aspects of the Court's rulings that have weakened or restricted the impact of the ADA, including the highly restrictive interpretation of the ADA's definition of "disability." Another major area to be addressed concerns Constitutional limits on the power of Congress to enact disability rights laws such as the ADA and other civil rights legislation.

NCD plans to address some limitations the Court has imposed on the remedies available in ADA cases and take a cross-issue look at the consequences of the Supreme Court's decisions by contrasting the state of the law before the decisions were rendered with the legal situation after the decisions, to identify undesirable and unjust results in the decisions of the lower courts as a result of the Supreme Court's rulings. NCD will also summarize instances of unaddressed discrimination and injustices stemming from the Court's rulings that do not result in reported court decisions.

NCD will then develop legislative proposals for addressing those issues that appear appropriate for legislative correction, and present those proposals, along with pertinent supportive material from the previous papers in a final, comprehensive report Righting the ADA.