News Release

NCD #03-399
February 20, 2003
Contact: Mark S. Quigley
202-272-2004
202-272-2074 TTY
mquigley@ncd.gov

National Council on Disability Analyzes Problematic Aspects of Americans with Disabilities Act Decisions by Supreme Court

WASHINGTON--The National Council on Disability (NCD) today released two policy briefs analyzing and responding to certain problematic aspects of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court-Negative Media Portrayals of the ADA and Defining "Disability" in a Civil Rights Context: The Court's Focus on Extent of Limitations as Opposed to Fair Treatment and Equal Opportunity (http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/03publications.html).

Negative Media Portrayals of the ADA identifies some prevalent myths and misconceptions about the ADA that the media coverage of the law has propagated. Together they paint a picture of the ADA as an unclear law that authorizes unworthy people to sue private businesses and government agencies on feeble and ludicrous grounds, and that subjects public instrumentalities and private business concerns to weighty and unjustified burdens and financial liabilities.

Defining "Disability" in a Civil Rights Context: The Court's Focus on Extent of Limitations as Opposed to Fair Treatment and Equal Opportunity provides an overview of the origins of the statutory language found in the ADA definition of disability; considers the dramatically narrowed scope of the ADA's coverage resulting from a series of hostile federal court decisions; looks to the experiences of several states that have adopted independent and broader definitions of "disability" for the purposes of antidiscrimination statutes; examines the models and definitions of "disability" used beyond the borders of the United States, by other countries and by the World Health Organization; and outlines a broader approach to the statutory framework.

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. 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.