News Release

NCD #03-405
March 17, 2003
Contact: Mark S. Quigley
202-272-2004
202-272-2074 TTY
mquigley@ncd.gov

National Council on Disability Examines Addresses Mitigating Measures Aspects of Americans with Disabilities Act Decisions by Supreme Court

WASHINGTON-The National Council on Disability (NCD) today released a policy brief analyzing and responding to mitigating measures aspects of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court-The Role of Mitigating Measures in the Narrowing of the ADA's Coverage (http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/mitigatingmeasures.html).

n an abrupt break from the legislative history of the ADA, the position of the executive agencies responsible for enforcing the ADA, and the prior rulings of eight of the nine federal courts of appeals that had addressed the issue, the Supreme Court decided that mitigating measures should be considered in determining whether an individual has a disability under the ADA. The Role of Mitigating Measures examines the function and types of ameliorating measures, the prior near-consensus that such measures should not be interjected into the determination of disability, the Supreme Court's decisions on the issue, and the repercussions of the Court's position.

NCD will 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 outcomes in the decisions of the lower courts as a result of the Supreme Court's rulings.

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 this series in a final, comprehensive report Righting the ADA.