• Victory for the disabled Victory for the disabled In the distorted world of the Rehnquist Supreme Court, where states’ rights are king, it’s a close call deciding whether a paraplegic should have to drag himself up the courthouse stairs
• Victory for the disabled
Victory for the disabled
In the distorted world of the Rehnquist Supreme Court, where states’ rights are king, it’s a close call deciding whether a paraplegic should have to drag himself up the courthouse stairs to have his day in court.
On Monday, the court ruled 5-4 that Congress had the power to pass a law permitting disabled citizens to sue states that deny them access to their court systems.
The lawsuit, based on a provision of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, was brought by George Lane, a paraplegic who literally had to drag himself up two flights of stairs to a Polk County, Tenn., courtroom to answer a criminal complaint. Also suing the state was Beverly Jones, a court reporter and paraplegic who lost work because she couldn’t get into some Tennessee courtrooms.
Under the ADA, states are required to take reasonable actions to give citizens access to government programs. But Tennessee argued that the law was unconstitutional because Congress didn’t have the authority to give citizens like Mr. Lane and Ms. Jones the right to sue a state in court.
Tennessee was relying on the most important and disturbing legal development of the last decade: Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist has led a five-justice majority’s crusade to limit Congress’ power over the states. To do so, the gang of five has had to distort the 11th Amendment. That amendment says that a state can’t be sued in federal court by a citizen of another state. But these justices, who so often stress the importance of the text of the Constitution, have ignored the text in order to apply the 11th Amendment to suits by a citizen against his own state.
Provisions of one law after another have toppled before the court’s new interpretations of states’ rights. The court ruled that states could not be sued under federal laws covering fair labor practices, sexual harassment or age and disability discrimination in employment.
The court finally found a limit to this line of reasoning last year when it upheld the Family and Medical Leave Act. And, now – thanks to the defection of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor from the gang of five – the court has agreed that George Lane and Beverly Long have the right to sue Tennessee.
Even Monday’s decision was extremely narrow. The court said only that disabled citizens could sue to get access to courts. Questions about rights to sue for access to other government programs were left hanging. We can only hope that in the post-Rehnquist years, the court turns off this time machine to the bad old days.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
