The ADA and the 11th Amendment

Nathan Newman nathan.newman at yale.edu
Sat Jan 22 04:52:42 PST 2000



> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of JKSCHW at aol.com
>
> As I predicted, the Supreme Court agreed to review whether the federal
> disabilitiy discrimination law can be applied to the states in view of its
> determination the other day that the federal age discrimination laws cannot
> be. Arguments in April, decision in (maybe) June or July. Any bets on the
> outcome?

Well, one difference that could be used to uphold the ADA is that the federal government has large blocks of funding for state programs aimed at the disabled. There are a string of precedents allowing the federal government to control state action based on the receipt of federal funds in that area of legislation. Whether that is enough to overcome this whole 11th Amendment approach Reinquist is reviving is an open question, but it might be possible to pick off one or two of the conservative majority on the argument that states cannot take billions of dollars in funding for dealing with the rights of the disabled, then ignore the antidiscrimination provisions tied to that funding.

I have not looked over the ADA legislation itself, but is there any mention of funding being explicitly tied to states upholding antidiscrimination laws against the disabled?

-- Nathan Newman



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