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AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT OF 1990: A CONGRESSIONAL MANDATE FOR HEIGHTENED JUDICIAL PROTECTION OF DISABLED PERSONS

NCJ Number
143720
Journal
Florida Law Review Volume: 44 Issue: 3 Dated: (July 1992) Pages: 417-451
Author(s)
A S Lowndes
Date Published
1992
Length
35 pages
Annotation
This legal analysis concludes that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) does not offer equal protection; rather, the ADA specifies accommodations and prohibits certain exclusionary practices employed by businesses and local governments, yet creates a potentially radical change in equal protection jurisprudence.
Abstract
Specific congressional findings indicate that disabled persons have faced and continue to face discrimination comparable to that encountered by blacks, aliens, women, and the illegitimate. These groups, along with the disabled, deserve special protection under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment. Findings of fact are critical to validating an equal protection claim, and factual questions often determine the level of scrutiny afforded to certain groups. In passing the ADA, Congress used its factfinding capability to conclude that disabled persons constitute a class clearly in need of heightened scrutiny. In order to enforce the ideals of the Equal Protection Clause, congressional findings should be given the full force of law through the power of the 14th amendment. By extending congressionally mandated heightened scrutiny to disabled persons, the judicial and legislative branches of government can work together to emancipate the disabled. The legal analysis considers the concurrent duty of both the Congress and the Supreme Court to deal with equal protection issues and the Supreme Court's refusal to extend heightened judicial protection to the mentally retarded and, by implication, to the disabled. 259 footnotes