Disability Discrimination

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), provides that disability discrimination is illegal. Specifically, the ADA prohibits discrimination against “qualified individuals with a disability” regarding terms and conditions of employment, retaliation against employees who complain about discrimination, or participating in someone else’s discrimination lawsuit. Whether someone is considered a “qualified individual with a disability” is a legal definition…

A man who was fired one day after telling his supervisor he was HIV positive may bring a claim for employment discrimination and impermissible medical inquiry claims under the amended Americans with Disabilities Act. In Horgan v. Simmons, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois determined HIV falls within the new definition of “disability” as…

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently issued a new guide to help both employers and employees better understand some complicated issues under the Americans with Disabilities Act: The Americans with Disabilities Act: Applying Performance and Conduct Standards to Employees with Disabilities. The new guide addresses an issue under the ADA that has given rise to a good deal…

In late September, President Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments of 2008, which will become effective January 1, 2009. As we wrote in a prior post, although the ADA is, in theory, a wonderful law for disabled employees, in practice, it has been very difficult for employees to prevail in disability discrimination cases. The United States…

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) contains a rarely used provision that protects employees who are not disabled but who are discriminated against because they are associated with an individual, such as a spouse or other family member, who is disabled. A recent case from the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, Trujillo v. PacifiCorp, although…