Americans With Disabilities Act Case Study

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The Americans with Disabilities Act and Views of the United States Supreme Court Introduction The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 was an act that was put in place by the Congress of the United States to protect and to insure equal treatment of those with qualified disabilities under the law. One of the more famous cases involving the ADA and the U.S. Supreme Court was the PGA Tour, Inc. v. Casey Martin; which may have left people with the impression that the Supreme Court takes a rather liberal view of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In this case, a golfer, Casey Martin, sued for the use of a golf cart when competing in a PGA sponsored professional golf event. The PGA argued that the use of a golf cart would…show more content…
Supreme Court on April 28, 1999 and decided on June 22, 1999, was heard on Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The petitioner Albertson’s, requested that this case be heard for possible reversal of the Appeals Court ruling in favor of Kirkingburg’s disability discrimination claim base on the ADA, 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq. (Albertson’s Inc. v. Kirkingburg, 527 U.S. 555 (1999)). In this case Kirkingburg was mistakenly employed as a commercial truck driver by a grocery chain called Albertson’s. The medical review officer who performed his Department of Transportation (DOT) physical erred in approving him for his medical card. Kirkingburg had what is called monocular vision from an uncorrectable condition that left him with 20/200 vision in his left eye. Once this condition was discovered on a subsequent medical exam he was unable to get his DOT medical card and was therefore unable to drive for Albertson’s. Kirkingburg applied for a waiver for this condition under a Federal test program; however Albertson’s fired Kirkingburg while he was waiting for this waiver. The District Court that heard this case ruled against Kirkingburg, stating that he was not “qualified” for his job due to failure of the DOT vision test and Albertson’s did not have to give Kirkingburg additional time to get his waiver. The Court of Appeals reversed the District Court ruling and ruled in favor of Kirkingburg based on (1) ADA definition of a qualified disability; (2) compliance with DOT regulations could not be used as a basis for dismissal due to the presence of an test waiver program (3) vision standards that were set by Albertson’s could not be justified by the case as

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