A Supreme Court decision should allow America to regain better balance in its thinking about job-related disabilities.
On Monday, the court made it harder for workers to invoke the Americans with Disabilities Act to demand that employers make their jobs less physically demanding. The court decision is a triumph for common sense. It reads the landmark law the way it was intended by Congress, as a document protecting the rights of people with serious, long-term disabilities.
The ruling is also being viewed as a major victory for employers. That’s a reality, in the sense that it lifts some of the uncertainty about what companies must do to accommodate the needs of individual workers.
The court case, however, points out that there may be a need for legislation or rules that more specifically address work-place injuries and treatable conditions. The ruling involves a Kentucky woman with carpal tunnel syndrome, which developed while she worked at a Toyota assembly plant. Such serious problems, while falling short of a disability, need to be addressed adequately by workplace injury laws or other measures at the federal and state levels.
The Americans with Disabilities Act, though, is not the way to cover every imaginable physical problem. When the current U.S. Supreme Court speaks unanimously, there must be a very broad basis for agreement. And there is a consensus among conservative and liberal justices about the need to restrain the ever-expanding interpretations of ADA.
Almost everyone has some physical impairment. With a bit of fair treatment by reasonable co-workers and bosses, most of us are fortunate enough to be able to work around our aches, pains and minor conditions. The ADA is a wonderful tool that has made it possible for numerous people with serious conditions to contribute mightily to our country.
As Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote in the court’s ruling, a true disability under the law is one that impacts the ability to conduct normal daily activities and is permanent or long-term. There is a difference, for instance, between being confined to a wheelchair and suffering back pain. The Americans with Disabilities Act will be stronger over the long run if its use is focused on conditions that are long term and serious.
By its own calculations, Congress expected the law to cover some 43 million Americans with a wide variety of conditions. Some of the claims filed under the act would have, if accepted, put virtually all Americans into protected categories. The Supreme Court doesn’t believe we are all severely disabled. Neither should the rest of us.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
