‘Equal rights nonsense’

From the Wall Street Journal:

Roger Clegg, president of a conservative think tank called the Center for Equal Opportunity, says the Americans with Disabilities Restoration Act is “designed to overturn at least four Supreme Court decisions about the ADA, and make a bad statute even worse.” The reference is included in a column about “legislation pending in Congress that would dramatically increase the liability of private companies for alleged acts of employment discrimination.”

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‘Congress and the disabled — More harm than help’

From Foxnews.com:

James Sherk, a fellow in labor policy at the Heritage Foundation, says the proposed bill undermines protections for people who need it by extending coverage to those with any physical or mental impairment, no matter how minor.

Take your pick: Heartburn. Stress. Insomnia. Occasional shortness of breath. Headaches. Tennis elbow. Heck, the flu, for that matter. If the ADA Restoration Act becomes law the government would consider every American with imperfect health — which means almost every American — disabled.

… When everyone is special, no one is. Calling all workers disabled once again tilts the playing field against those with genuine handicaps. Washington is filled with absurd ideas, but the ADA Restoration Act goes beyond absurd — to harming the very individuals it’s intended to help.

See also: ADA restoration: Undermining the employer-employee relationship, by James Sherk and Andrew Grossman for the Heritage Foundation.
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A report from Kiplinger.com says expansion of the ADA looks likely, and that businesses say it goes way too far.

Business groups complain that the proposed change, as drafted, would apply to almost everyone because it would not let employers take into account whether a condition was mitigated by measures such as medication or eyeglasses when deciding whether someone requesting accommodation has a disability. “If you are not perfect, you would be covered by the law. Since nobody is perfect, everybody is covered. It’s absurd,” says Camille Olson, an attorney with Seyfarth Shaw in Chicago.

… Proponents say the bill is designed to clarify the original intent of Congress, which was called into question by a series of court cases that took a stringent view of disability.

A press release from the American Association of People with Disabilities summarizes testimony in support of the measure.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 at 12:11 pm and is filed under ADA, ADA restoration, NOT2BEMISSED, commentary, discrimination, employment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post