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Rights Without Remedies Might As Well Not Exist
B&SWhen Deborah Laufer was 39, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. At the time, she worked in private security, but her illness ended her career prematurely. Today, she’s visually impaired and has limited use of her hands, and uses a wheelchair.
As a newly disabled person, her ability to travel changed suddenly and dramatically. She found that hotels usually didn’t provide accessibility information on their websites, and even if they did, the information was often inaccurate. Sometimes, Deborah recalled in briefs and sworn statements, she would arrive at a hotel only to end up sleeping in her car after she discovered the hotel couldn’t accommodate her.
The federal Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), which Congress passed in 1990, requires hotels to make “reasonable modifications” so that disabled people have an equal opportunity to enjoy their services. A Justice Department regulation known as the “Reservation Rule” says that a hotel’s reservation service must “identify and describe accessible features” so disabled people can assess if the hotel meets their needs. Under the ADA, disabled people can sue if they experience illegal discrimination.
Frustrated by her unmet needs, Deborah began researching the reservation systems at hotels around the country, looking for legally required accessibility information. If she couldn’t find it, she sued to get the hotel to post it—even if she never intended to stay there. This little wrinkle is why her case, Acheson Hotels v. Laufer, is now before the United States Supreme Court. Typically, courts don’t hear your case unless you have “standing,” which, among other things, means that you suffered an injury that a defendant caused and a court can fix. And Acheson Hotels, one of the companies she sued, says that Deborah doesn’t have standing. Since she wasn’t actually going to stay there, Acheson argues, she was never injured, and her case should thus be dismissed.
When the Court hears oral argument in Acheson Hotels on October 4, the question the justices will have to answer is whether plaintiffs like Deborah should be able to sue. Under Supreme Court precedent, the answer should be yes. But the stakes of this case are much higher than resolving a technical question about standing doctrine. Thanks to a government that chronically underinvests in enforcement of civil rights laws, lawsuits like Deborah’s are the main way statutes like the ADA are enforced in this country. A ruling against her could turn the protections of a host of antidiscrimination laws into nothing more than empty promises.
As a newly disabled person, her ability to travel changed suddenly and dramatically. She found that hotels usually didn’t provide accessibility information on their websites, and even if they did, the information was often inaccurate. Sometimes, Deborah recalled in briefs and sworn statements, she would arrive at a hotel only to end up sleeping in her car after she discovered the hotel couldn’t accommodate her.
The federal Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), which Congress passed in 1990, requires hotels to make “reasonable modifications” so that disabled people have an equal opportunity to enjoy their services. A Justice Department regulation known as the “Reservation Rule” says that a hotel’s reservation service must “identify and describe accessible features” so disabled people can assess if the hotel meets their needs. Under the ADA, disabled people can sue if they experience illegal discrimination.
Frustrated by her unmet needs, Deborah began researching the reservation systems at hotels around the country, looking for legally required accessibility information. If she couldn’t find it, she sued to get the hotel to post it—even if she never intended to stay there. This little wrinkle is why her case, Acheson Hotels v. Laufer, is now before the United States Supreme Court. Typically, courts don’t hear your case unless you have “standing,” which, among other things, means that you suffered an injury that a defendant caused and a court can fix. And Acheson Hotels, one of the companies she sued, says that Deborah doesn’t have standing. Since she wasn’t actually going to stay there, Acheson argues, she was never injured, and her case should thus be dismissed.
When the Court hears oral argument in Acheson Hotels on October 4, the question the justices will have to answer is whether plaintiffs like Deborah should be able to sue. Under Supreme Court precedent, the answer should be yes. But the stakes of this case are much higher than resolving a technical question about standing doctrine. Thanks to a government that chronically underinvests in enforcement of civil rights laws, lawsuits like Deborah’s are the main way statutes like the ADA are enforced in this country. A ruling against her could turn the protections of a host of antidiscrimination laws into nothing more than empty promises.
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