Boston Globe: Supreme Court’s new target: the Americans with Disabilities Act

By: Kimberly Atkins Stohr

With a one-line order, the Supreme Court put disability rights advocates on edge Monday.

“In this era, any civil rights case that goes to the court gives one agita,” said Robert Dinerstein, director of the Disability Rights Law Clinic at American University.

As we await rulings this term that could gut the already battered Voting Rights Act, weaken laws protecting the LGBTQ community, and eviscerate affirmative action in college admissions, the court teed up a new target for next term: the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The court agreed to decide whether disability rights advocates can sue hotels, restaurants, or other businesses that provide public accommodations for violating the anti-discrimination law when the advocates have no intention of patronizing those establishments. In other words, do so-called “testers,” whose sole intention is to force those businesses to comply with the ADA’s accessibility requirements, have standing to sue?

If the court decides the answer is no, it would be a win for businesses that claim such suits — sometimes filed by the hundreds by single litigants — are nuisance cases that threaten to destroy businesses that do not have the financial resources to engage in lengthy and costly legal battles.