ADA WATCH - Urge Senators to Vote No on Roberts

[Guest guest]

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Ask Senators to Vote No on Roberts

 

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September 21, 2005 --After careful review of

Judge John

Roberts' answers during the four days of Senate

hearings on his

nomination to be Chief Justice of the United

States Supreme

Court, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law

has no choice

but to oppose his nomination. We already had very

serious

concerns about Judge Roberts' expressed positions

on disability

rights, and his responses to Senators' questions

did nothing to

allay our fears.

 

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Americans with Disabilities Act at Risk

 

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Judge Roberts repeatedly deflected questions

about his

positions on Congress's power to enact the

Americans with

Disabilities Act. This is of enormous importance

to people with

disabilities. In its 5-4 ruling in Board of

Trustees of Univ.

of Alabama v. Garret, the Supreme Court held that

Congress

lacked the power to apply the employment

protections in Title I

of the ADA to states. In Tennessee v. Lane, a 5-4

majority held

that Congress did have the power to apply the

guarantee of

access to public services in Title II to the

states, with

respect to access to the courts. Now the

justices will

consider Congress' power to enact other important

provisions of

the ADA, including a case to be argued November

9th on the

ADA's application to state prisons.

 

The rights of people with disabilities hang in

the balance.

During last week's hearings, Senators on both

sides of the

aisle voiced their concern about this issue, but

Judge Roberts

did not provide any reassurance to them that he

would uphold

Congress' power to enact the ADA.

 

Judge Roberts also refused to say whether he

believed the ADA's

protections should be interpreted very narrowly,

as he had

argued to the Supreme Court when he represented

the automobile

manufacturer in Toyota Motor Mfg. v. Williams. In

that case,

Roberts argued that the ADA was intended to

protect only those

he labeled " the truly disabled, " and that

Congress intended the

scope of its coverage to be narrow. In the

hearing, he would

say only that the ADA should be interpreted

consistently with

Congress' intent.

 

Yet Judge Roberts gave no hint that as the

Supreme Court's

Chief Justice he would take a different view of

Congress'

intent to authorize civil rights remedies than

the restrictive

views he argued as a lawyer. In Franklin v.

Gwinnett County

Public Schools, Roberts argued on behalf of the

Justice

Department that a woman who was sexually harassed

and raped by

her teacher and sports coach, and was told by the

school not to

complain, could not seek damages under Title IX.

(Title IX

prohibits sex discrimination by recipients of

federal funds.)

Roberts' position was rejected by all nine

justices. The court

relied on the traditional presumption that courts

may draw on

all appropriate remedies where Congress has

provided a right of

 

action but has not made clear its intent with

respect to

remedies. When asked about the Franklin decision

at the

confirmation hearing, Judge Roberts stated only

that the

decision involved a matter of Congressional

intent. He gave no

indication that he views Congressional intent to

permit a range

of remedies for civil rights violations any less

narrowly than

what he argued in the Franklin case.

 

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Roberts Would Deny Protections to Medicaid

Recipients

 

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Perhaps most troubling for people with

disabilities, Judge

Roberts' comments at his confirmation hearing

strongly

suggested that he would vote to deny Medicaid

recipients a

right to go to court to enforce their entitlement

to Medicaid

benefits. As a lawyer in the Justice Department,

as a Deputy

Solicitor General and as a private attorney,

Roberts repeatedly

pushed ways to restrict the right of individuals

to enforce

laws where Congress did not explicitly state that

individuals

had the right to sue -- including Medicaid.

 

At his confirmation hearing, Roberts emphasized

that it would

be easy for Congress simply to state that

individuals had the

right to sue, and that Congress, rather than the

courts, should

decide whether a right to sue may be implied.

These comments

suggest that Roberts' efforts to restrict

individuals' ability

to enforce their rights under laws such as

Medicaid would

continue if he is confirmed.

 

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Rights of People with Disabilities Hang in the

Balance

 

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Roberts' nomination is of particular concern

because it is for

Chief Justice, and in that position he would

influence the

Supreme Court for decades to come.

 

Please urge Senators on the Judiciary Committee

(see list

below) to vote " No " tomorrow, Thursday,

September 22. And

please call your own Senators and urge them cast

a " No " vote

when and if Judge Roberts' nomination reaches the

Senate

floor.

 

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Act Today!

 

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Call the Capitol switchboard, 202-224-3121. or

visit www.

congress.org and look up the Senators' direct

lines.

 

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Senate Judiciary Committee

 

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Arlen Specter (R-PA), Chair

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=497

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Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=586

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Charles Grassley (R-IA)

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=248

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Jon Kyl (R-AZ)

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=203

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Mike DeWine (R-OH)

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=456

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Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=269

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Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=531

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John Cornyn (R-TX)

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=31770

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Sam Brownback (R-KS)

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=255

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Tom Coburn (R-OK)

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=483

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Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT), Ranking Member

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=592

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Edward Kennedy (D-MA)

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=297

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Joseph Biden (D-DE)

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=696

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Herbert Kohl (D-WI)

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=628

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Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=347

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Russ Feingold (D-WI)

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=629

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Charles Schumer (D-NY)

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=402

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Richard Durbin (D-IL)

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=210

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For more information

 

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Judge Roberts' Record on Disability Rights:

http://www.bazelon.org/issues/disabilityrights/judicialnominee/roberts.htm

 

 

 

 

/roberts.htm

 

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" When the power of love becomes stronger than the love of power, we will have

peace. "

Jimi Hendrix