Supreme Court Decides One Case, Agrees to Hear Another
The ADA protects the rights of passengers with disabilities who sail on cruise ships that call at American ports, even ships that fly under foreign flags, the Supreme Court has ruled. However, under the decision, foreign ships will not be required to make the major structural alterations that would ordinarily be required under the ADA to guarantee the "full and equal enjoyment" of access to "places of public accommodation." The case is Spector v. Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd., No. 03-1388.
Lawyers for passengers who brought the lawsuit against Norwegian Cruise Line said the decision accomplished much of what they had sought. "It's a significant win that gives us everything except those accommodations that would have been most troubling to the industry," said Thomas Goldstein, who argued the passengers' case before the Supreme Court. He said the decision would require such readily achievable and "straightforward changes" as grab bars and lower water fountains, as well as the elimination of surcharges and other special rules that disabled passengers found expensive or burdensome. A copy of this decision can be obtained at: Spector et al. v. Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd. 
(http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-1388.ZS.html).
The Supreme Court has also agreed to hear a case that will decide if states and counties can be sued for damages by not accommodating disabled prisoners. Justices will consider the case of Tony Goodman, who claims he has been held for more than 23 hours a day in a cell so narrow he cannot turn his wheelchair. Goodman, injured in a car accident, is serving time for aggravated assault and a cocaine conviction. He claims that because the prison in Reidsville, GA, is not equipped for people in wheelchairs, he cannot go to the bathroom or bathe without help, and does not have access to counseling, classes and religious services.
The Bush administration has filed an appeal on behalf of Mr. Goodman; the case has major implications for states because of the costs of retrofitting old prisons to provide access. Paul Clement, the president's lead Supreme Court lawyer, told justices in a filing that ADA's protections address "the inhumane, degrading, and health-endangering conditions of daily living for inmates."
Lawyers for the state of Georgia had urged the court to refuse to hear the case, so that lower district courts would have more time to sort out the Supreme Court's May 2004 ruling in the case of Tennessee v. Lane, No. 02-1667. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that states can be sued over inaccessible courthouses.
States have repeatedly clashed with the federal government over their liability under the ADA, seeking immunity from lawsuits because the Constitution says a state government cannot be sued in federal court without its consent. The case is Goodman v. Georgia, 04-1236.
(Sources: "Supreme Court Rules That Disabilities Act, in Part, Applies to Foreign Cruise Ships," Linda Greenhouse, New York Times, June 7, 2005 and "Court to Review Rights of Disabled Inmates," Gina Holland, Associated Press, May 16, 2005.)
