Let’S-Sue Mentality Suffers Big Setback

Suppose you want Michael Jordan’s old job but, at 5-foot-1, you are vertically challenged. Suppose you want to sing tenor in the Metropolitan Opera but, with a squeaky little voice that can’t carry a tune, you are vocally disadvantaged. Suppose you want a job flying airliners around the world but, being severely nearsighted, you can’t tell a runway from a freeway if your glasses fall off.

What do you do?

You do what every red-blooded American would do. You run to a lawyer and sue. You demand that the Chicago Bulls, the Met or United Airlines hire you anyway.

If they refuse, you demand several bazillion dollars for lost wages, emotional distress and discrimination. After all, you’re entitled, you’re a victim and you deserve big bucks for your bad luck.

Well, maybe not. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court said employers may require job applicants to meet pertinent physical qualifications. Employers breathed a huge sigh of relief. So should basketball fans, opera lovers, air travelers and every other consumer of goods and services.

It is a sad commentary on our legal system that we needed a Supreme Court decision to guarantee what ought to be a simple matter of common sense.

The court’s ruling arose from the Americans with Disabilities Act, a law most people applauded when Congress passed it in 1990. This law was a blessing for the physically handicapped, who used to be stymied and humiliated by the lack of wheelchair-accessible buildings and restrooms. The law also prohibits employers from discriminating against the disabled. It requires workplaces to help the disabled perform their jobs.

What is a disability? That was the issue. The Supreme Court ruled on claims against three different employers. A man who is nearly blind in one eye and another man with high blood pressure demanded jobs as truck drivers. Two nearsighted women with 20/400 vision demanded jobs as pilots for United Airlines.

The employers said that even if eyeglasses or medicine could help these job seekers function, that wasn’t good enough for their company’s safety standards.

The Supreme Court concluded the plaintiffs did not qualify as disabled. Therefore, they are not entitled to insist that the employers help them perform the jobs they demanded. The court noted that if it had ruled otherwise, roughly half of the U.S. population would qualify as disabled and entitled to special workplace accommodations.

As a result, it seems to be OK to ask that basketball players be tall, opera singers have loud voices and pilots be able to see without their glasses. Wonderful.

Next, perhaps we could ask that trial lawyers possess common sense and that all of us begin to deal more reasonably with the rain that into every life must fall.