Forum targets disability rights
Disability rights advocates from across the state will gather Tuesday in Spokane to discuss the effects of a Washington Supreme Court ruling last summer that they say curtailed protection against discrimination.
The public forum will focus on the ruling in McClarty v. Totem Electric, which redefined “disability” in state law to conform with a narrower federal definition.
Among those no longer protected against discrimination, according to disability rights advocates, are people with psychiatric or emotional problems, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy or temporary disabilities.
“Washington has a real proud history of protecting people with disabilities and this case is really a step back,” said Spokane attorney Shawn Murinko, a member of the state’s Human Rights Commission and a panelist at the forum.
A panel of experts on disability law, advocates and others will discuss efforts to protect thousands of people they say are now vulnerable to discrimination in housing and employment.
Advocates for the disabled have asked the state Supreme Court to reconsider its decision and are working with legislators to re-establish the broader definition that had been in effect since the disability provision was added to the state’s antidiscrimination law in 1973.
In July, Justice James M. Johnson, writing for the majority in McClarty, said the state law’s definition of disability “is at odds with the plain meaning of the term.”
To provide “a single definition that can be consistently applied,” the court adopted the definition of disability set forth in the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, which does not protect people with temporary disabilities or those whose disabilities can be “ameliorated” through medication, for example.
In separate dissents, Justice Susan Owens wrote that the majority’s “judicial rewrite” contravened the intent of lawmakers, and Justice Gerry L. Alexander said the court essentially “enacted a new law.”
As a result, “there is now a large group of people who are not protected against discrimination,” said David Lord, an attorney with Washington Protection and Advocacy Systems.
Business groups, including the Association of Washington Business, hailed the court’s decision as a relief to small businesses that have had to navigate the differences between state and federal laws.
Since the Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted in 1990, a succession of federal court decisions have eroded its protections against discrimination, Lord and other disability rights advocates say.
Lord, a panelist for Tuesday’s forum, said the mentally ill are particularly vulnerable. Medications might be effective in allowing them to go back to work and to participate in society, but they are still vulnerable to the pervasive stigma of mental illness.
“Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court says they are no longer impaired,” Lord said. “If an employer finds out about mental illness, he might fire them, and there is no protection.”