At The Bottom Of The Courthouse Steps

Yesterday’s NY Times had a great editorial about the Tennessee v. Lane case, which is scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court tomorrow. Per the Respondent’s (Lane’s) brief, the facts are as follows:
Respondents George Lane and Beverly Jones have paraplegia and use wheelchairs to ambulate. Pet. App. 13. In 1996, petitioner charged Lane with two misdemeanor offenses and summoned him to appear in the Polk County Courthouse to answer the charges. Id. at 15-16. All court proceedings in that courthouse take place on the second floor of a building that, at that time, had no elevator. At his first appearance, Lane crawled up two flights of stairs to get to the courtroom. On his second visit, he was arrested after he “sent word to the court that he would not crawl to the courtroom again” and further declined to be carried by officers. Id. at 15. The court conducted subsequent proceedings with Lane waiting on the ground floor while his attorney shuttled back and forth between Lane and the second-floor courtroom.

Beverly Jones, another party to the case, is a court reporter who uses a wheelchair. She has been forced to decline several job assignments because many of Tennessee’s courthouses are inaccessible. Lane and Jones sued the State of Tennessee for failing to comply with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Title II requires public services and programs to be accessible to people with disabilities.
Tennessee is arguing that it cannot be sued under the ADA because the 11th Amendment of the Constitution grants it immunity from such suits. Once an obscure and often-ignored Constitutional provision, the 11th Amendment has become the weapon of choice for states’ rights advocates and so-called federalists determined to strike down what they deem as intrusive and burdensome federal laws. This tactic has met with much success in the Supreme Court. In a previous Supreme Court decision, Alabama v. Garrett, the Court ruled that state employees cannot sue the state under another provision of the ADA, Title I. States are also protected from suits under other federal anti-discrimination and environmental laws.
When I was a year or so out of law school, i interviewed for a judicial clerkship position in this little town called Mora, Minnesota. When I got to the interview, I discovered that the courtroom was inaccessible. The judge still interviewed me, but he and I both knew I wasn’t getting the job. I did get another clerkship a couple months later, but what if I lived in Mora and wanted apply for a marriage certificate? What if I was being sued? What if I was called for jury duty?
What if I wanted to vote?
In 2004, people with disabilities shouldn’t have to be litigating issues of access anymore. We shouldn’t have to keep explaining to courts how decades of discrimination and bias made a federal law like the ADA necessary. We shouldn’t have to plead for the right to be allowed into a courtroom without crawling up the steps. We shouldn’t have to ask for the opportunity to enjoy the liberties, both trivial and profound, that everyone else takes for granted.
But we do have to ask. And sometimes it makes me want to weep.