“Do as I say, not as I do” doesn’t cut it anymore

This came up last week and I’ve been meaning to comment on it. According to this article, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a disabled man was able to sue a local court house under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). The guy was a paraplegic and was to appear for minor traffic charges, but the court in question had no elevator. He literally couldn’t make it to the court unless someone carried him, which he thought was dangerous (and probably humiliating). So he didn’t show up and was arrested for something he was physically incapable of doing. He sued and appealed to the Supreme Court until he won.

When I heard this story, it struck me as a no-brainer. I’m familiar with the ADA, and thought that there was no question that it required courts (and any other employer or public building) to take reasonable measures to make themselves accessible to people with disabilities. Indeed, it does. But what was weird up until this point is that while the law required courts to be accessible, there was no legal mechanism by which people could enforce it. If a court, like the one in question, breaks the law and makes it impossible for a person to access the courts, then there was no recourse.

In fact, this quote from the linked article above struck me as particularly absurd: “Most notably, the Supreme Court ruled three years ago that states cannot be sued by their own employees for failing to comply with the ADA’s guarantee against discrimination in the workplace.”

Is it just me, or is that insane? How nice of the government to excuse itself from its own laws, eh? I’m surprised it took this long for a court case to surface that called them on it.