March 6, 2003
Washington D.C. — As Congress prepares to reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), supporters of private-school vouchers are touting a little-known Florida program as a model for improving special education. Pro-voucher forces are also backing bills in at least four states - Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii and Oklahoma - that would create programs patterned after Florida's 1999 McKay voucher law. One of the McKay law's most enthusiastic promoters has dubbed the program the "Florida Miracle," but a report released today debunks this myth, raising serious concerns about financial abuse and the law's impact on parents' rights and special education services.
California Supreme Court Decides Disability Rights Case
February 20, 2003
Berkeley, California — The California Supreme Court today announced its decision in Colmenares v. Braemar Country Club, the first case in a decade that the state high court has heard involving the issue of what constitutes a disability under California state law. The case looked at the contested question of whether California disability rights laws afford broader protections for people with disabilities than the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Mr. Colmenares was represented in the high court by Joseph M. Lovretovich and the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Inc. (DREDF). DREDF attorney Linda D. Kilb argued the case on December 4, 2002.
Finger v. Walgreens
May 22, 2002
Representing plaintiff Anne Finger DREDF filed a lawsuit against drugstore giant Walgreen Co., alleging that the retailer routinely blocked access to aisles and goods and thus failed to comply with California law requiring full and equal access to customers with physical disabilities.
Colmenares v. Braemar Country Club
April 1, 2002
The Colmenares case looked at the contested question of whether California disability rights laws afforded broader protections for people with disabilities than the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Colmenares addressed the definition of disability under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). The case required the state high court to determine the scope of the California law definition of "physical disability."
Chevron USA, Inc. v. Echazabal
February 1, 2002
DREDF joined as co-counsel in amicus curiae brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of a wide variety of disability organizations including the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), AARP, the American Council of the Blind (ACB), the American Diabetes Association (ADA), ADAPT, the Brain Injury Association of America, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, ("DREDF"), Epilepsy Foundation, HalfthePlanet Foundation, the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, the Legal Aid Society Employment Law Center (LAS-ELC), the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), the National Association of the Deaf Law Center, the National Association of Developmental Disabilities Councils (NADDC), the National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems (NAPAS), the National Association of Rights Protection and Advocacy (NARPA), the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), the National Mental Health Association, the National Mental Health Consumers - Self-Help Clearinghouse, the Polio Society, The Arc of the United States (The Arc), and the United Cerebral Palsy Associations, Inc. (UCP).
Mary Lou Breslin Selected to Receive Prestigious Award
January 28, 2002
Berkeley, California — Mary Lou Breslin, a co-founder of the Berkeley's Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) and a highly passionate, respected and effective advocate on behalf of people with disabilities in the U.S. and around the world for more than 25 years, has been selected by a national jury to receive the prestigious Henry B. Betts Award. The presentation of a $50,000 cash award will be made to Ms. Breslin at the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) Leadership Gala on February 27, 2002 in Washington, DC.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc., v. Ella Williams
August 31, 2001
DREDF filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc., v. Ella Williams on behalf of the National Council on Disability. The case involved a worker who, upon developing carpal tunnel syndrome was reassigned from her job as an assembly line to other positions, where she performed satisfactorily. Eventually, Toyota required Williams to perform additional manual tasks, whereupon her pain reappeared. Williams requested an accommodation of her company-diagnosed medical condition and a return to her previous job as paint inspector. Williams stopped going to work and Toyota fired her.
Disability Rights Lawsuit Against Oakland Taxi Company
August 27, 2001
Berkeley, California — One of Oakland's largest taxi services, Friendly Cab Company, Inc., is charged with discriminating against passengers who use guide dogs, according to a lawsuit that will be filed on Wednesday, July 11, 2001, in Alameda County Superior Court. The suit will be filed by the Berkeley-based Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Inc. (DREDF), on behalf of Oakland residents Claude Everett and Constance Kelley, both of whom are blind and who rely on guide dogs. The lawsuit is brought exclusively under California law, which prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities and guarantees their right to be accompanied by guide dogs.
Judge Says Laguna Honda Residents Can Sue City of San Francisco
July 14, 2001
San Francisco, California — Judge Saundra Armstrong of the U.S. District Court has upheld the rights of several people with disabilities who live at Laguna Honda Hospital, and the Independent Living Center San Francisco, to pursue a lawsuit alleging that the City and County of San Francisco is violating their civil rights.
Civil Rights Advocates Decry Supreme Court Decision
February 21, 2001
The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Inc. (DREDF), the country's leading disability civil rights organization, expressed dismay at today's Supreme Court decision limiting the enforcement of Title I of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. By the narrowest of margins, 5-4, the Court held in Garrett that state employees are not protected if their employers discriminate against them because of disability. The case involved two state employees with disabilities in Alabama — Patricia Garrett, a registered nurse with breast cancer, and Milton Ash, a security officer with asthma and sleep apnea, both of whom suffered discrimination in their jobs because of their disabilities.