Five Things About Judge Sonia Sotomayor and Disability Rights

The Bazelon Center and other disability organizations support Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination and ask you to help ensure her confirmation by the Senate. Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's first nominee to the United States Supreme Court, understands that disability rights are civil rights.As a judge on both the district court and circuit court, she has demonstrated that she recognizes the importance of Congress' role in enacting major disability rights laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Rehabilitation Act, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

The laws mentioned above protect the civil rights of people with disabilities by requiring that they have equal opportunities in work and at school, and that they have equal access to government services and public accommodations, like stores, restaurants, theaters and sporting events. The care that Judge Sotomayor has taken in her decisions under these laws indicates a respect for Congress' intent to protect individuals with disabilities from such discrimination. And she is not afraid to take bold positions to ensure that Congress's laws protecting disability rights are upheld.

Judge Sotomayor understands that the ADA protects millions of people with disabilities.

Over the years many judges have taken an extremely narrow view of whether people with disabilities like cancer, diabetes, epilepsy and many mental illnesses were covered by the ADA. Last year, Congress had to amend the ADA to make it clear that people with disabilities like these are protected. Judge Sotomayor has a record of looking at all of the facts to ensure that she makes the right decision about whether a plaintiff is protected by the ADA.

Judge Sotomayor knows how important special education is to students with disabilities and their families.

Special education consists of critical specialized instruction and services for students with disabilities who need these supports to succeed in school and life. Judge Sotomayor has acknowledged that when families and schools disagree about what services are appropriate, a student's success in school hangs in the balance and, as a result, such disagreements should be resolved as soon as possible. In one case, Judge Sotomayor held that parents can place their child in an alternative setting and get reimbursed for the cost of appropriate services if the public school fails to provide them. This year the Supreme Court agreed with Judge Sotomayor's position when it decided theForest Grove case.

Judge Sotomayor knows that people with disabilities have a right to privacy.

Under the ADA, employees are protected from having personal information disclosed to people who don't need to know about it. Judge Sotomayor has affirmed this, stating that employers should not be able to "monitor … [or] control … the health of their employees [or] the most intimate aspects of their off-duty lives."

Judge Sotomayor knows that people with disabilities are entitled to lead independent lives, just like everyone else.

Sometimes people make assumptions about individuals with disabilities based on stereotypes of helplessness. Judge Sotomayor understands that this is wrong. Arguing that it was wrong to appoint a guardian ad litem (a person appointed by the court to protect the interests of someone who is incapacitated) for a plaintiff who had been released from a psychiatric hospital, she determined that, at the least, the plaintiff should have been given adequate notice that, "if … a guardian ad litem was appointed, she would lose all authority to make decisions concerning her own case."

Judge Sotomayor understands that court rulings have consequences.

Judge Sotomayor understands that her decisions in disability rights cases have consequences for people with disabilities. In a case about whether a person with a learning disability should get accommodations to take the bar exam so she could earn her right to practice law, Judge Sotomayor wrote that the plaintiff "struggled through three laborious years of law school-at no small fiscal or psychic cost. To tell her now that she is free to go and practice another profession, or to return to her prior field … would not be consistent with the remedial goals that Congress intended in passing the ADA."

In addition to her extensive legal expertise, Judge Sotomayor's life experience makes her uniquely qualified to be a disability rights champion on the Supreme Court. Unlike any other Supreme Court justice in recent memory, Judge Sotomayor has publicly acknowledged that she has a disability-insulin-treated diabetes. Her life experience with diabetes makes her uniquely qualified to help her colleagues on the Supreme Court understand the importance of the protections in the ADA and other disability rights laws to people with disabilities.

For these reasons, we think Judge Sotomayor can be a champion for disability rights. The Bazelon Center and many other disability organizations have signed onto a letter supporting her nomination.

What You Can Do

We need a disability rights champion on the Supreme Court. The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin hearings on her nomination next week. If you agree, please phone or write to your Senators - particularly if they are members of the committee (listed below) - to ask them to confirm Judge Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. (To email, use the form provided on the Senator's website.)

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee
Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT), chair, (202) 224-4242, leahy.senate.gov
Herbert Kohl (D-WI), (202) 224-5653, kohl.senate.gov
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), (202) 224-3841, feinstein.senate.gov
Russ Feingold (D-WI), (202) 224-5323, feingold.senate.gov
Charles Schumer (D-NY), (202) 224-6542, schumer.senate.gov
Richard Durbin (D-IL), (202) 224-2152, durbin.senate.gov
Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), (202) 224-4524, cardin.senate.gov
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), (202) 224-2921, whitehouse.senate.gov
Ron Wyden, D-OR), (202) 224-5244, wyden.senate.gov
Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), (202) 224-3244, klobuchar.senate.gov
Ted Kaufman (D-DE), (202) 224-5042, kaufman.senate.gov
Arlen Specter (D-PA), (202) 224-4254, specter.senate.gov

Jeff Sessions (R-AL), ranking member, (202) 224-4124, sessions.senate.gov
Orrin Hatch (R-UT), (202) 224-5251, hatch.senate.gov
Charles Grassley (R-IA), (202) 224-3744, grassley.senate.gov
Jon Kyl (R-AZ), (202) 224-4521, kyl.senate.gov
Lindsey Graham (R-SC), (202) 224-5972, lgraham.senate.gov
John Cornyn (R-TX), (202) 224-2934, cornyn.senate.gov
Tom Coburn (R-OK), (202) 224-5754, coburn.senate.gov

To find contact information for other Senators, go to www.senate.gov.

See a review of Judge Sotomayor's decisions involving disability rights.

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