WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May that people with disabilities do have the right to sue states who fail to live up to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
The 5-4 decision, stems from the case of a George Lane, a Tennessee man, who filed suit against a Polk County Courthouse because it had no elevator for Lane who is a paraplegic and who uses a wheelchair.
“The unequal treatment of disabled persons in the administration of judicial services has a long history that has persisted despite anti-discrimination laws,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for himself and
Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.
Lane had to crawl up the courthouse steps in order to gain access. He sued for $100,000 for humiliation.Lane’s victory, means that others with disabilities can sue government entities that fail to give access under the ADA.
FLORIDA—Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman who has been thrust into the international spotlight because of a tug-of-war family feud over whether to keep her alive by feeding her through a feeding tube, is expected to be visited by her parents on the May 28th weekend, according to published reports.
Schiavo’s parents were banned from seeing their daughter for several weeks while nursing home officials examined the ailing woman’s bruised arms.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ordered her feeding tube reinserted, after a court had given authority to have it removed, thus leading the way for Schiavo to die, as her husband says she would have wanted.
The case is expected to make it all the way to the state’s highest court.
CALIFORNIA—Former United States First Lady Nancy Reagan, broke from partisan politics and called on the President George W. Bush to ease his administration’s severe restrictions on stem cell research.
Mrs. Reagan said that less restrictions may lead to researchers using stem cells to possibly cure diseases including Alzheimer’s Disease.
Former President Ronald Reagan has the disease. Reagan’s impassioned plea came as she spoke at a fundraising event last month. The disease has led the former President “to a distant place where I can no longer reach him and share our 52 years,” she said.
“Science has presented us with a hope called stem cell research, which may provide our scientists with many answers that for so long have been beyond our grasp. I just don’t see how we can turn our backs on this.
We have lost so much time already. I just really can’t bear to lose any more.”
President Bush’s restriction on stem cell research is because the research requires the use of human embryos.
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