Sen Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, sponsored the ADA in 1990.From the Dubuque, Iowa, Telegraph Herald June 30:
The Americans with Disabilities Act is Sen. Tom Harkin's baby, and he's not happy that it has been undermined by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Iowa Democrat, who is credited with shepherding the process that led to the signing of the ADA in 1990, is preparing to lead another charge, this time to restore what he said was Congress' original intent -- protecting individuals with disabilities from discrimination.
A series of Supreme Court decisions handed down over the past seven or eight years undermined key protections in the bill, according to Harkin.
The ADA Restoration Act he is proposing has the support of a majority of the organizations that represent people with disabilities, Harkin said, along with tentative agreement from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Society of Human Resource Management and the H.R. Policy Association.
The original ADA report language specifically said that whether a person takes medication or uses an assisting device should not be taken into account when determining if a person is disabled, Harkin said.
But a series of Supreme Court rulings held that those mitigating measures must be taken into account when determining if a person is disabled, and the court subjected to very strict scrutiny the definition of disabled as meaning 'substantially limited in a major life activity.'
'As a consequence, millions of people we intended to be protected under the ADA are not protected anymore,' Harkin said.
So, Harkin said, someone who takes medicine to control epilepsy and therefore is able to qualify for a job is no longer covered by the ADA, according to the court. If an employer finds out the person has epilepsy and fires him or her, the employee has no recourse.
'It's put an awful lot of people in catch-22 situations,' Harkin said.
