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Civil Rights Lawyer Steve Rosenbaum spoke Tuesday at a rally and petition drive of students and activists in the disability community, protesting a recent Supreme Court decision that limits the American with Disabilities Act. 

“It’s ironic,” he said, because steps, which wheelchairs can’t ascend, are emblematic of the daily problems many people with disabilities face. Steps represent barriers to access – access to schools, institutions and jobs. The ADA attempted to eliminate those barriers by preventing discrimination against disabled people and ensuring access to public institutions. Now many feel the ADA is under attack, and with it the protections necessary to ensure equality for people with disabilities.  

In the case University of Alabama vs. Garrett, a nurse with breast cancer was not allowed to sue the university for damages when it discriminated against her because of her disability. The court ruled that the state’s right not to be sued in a federal court – the university is a state institution – superseded Garrett’s civil rights. 

“We’re concerned that the Garrett decision which only applies to employment could eventually be extended into other areas like education,” said Daniel Davis, co-founder of the National Disabled Student Union. “When we started to talk we realized that there was a necessity that disabled students who had quite often been very isolated needed to start to work together on a national scale.” 

The event at UC Berkeley was one of about 90 rallies at schools around the country.  

“It released a lot of energy in the community to do something to raise awareness in the community,” said Davis, who is also vice president of the University Disabled Students’ Union. “Meeting attendance basically doubled when the Garrett decision came down.”  

While the Garrett ruling was explicitly narrow, and states still must enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act, Linda D. Kilb an attorney with, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Inc., said that the fears about civil rights erosion are justified. 

She explained that the constitution grants rights, such as free speech in the First Amendment, or equal protection in the 14th Amendment. However, Congress has often determined what those rights actually mean.  

“The 14th Amendment was passed in the wake of the Civil War, and was clearly directed at race,” said Kilb. A strict interpretation of that constitutional protection would say that equal protection can only be granted based on race alone – leaving out protections against discrimination for people based on gender, age, disability, gender or anything else.  

“Historically the civil rights movement had largely presumed that congress had a great deal of latitude in saying what things mean,” said Kilb, and Congress has used its power to expand civil rights protections. Now, she said, the court is asserting its jurisdiction, and saying that the legislature has gone too far. 

“That’s where the vigilance needs to happen now. It’s very very important that people recognize that this is a long-term trend and picture,” said Kilb. “We’re in the middle of this interpretive discussion about how broadly civil rights laws can be enacted and enforced by the federal government and the U.S. Congress, and that dialogue is one of the more significant developments in the last half century.” 

If the Supreme Court is granting more power to the states, activists said, then movements should incorporate that into their strategy. Jenny Kern, board member of the American Civil Liberties Union recommended that people focus on local legislation to ensure that rights are protected at the state level, and City Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring both spoke about the importance of California legislation to protect disability rights. “We have the power to say, in California the Garrett decision will have no effect,” said Worthington.  

The students passed around a petition asking that California protect the civil rights of people with disabilities by passing legislation which would incorporate many of the provisions of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act into a state statute, AB 677 sponsored by Assemblymember Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and to support AB925, a bill by Assemblymember Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley, to move people with disabilities into the workforce.  

The rally was timed to increase awareness about disability before more judges hostile to disability rights start getting appointed to the federal bench. Student co-founder Davis encouraged the audience to write their representatives and let them know that civil rights are important in any federal judge.  

Davis said April 17 has its own significance. “It’s the day after tax day,” he said impishly. “We’re reminding our elected officials that it’s only fair that if you tax people as citizens, you need to represent them and treat them as citizens.” The date also commemorates the founding of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, which fought for civil rights in the 1960s. “We wanted to hearken back to that tradition of idealistic leadership in causes of social justice,” he said.