Conservative Justices on Rights of Disabled

It is heartening to learn of the Supreme Court decision allowing disabled individuals to sue states that do not provide disability access (May 18). However, this should have been a slam-dunk rather than a 5-4 ruling. It is discouraging, 50 years after Brown vs. Board of Education, to see that four justices feel that it is perfectly fine that someone in a wheelchair cannot access a courtroom because there is no elevator.

Particularly offensive is the comment from Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who says that constitutional rights for the disabled are “quite limited.” He and his three cronies on the court would not bother to increase them, arguing that states have a “sovereign immunity” against lawsuits. The question is: Why are justices Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Anthony Kennedy, whose views are neo-Neanderthal, on the Supreme Court?

Linda Winters

Culver City