testing – Overlawyered

ADA and disabled rights roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 09:58:25 +0000

Supreme Court declines review in Domino’s case, so no resolution is in sight of what and how much the ADA may require about web accessibility [Tucker Higgins, CNBC; Corbin Barthold, Law and Liberty; earlier]
NYC co-ops, condos targeted: “These lawyers have one handicapped client, and they go with this person from building to building with commercial spaces.” [Marianne Schaefer, Habitat magazine] Related: John Egan, Seyfarth Shaw;
“Airline’s Provision of Alternative Accessible Website Triggers Hefty Fine Under the Air Carrier Access Act” [Kristina M. Launey & Minh N. Vu, Seyfarth Shaw last winter]
“A handy FAQ for service animals in the workplace” [Jon Hyman]
“Thus far, these serial cases appear [more] designed to extract a quick settlement than rectify a real harm, as evidenced by the choice of plaintiff,” who couldn’t actually join credit union but sued anyway [Hollie Ferguson, Legal NewsLine] “Federal judge deals body blow to attorney at center of serial ADA lawsuits” [Casmira Harrison, Daytona Beach News-Journal; Minh Vu, Seyfarth Shaw]
Law School Admissions Test will be doing away with its analytical reasoning portion, also known as logic problems, after a blind plaintiff sued saying it “it wasn’t fair for visually impaired people because the most common way to solve the problems was to draw diagrams and pictures.” [Cheyna Roth, Michigan Radio (NPR)]

Tags: ADA filing mills, airlines, disabled rights, real estate, service animals, testing, web accessibility

ADA and disabled rights roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Feds: Maryland county improperly screened cops for logic, reading ability

Walter Olson — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 10:02:56 +0000

Sentences worth pondering, from coverage of the U.S. Department of Justice’s employment-practices suit against Baltimore County: “The exams tested reading, grammar, logic and other skills that the suit alleges are not related to the job of being a police officer or police cadet.” Critics take heart, however: “County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. issued a statement saying the police department has discontinued the test.” [Pamela Wood and Wilborn P. Nobles III, Baltimore Sun]

Tags: Baltimore, Department of Justice, disparate impact, Maryland, police, testing

Feds: Maryland county improperly screened cops for logic, reading ability is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

See something, say something, then get ready for bias charges or a lawsuit

Walter Olson — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 09:43:51 +0000

“The common thread among suspects in these mass shootings and terroristic incidents is not merely that they had mental health issues and an attraction to extremist political ideologies. In each case, the concerned people in those killers’ lives failed to speak up or their warnings were dismissed when they did.” And the structure of legal incentives created by wide-sweeping high-penalty discrimination and privacy laws (which cover categories like mental illness by way of the ADA) may not be entirely unrelated to that phenomenon. [Noah Rothman, Commentary] “No Psych Exam for Orlando Shooter Despite Odd Behavior, FBI Probes” [NBC News]

Tags: discrimination law, mental disability, terrorism, testing

See something, say something, then get ready for bias charges or a lawsuit is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Federal judge reinstates 12 female police officers who failed fitness test

Walter Olson — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 05:15:55 +0000

Puff, puff, gasp, wheeze…. ah, better just let the perp go. “A U.S. district court ruled the twelve [female] officers who are all at least 40 years old must be reinstated until a final ruling, although they failed the physical fitness test, reported Colorado Springs outlet KRDO.” [Casey Harper, Daily Caller]

Tags: Colorado, police, sex discrimination, testing

Federal judge reinstates 12 female police officers who failed fitness test is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Schools roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 02 Jul 2015 04:05:23 +0000

University of California deems it “microaggressions” to say these things. How many have you said today? [Eugene Volokh; related from Hans Bader on federal government’s role]
Regarding those conniptions among some University of Wisconsin faculty: “Despite what you’ve heard, tenure is unchanged.” [Christian Schneider, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, via Ann Althouse]
Indiana school board president: black market for sugar, salt observed in our schools after federal lunch mandate [Washington Free Beacon, B.K. Marcus/FEE via @farmerhayek (comparison to prisoner of war economy)]
“Amherst’s version of Kafka’s ‘The Trial'” [KC Johnson, Minding the Campus] Problems with Washington Post journalism on campus assault [KC Johnson and Stuart Taylor, Jr., Weekly Standard; Ashe Schow, D.C. Examiner]
Judge rules against NYC teacher competence test that showed disparate impact against minorities [New York Times; Blake Neff, Daily Caller]
Update: “Jury Rejects Unsuccessful Conservative Faculty Candidate’s Discrimination Suit Against Univ. of Iowa Law School” [Caron/TaxProf, earlier here, etc.]
Ethics regs forbid researchers to exercise “undue influence” over survey subjects’ decision to answer their questions, and applications of that concept can be surprising [Nicholas Christakis on Berkeley instance via Zachary Schrag, IRB Blog]

Tags: colleges and universities, hostile environment, school lunch, schools, science and scientists, sexual assault, testing, Wisconsin

Schools roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Children and schools roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 04:05:04 +0000

Story of free-range Meitiv kids goes national, cont’d: “Bystanders are forced [sic] to step in and enforce discipline because the parents aren’t around.” [Slate via @bibliographing] Yes, the cited “National Association to Protect Children” is a real group, I looked it up [Washington Jewish Week] “Epidemic of moms getting arrested for leaving children in car 5 mins to run into store.” [Kim Brooks, Salon via @Lorettamalakie]
What got buried in a WaPo column arguing that standardized tests for schoolkids are “a civil right.” [Ann Althouse] Testing issue allows teachers’ unions to make friends on the conservative side [NYT via same]
Legal costs exceed $100 per student at some Chicago-area public schools; $23 billed for one lawyer’s phone message [Tribune via ABA Journal]
Maintenance of Effort laws, meant to insulate school budgets against local voter control, might backfire [Free State Notes post by me, channeling my letter to the editor]
A dissent on liberalizing school discipline policies [Paul Sperry, New York Post]
Colorado school shootings: why is GOP leading push for emotion-driven, public-fisc-endangering lawsuits? [John Frank, Denver Post]
Expensive new playground mandates [Paul Best and Lenore Skenazy, more from Skenazy, Tim Gill via Common Good]

Tags: Chicago, Child Protective Services, Colorado, school discipline, schools, testing

Children and schools roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

DoJ sues Pennsylvania over trooper fitness tests

Walter Olson — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 04:24:07 +0000

The tests “disproportionately screened out female applicants, resulting in a disparate impact against those applicants.” Officers who are highly fit have more options in a situation where force is required — subduing a suspect without resort to a gun, for example. Still, courts have often gone along with demands to weaken tests and standards. [DoJ press release] More: TV and Treadmills (FBI uses higher standards than the ones DoJ is suing over).

Tags: Department of Justice, police, testing

DoJ sues Pennsylvania over trooper fitness tests is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Law schools roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 22 May 2014 04:05:28 +0000

Under DoJ gun, LSAT agrees to end flagging of test scores taken with disabled accommodation, cough up more than $7 million [Justice press release, Caron/TaxProf roundup coverage]
“Things law school trustees probably should not do: subpoena their own school’s students for criticizing them” [@petersterne; Danielle Tcholakian, DNAInfo]
Should law students graduate without studying the First Amendment? And other thoughts from Justice Scalia’s William & Mary commencement speech [text via Will Baude]
“Rank ordering the likelihood of law school reforms” [Prof. Bainbridge] ABA moves forward with law school accreditation changes; tenure, among other institutions, likely to remain sacrosanct [Caron/TaxProf, Fortune]
Paul Horwitz reviews James R. Hackney Jr. book on contemporary legal academy [Journal of Legal Education via Prawfs]
Alex Acosta dean case: should conservative legal academics steer clear of Florida? [Bainbridge]
Orin Kerr vs. Erwin Chemerinsky and Carrie Menkel-Meadow on curricular reform [Volokh Conspiracy]

Tags: bar associations, disability & schools, law schools, testing

Law schools roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Disabled rights roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 04:05:40 +0000

“US Airways has agreed to pay $1.2 million in fines because it provided inadequate wheelchair service at the Charlotte and Philadelphia airports” [Charlotte Observer, USA Today; on abuses of the right to request wheelchair service at airports, see links in our post last May] Support animals on airplanes, cont’d [NYT]
In New York, indefinite leave of absence may be deemed a reasonable accommodation that employer is obliged to grant [Erin McPhail Wetty, Seyfarth] Per Second Circuit in NYC case, timely attendance not essential job function [Mark Kittaka, Barnes & Thornburg]
US disability rate fell 25 percent between 1977-87, then more than doubled [Tad DeHaven, Cato via Bryan Caplan] Has a Kentucky attorney found holes in the SSDI system? [Jillian Kay Melchior]
Per EEOC, employer may be obliged to grant employee’s request to work from home as reasonable accommodation [Johanna Wise, Seyfarth]
Lawprof suspended for allegedly yelling at subordinates sues under ADA [Althouse, Above the Law]
“None of the people who complained had even been into the store” [San Diego Reader]
And yet more from EEOC: employer “integrity testing” meant to assess applicants’ honesty, trustworthiness and dependability can run afoul of disabled-rights law [link]

Tags: ADA filing mills, airlines, disabled rights, EEOC, testing, workplace

Disabled rights roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Labor and employment roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 04:07:49 +0000

Great moments in union contracts: “Many Suburban Cops Allowed To Work ‘Half Drunk'” [NBC Chicago]
California high court imposes arbitrary damage-splitting rule on mixed-motive firings [Cheryl Miller, The Recorder]
More tales of much-forgiven Broward County bus drivers [Sun-Sentinel, background]
Sixth Circuit: SEIU robocalls to harass hospital CEO don’t violate TCPA [Littler]
Judge rejects EEOC position against alcohol testing of steelworkers in safety-sensitive posts [Paul Mirengoff, PowerLine, Reuters]
“NYFD made written test impossible to fail, but diversity recruits in Academy can’t meet physical standards either.” [Ted Frank/PoL]
“The March Toward a Bullying Cause of Action Continues” [Michael Fox, Employer’s Lawyer; TheDenverChannel.com]
T’wasn’t easy for White House to find a new Labor Secretary to the left of Hilda Solis, but meet Tom Perez [WaPo]

Tags: bullying, California, discrimination law, EEOC, fire departments, Florida, labor unions, Sixth Circuit, testing, transit

Labor and employment roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system