31. The Promises and Challenges of Globalization, Since 1989

Quiz for Experiencing the American Promise: Suing for Access: Disability and the Courts

Select the best answer for each question. Click the “submit” button for each question to turn in your work.

Question 31.1

1. Why did Beverly Jones still find herself in public places that were inaccessible to her wheelchair, years after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law in 1990?

Many states refused to enforce the ADA, such as Jones’s home state.

ADA-compliant ramps were often shabby and poorly constructed.

Some local governments tried to pass statutes to override the ADA.

The ADA did not apply in places where no disabled people lived.

Question 31.2

2. When the courts began questioning whether Congress had the right to force states to uphold federal laws in 2001, the legal principle they cited was

fair use.

sovereign immunity.

ex post facto.

the statue of limitations.

Question 31.3

3. In the 2004 case of Tennessee v. Lane, in which five people sued Tennessee to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), how did the state’s lawyers echo the kinds of arguments used in the 1950s and 1960s battles for African American civil rights?

The lawyers claimed that the existence of inaccessible facilities did not imply that disabled people were inferior—a justification similar to “separate but equal” along racial lines.

One lawyer suggested that the five plaintiffs were simply trying to inflame relationships between able-bodied and disabled people, just like white supremacists did decades earlier.

The lawyers contended that the right to equal protection was well-covered by existing laws, precisely what some Southerners said to oppose the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Tennessee’s lawyers argued that the ADA was a violation of states’ rights, which was the same argument many states used to try to avoid enforcing civil rights laws.

Question 31.4

4. Even though the Supreme Court case Tennessee v. Lane was decided in 2004 in favor of the five disabled plaintiffs, why was the decision still limited in its efficacy?

The Supreme Court’s ruling only applied in the plaintiffs’ home state of Tennessee.

Tennessee quickly appealed the ruling, and the final ruling was less decisive.

The ruling was very narrow, and applied only to the accessibility of courthouses.

The ruling commented on abstract legal principles, but not on the ADA specifically.

Question 31.5

5. This essay supports which of the following historical arguments?

Disability rights protections have historically proven more difficult to achieve than civil rights protections along racial lines.

Even as late as the 2000s, individual Americans and the states were still battling over the boundaries of civil rights protections.

Since Reconstruction, legal battles over access to public space have most often focused on schools, not courthouses.