Rifkin Shanna
Duke Law J. 2017 Jan;66(4):913-41.
The news has been peppered with tragic stories of individuals with disabilities who have been killed or injured following police encounters. In the aftermath of these incidents, as injured parties seek accountability, a question looms: Can arrest proceedings violate the Americans with Disabilities Act? The ADA was enacted to prohibit disability discrimination. The law had an ambitious agenda, supported by broad statutory authority, to ensure equality in all areas of public life for individuals with disabilities. But while the ADA has fostered integration into many aspects of modern life, one area remains deeply contested: arrests. If Congress envisioned that Americans with disabilities would enjoy lives free from discrimination, excluding arrests from ADA coverage undermines the law’s broad promise of protection. In 2015, a Supreme Court opinion raised but failed to resolve this very issue, leaving an important question unanswered. This Note examines whether arrest proceedings must comply with the ADA and argues that they should. It then proposes comprehensive disability training as a tool to aid ADA compliance and avoid discriminatory arrest proceedings.
新闻中充斥着关于残疾人在与警方接触后伤亡的悲惨故事。在这些事件发生后，随着受害方寻求问责，一个问题凸显出来：逮捕程序是否会违反《美国残疾人法案》？《美国残疾人法案》旨在禁止残疾歧视。该法律有一个雄心勃勃的议程，并得到广泛的法定授权支持，以确保残疾人在公共生活的各个领域享有平等权利。然而，尽管《美国残疾人法案》促进了残疾人融入现代生活的许多方面，但有一个领域仍存在激烈争议：逮捕。如果国会设想残疾人能够享有不受歧视的生活，将逮捕排除在《美国残疾人法案》的覆盖范围之外就会损害该法律广泛的保护承诺。2015年，最高法院的一项意见提出了这个问题，但未能解决，留下了一个重要问题未得到解答。本笔记探讨逮捕程序是否必须遵守《美国残疾人法案》，并认为应该遵守。然后，它提出全面的残疾培训作为一种工具，以帮助遵守《美国残疾人法案》并避免歧视性的逮捕程序。
