Supreme Court seems inclined to punt case on online hotel accessibility

FILE- Light illuminates part of the Supreme Court building on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 16, 2022. The Supreme Court will decide whether a disabled activist can file disability rights lawsuits against hotels she doesn't intend to visit. to put off a decision about whether disability rights activists have legal grounds to sue hotels they have no intention of visiting, with a majority of justices suggesting it would be a waste of time to resolve a lawsuit that has been dropped.

and, more broadly, to what extent people are directly harmed when they experience discriminatory barriers or policies online. Justice Department rules implementing the ADA in 2010 require hotels to “identify and describe accessible features” in sufficient detail so that people who rely on service dogs or wheelchairs, for instance, can assess whether a hotel meets their needs.

The court, he added, should resolve whether testers like Laufer have the right — or standing — to sue properties they do not plan to visit. He suggested the justices should have institutional concerns about the last-minute abandonment of a case.Only Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. expressed repeated interest in having the court tackle the standing question at hand.

Lower courts are divided. The U.S. District Court in Maine said Laufer lacked standing and dismissed her case. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit reversed and sided with Laufer, citing a 1982 Supreme Court decision that upheld the standing of a Black tester to bring a racial discrimination case under the Fair Housing Act after the tester was turned away when trying to rent an apartment she had no intention of renting.

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