Recently, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a District Court in an ADA/Pregnancy Discrimination/FMLA case.
In doing so, the court addressed many important reasons why the District Court was hasty and flat wrong in its decision to dismiss the case and deny the plaintiff a right to have her case heard by a jury. One of the more notable reasons was that the court determined the plaintiff was not “disabled” as defined by the ADA. In fact, she had “one of the worst cases” her OB/GYN had seen of post-partum depression, but nonetheless, the court was dismissive of this critical fact reasoning that her depression was only “intermittent.” This is exactly the type of misguided reasoning the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) was intended to address.
The ADAAA was passed to address and correct misguided and simply incorrect interpretations of the ADA by the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal. The ADAAA was passed nearly a decade ago, but courts are still misinterpreting it. The Sixth Circuit’s reversal was a strong reversal of a wrong opinion that denied a plaintiff her right to be heard by a jury.
http://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/18a0140p-06.pdf
