Public Health Law Map - Beta 5 - Medical and Public Health Law Site

find the necessary pattern of irrational state discrimination. In August 1998,
George Lane and Beverly Jones filed an action against the State of Tennessee and a
number of Tennessee counties, alleging violations of Title II of the ADA. Both are
paraplegics who use wheelchairs for mobility. They claimed that they were denied
access to, and the services of, the state court system by reason of their disabilities.
Lane alleged that he was compelled to appear to answer a set of criminal charges
on the second floor of a county courthouse that had no elevator.
At his first appearance in court, Lane crawled up two flights of stairs to get to the
courtroom. When Lane returned to the courthouse for a hearing, he refused to
crawl again or to be carried by officers to the courtroom; he consequently was
arrested and jailed for failure to appear. Jones, a certified court reporter, alleged
that she has not been able to gain access to a number of county courthouses, and as
a result had lost both work and an opportunity to participate in the judicial process.
The State moved to dismiss the suit on the ground that it was barred by the
Eleventh Amendment. The Court held Title II of the ADA, prohibiting
discrimination by a public entity, validly abrogated Eleventh Amendment immunity
through enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment, as applied to cases implicating
the fundamental right of access to the courts.
2. Personal Liability for Constitutional Torts
Health officials should understand § 1983 actions because they may be held
personally liable for constitutional torts. A constitutional tort is an action that violates
the Constitution but is not otherwise tortious. § 1983 does not create any substantive
rights, but provides a remedy for plaintiffs who have been deprived of rights,
privileges, or immunities granted by the Constitution or federal law. Daniels v.
Williams, 474 U.S. 327 (1986). A common example of a constitutional tort is a
violation of one’s due process rights. § 1983 was enacted in the wake of the Civil
War to enable the federal government to enforce Fourteenth Amendment
constitutional rights in the South. The Supreme Court recognized the need for federal
courts to be involved in the enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment. Therefore,
the Court applied a “legal fiction” in order to circumvent the Eleventh Amendment
protection and hold a state official accountable for violation of a federal law. The
Court reasoned that a state government official will be deemed to be “stripped of his
official or representative character and is subjected in his person to the consequences
of his individual conduct.”[Ex Parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 160 (1908)] Although the
official’s action is a state action for purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment, the
action is not an action of the state under Eleventh Amendment. Thus, the state’s
Eleventh Amendment immunity is maintained while at the same time allowing a suit
against the state official to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees.
§ 1983 will be applied liberally to achieve its goal of protecting official violations of
federally protected rights. Dennis v. Higgins, 498 U.S. 439 (1991). The plaintiff must
assert that the defendant (1) acted under color of state law and (2) deprived the
plaintiff of a right secured by the Constitution or a federal statute. Gomez v. Toledo,
446 U.S. 635 (1980). Therefore, some manner of state responsibility must be
83