Last week, COPAA submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Y.A. v. Hamtramck Public Schools in support of the plaintiffs-appellants’ Petition for Rehearing En Banc, which is a request that all of the Sixth Circuit judges reconsider the case, vacate the decision of the smaller panel of Sixth Circuit judges that previously heard and decided the case, and affirm the decision of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. 

You can read the amicus brief here.

In this case, a group of parents of children with disabilities sued their public school district and the Michigan Department of Education for violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. 

If the Sixth Circuit grants the families’ Petition for Rehearing En Banc, the full appellate court will reconsider the case and could change the court’s earlier decision that the Michigan Department of Education cannot be sued for alleged violations of Title II of the ADA.

The State of Michigan had moved to dismiss the parents’ claims against it before the federal district court, which denied the State’s motion. With respect to the parents’ ADA Title II claim, the district court held that the ADA abrogated states’ sovereign immunity under the Fourteenth Amendment, meaning that states can be sued under Title II of the ADA. Michigan filed an interlocutory appeal with the Sixth Circuit, where the panel reversed the district court’s decision.

COPAA and its fellow amici argue that the case should be reconsidered by the full Sixth Circuit because state education agencies do not have immunity from suits brought pursuant to Title II of the ADA, as a state’s obligations under the IDEA create a “service” or “program” under Title II, thereby triggering the state’s liability for ADA violations. As the amicus brief explained further, all other federal circuit courts of appeals that have considered this question have held that “Congress validly abrogated sovereign immunity for [ADA] Title II public education discrimination claims, consistently holding that the documented history of disability discrimination in educational settings provides sufficient constitutional foundation for congressional action under the Fourteenth Amendment.”

COPAA Legal Director Selene Almazan wrote the amicus brief. Amicus Cochairs Alexis Casillas, Ellen Saideman and Catherine Merino Reisman assisted. COPAA’s fellow amici are Disability Rights Michigan, Disability Rights Ohio, Disability Rights Tennessee, Erwin Chemerinsky, and Michigan Disability Rights Coalition.

An additional amicus brief in support of the families’ Petition for Rehearing En Banc was submitted by Abdnour Weiker, MI AECRES, Kentucky Protection & Advocacy, Law for Baby Boomers, and Autism Alliance of Michigan. You can read that amicus brief here.