Court weighs disabled inmates' right to sue states

0 Comments | USA TODAY, November, 2005 | by Joan Biskupic

WASHINGTON -- Disabled prisoners who are not provided access to toilets, medical care and other basic needs should be able to sue states for money damages under a federal law that protects the rights of the handicapped, a Justice Department lawyer told the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement argued that when Congress adopted the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), it cited mistreatment of disabled inmates and lifted states' usual immunity from suits that seek such damages.

The U.S. government is backing Tony Goodman, a paraplegic in a Georgia prison who says he is confined at least 23 hours a day to a 12-foot-by-3-foot cell, forced to sleep in his wheelchair and often unable to reach a toilet. Goodman was convicted in 1995 on...

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