Maxine Neuhauser, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Newark office, was quoted in Law360 Employment Authority, in “EEOC Amicus Blitz Illustrates Agency's Disability Bias Focus,” by Anne Cullen. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lodged nearly three dozen amicus briefs this past fiscal year, a significant jump from the past several cycles that experts said underscored the agency's commitment to Americans with Disabilities Act issues.
The 34 amicus briefs the agency fired off in its 2023 fiscal year — which ran from Oct. 1, 2022, to Sept. 30, 2023 — represented a 60% increase from the filings that landed on dockets the prior year, about 50% more than the amicus activity in 2021, and more than double what was sent out in 2020.
Of the latest stack, nearly a third fleshed out the agency's stances on disability discrimination issues, a rising figure experts attributed to the EEOC's stated priority on enforcing workplace protections for employees it considers vulnerable, including people with intellectual and developmental disabilities as well as those facing mental health-related disabilities.
Epstein Becker Green member Maxine Neuhauser, who has a focus on disability and accommodations issues, said the commission appears to be massaging the boundaries of the ADA in some of the latest briefs.
"In several of these, I'm seeing a pushing of the edges of the envelope," Neuhauser said.
