Americans With Disabilities Act Violations

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Civil

7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Officials: POSNER, MANION, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges

Americans With Disabilities Act Violations

No. 14-2850

Illinois League of Advocates for the Developmentally Disabled v. Illinois Department of Human Services

State decision to move residents to community based residence not in violation of ADA.

“We are mindful that as the population of the Murray Developmental Center shrinks in consequence of the decision of some (maybe many) guardians to permit their wards to be transferred to community-based facilities, a point will be reached at which the cost of operating the Center will exceed the benefits because there will be so few residents remaining. Keeping the Center open will then be like trying to maintain a 100-room hotel only one room of which is occupied. And so the Center will be closed and the remaining handful of residents transferred either to other SODCs or to community-based facilities. That will not be a discriminatory outcome. The handful not transferred until Murray closes will not be treated worse than residents transferred earlier. The plaintiffs concede that they have no right to their wards’ being housed at Murray—that they would have no cause to complain were their wards to be transferred to another SODC that provided services equivalent to those provided by Murray.”

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.[/box]