High court gives go-ahead to disabled inmates' suits

WASHINGTON — States can sometimes be sued for damages by disabled inmates, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in resolving the first clash over states' rights under Chief Justice John Roberts.

The court said Georgia inmate Tony Goodman could use a federal disabilities law to sue, claiming that prison officials did not accommodate his disability. Goodman contends he was kept for more than 23 hours a day in a cell so narrow he could not turn his wheelchair.

His case had become the latest test of the scope of the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act, a law meant to ensure equal treatment for the disabled in many areas of life.

The Supreme Court ruled previously that people in state prisons are protected by the law, and the follow-up case asked whether individual prisoners have recourse in the courts.

Georgia argued that states should be immune from inmate lawsuits brought under the law.

Not a single justice agreed Tuesday.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, said that states could be sued under the ADA for constitutional-rights violations. The court put off deciding whether state corrections departments can face suits for general violations of the law, a more significant and contentious issue.

"This tells states they don't have free rein. They don't have carte blanche," said Chai Feldblum, a Georgetown University civil-rights law professor. "If we are looking for some signal of what a Roberts' court might be, this is a very solid, careful approach."

The court could have used the case to shield states from federal government interference, something that had been a hallmark of the court under the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who died in September and was replaced by Roberts.

A dozen states had urged the court to bar general suits by inmates under the disabilities law. Their lawyer, Gene Schaerr of Washington, said that justices likely "recognized Sandra Day O'Connor has announced her resignation and they'd rather wait until they have a full court in place until they address that issue head on. I think that's very good news for the states."

The Senate Judiciary Committee is meeting this week on President Bush's nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to replace O'Connor. She will leave the court as soon as her successor is confirmed.

O'Connor was the deciding vote the last time justices ruled on the ADA, siding with the four more liberal court members in a 2004 decision which held that states could be sued for damages for not providing the disabled access to courts.

Goodman had been supported in the latest case by the Bush administration, which argued that there was a history of mistreatment of disabled prisoners when Congress passed the law.