Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Iowa State agricultural policy professor is no fan of Judge Smith-Camps Initiative 300 ruling Oregon Wheat Growers News Iowa State professor Roger McEowen is no fan of Judge Smith-Camps legal work in finding Nebraska's "Initiative 300" to be against the Americans with Disabilities Act. It would help if the news outlets would post the decision online.
"(While the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals found South Dakota's comparable corporate farm ban also preempted under the dormant commerce clause) I-300 has a chance to prevail because U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp's analysis was "very-poorly reasoned,"
Judge Smith-Camp said the law violates the Americans with Disabilities Act: does that mean a farm regardless of the ownership structure is a public entity, a governmental discrimination against the disabled of some public benefit, or an employer?. If the farm is the prospective employer who may not take on a disabled shareholder because of Initiative 300, should the disabled shareholder sue the farm instead?

"No where does the judge tell us how a Nebraska farm is a public entity," McEowen said.

Good point, if the Court points out that Initiative discriminates against a person with a disability, is that as an employee or as one seeking access to a public accomodation? The court might have sought a 14th amendment basis, say under Cleburn, where courts look at discrimination against the disabled as a constitutional matter with a "rational basis plus" standard of review

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