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The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-325, ADAAA) is an Act of Congress, effective January 1, 2009, that amended the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and other disability nondiscrimination laws at the Federal level of the United States. Passed on September 17, 2008, and signed into law by President George W. Bush on September 25, 2008, the ADAAA was a response to a number of decisions by the Supreme Court that had interpreted the original text of the ADA. Because members of the U.S. Congress viewed those decisions as limiting the rights of persons with disabilities, the ADAAA effectively reversed those decisions by changing the law. It also rejected portions of the regulations published by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that interpret Title I (the employment-related title) of the ADA. The ADAAA makes changes to the definition of the term "disability," clarifying and broadening that definition—and therefore the number and types of persons who are protected under the ADA and other Federal disability nondiscrimination laws. It was designed to strike a balance between employer and employee interests. The ADAAA requires that courts interpreting the ADA and other Federal disability nondiscrimination laws focus on whether the covered entity has discriminated, rather than whether the individual seeking the law's protection has an impairment that fits within the technical definition of the term "disability." The Act retains the ADA's basic definition of "disability" as an impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; a record of such an impairment; or being regarded as having such an impairment. However, it changes the way that the statutory terms should be interpreted.〔(ADAAA Summary and Resources from Southeast DBTAC, January 23, 2009 )〕 == Reasons for enactment == Congress used the functional definition of disability from Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.〔29 U.S.C. §794. Sections 501 and 503 of the Rehabilitation Act also use the same definition of disability and prohibit disability discrimination by Federal employees and Federal contractors, respectively. 29 U.S.C. §§ 791, 793.〕 Due to 17 years of development through case law, Congress believed the requirements of the definition were well understood. Within the framework established under the Rehabilitation Act, courts treated the determination of disability as a threshold issue, but focused primarily on whether unlawful discrimination had occurred. After the passage of the ADA, the focus of court decisions shifted to deciding if people's claims of discrimination were protected by the law. Congress passed the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 to overturn two controversial court decisions based on interpretations of the ADA.〔(Puerto Rico Business Law Notes Article Summarizing Changes to the ADA )〕 The first decision—by the Supreme Court in ''Sutton v. United Air Lines, Inc.''—stated that impairments must be considered in their mitigated state.〔(Text of Sutton v. United Air Lines, 527 U.S. 471 (1999) from Cornell University )〕 The second decision in ''Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. v. Williams'' stated that the standard for determining whether an individual was eligible for protection under the law must be demanding.〔(Text of Toyota Motor Mfg., KY, Inc. v. Williams, 2534 U.S. 184 (2002) )〕 The follow on effect of this in some lower court findings was that an individual’s impairment did not constitute a disability and in many cases courts never reached the question whether discrimination had occurred. Through these rulings, the Supreme Court and lower courts created a situation in which an individual with a physical or mental impairment severe enough to constitute a "substantially limiting a major life activity" under case law based on the Rehabilitation Act did not qualify for protection under the ADA. These included individuals with impairments such as amputation, intellectual disabilities, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, muscular dystrophy, and cancer.〔(Fact Sheet comparing people covered under 504 and the ADA )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「ADA Amendments Act of 2008」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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