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12 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 1 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/wflron12 and id is 1 raw text is: MANDATORY REASSIGNMENT UNDER THE
AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT: THE FOURTH
CIRCUIT WEIGHS IN
INTRODUCTION
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA or the Act)I
celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in 2020.2 The Act, which was
signed into law by President George H.W. Bush, was enacted to
eliminate discrimination against individuals with disabilities,
especially in critical areas of life like employment.3 With the ADA's
passage came the promise of full and equal access to civic, economic
and social life for individuals with disabilities.4 Employment
discrimination against persons with disabilities persisted, however,
and courts facilitated this discrimination through narrow readings of
the statute.5 Though the Act was intended to provide broad
protections to persons with disabilities,6 it was limited by courts, and
1. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101-12213.
2. Anniversary of Americans with Disabilities Act: July 26, 2020, U.S.
CENSUS    BUREAU:     FACTS    &    FEATURES     (June    17,   2020),
httDS //www. census Lov/newsroom/facts-for-features/2020/disabilities-acthtml,
3. See 42 U.S.C. § 1210(b)(1); see also id. § 1210(a)(3) (finding that
discrimination against individuals with disabilities persists in such critical
areas as employment); Stephen F. Befort & Tracey Holmes Donesky,
Reassignment Under the Americans with Disabilities Act: Reasonable
Accommodation, Affirmative Action, or Both?, 57 WASH. & LEE L. REv. 1045, 1046
(2000) (stating that one of Congress's principal reasons for enacting the ADA was
to help disabled people enter and stay in the workplace).
4. U.S. DEP'T OF JUST., ADA      SERIES COMMEMORATES UPCOMING
ANNIVERSARY    (2017),  htts://wwwiustice.gOV/arChiveS/Opa/b1o/ada Series
commemorates-uncoming-anniversary.
5. See Lawrence D. Rosenthal, Most-Qualified-Applicant Hiring Policies or
Automatic Reassignment for Employees with Disabilities? Still a Conundrum
Almost Thirty Years After the Americans with Disabilities Act's Enactment, 70
BAYLOR L. REV. 715, 716 (2018) (finding that much of the early litigation
concerning the ADA resulted in many pro-defendant opinions to the detriment of
disabled employees); see also Stephen F. Befort, The Most Difficult ADA
Reasonable Accommodation Issues: Reassignment and Leave of Absence, 37 WAKE
FOREST L. REV. 439, 440 (2002) (stating that during the ADA's early years there
was heavy litigation concerning the scope of the disability definition); CIVIL
RIGHTS DIV., U.S. DEP'T OF JUST., QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT THE
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE'S NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULEMAKING TO IMPLEMENT THE
AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2008 (Jan. 30, 2014),
htt~s://www.ada.gov/nprm adaaa/adaaa-nrm-pa.htm      (stating     that
amendments to the ADA were passed as a result of Supreme Court decisions that
narrowly interpreted the ADA).
6. 42 U.S.C. § 12101(b).

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