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JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUES STATE OF TENNESSEE, WEAKLEY COUNTY,

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The state of Tennessee; Weakley County, Tennessee; and the county's 9-1-1 emergency communications center were sued by the Justice Department today for employment discrimination against persons with disabilities.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Jackson, Tennessee, alleges that the state, the county, and the 9-1-1 center violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by excluding any person with actual or perceived mental disabilities from certain jobs. The suit was brought as a result of the enactment and implementation of five state laws that prohibit persons who are not free of "any apparent mental disorder" from serving as public safety dispatchers, police officers, corrections officers, youth service officers, and sheriffs.

"This lawsuit should send a wake-up call to all state and local governments that they cannot create laws or policies that exclude people from jobs because of disabilities," said Bill Lann Lee, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "Under the ADA, a person cannot be excluded from a job because of a disability unless he or she cannot perform the essential functions of the job safely with reasonable accommodation."

In filing the lawsuit, the Justice Department seeks to intervene in a private lawsuit previously filed by two former 9-1-1 dispatchers who, despite satisfactory job performance, were subjected to psychological tests and removed from their jobs. The tests did not reveal a safety hazard or an inability to perform the job -- merely that the individuals were perceived as having some type of mental disorder. Because state law prohibits anyone with an "apparent mental disorder" from serving as an emergency dispatcher, the two were removed from their jobs.

The Justice Department's lawsuit also seeks relief on behalf of all persons adversely affected by any of the five state laws, including persons with actual mental disabilities. The Attorney General of Tennessee has indicated a willingness to work with the Justice Department to resolve this matter and to identify persons adversely affected by the laws. By including the state in the lawsuit, the Justice Department seeks to ensure that complete relief, including a change in state law, will be provided.

"Persons with mental disabilities are often the subject of unfair and inaccurate stereotypes," added Mr. Lee. "Employers who rely on these stereotypes instead of considering an individual's ability to perform a job are engaging in the very type of discrimination the ADA was intended to prevent."

Under the ADA, an employer must conduct an individualized assessment to determine if a person with a disability can perform the essential functions of the job. If the assessment reveals that a person with a disability cannot perform the essential functions of a job, the employer must then consider if s/he could perform the job with a reasonable accommodation. A reasonable accommodation is a reasonable modification to the duties or conditions of a job that make it possible for an individual with a disability to perform the job.

The ADA prohibits persons with disabilities from being excluded from a job based solely on generalized fears about safety unless there is an actual reason to believe that s/he cannot perform the job safely. However, the ADA does permit an individual to be excluded from a job if s/he poses a direct threat to the health or safety of other individuals in the workplace. A direct threat is a significant risk to the health or safety of others that cannot be eliminated by reasonable accommodation.