Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act: A Re-Examination of the Civil Rights Declaration of the Handicapped

• NCJ Number: 115780
• Journal: Suffolk University Law Review Volume: 21 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1987) Pages: 175-213
• Author(s): S M Gorman
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 39 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act prohibits discrimination against handicapped persons seeking to participate in federally financed programs or activities. This note examines recent judicial and legislative developments in the application of section 504's broad prohibition against discrimination.

Abstract

Section 504 requires statutory construction as broad as its underlying policy to effectuate the discrimination prohibitions Congress envisioned in the act. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, buoyed by an administration hostile to broad construction of civil rights legislation, has frustrated section 504's statutory purpose by construing the statute as program-specific. Inconsistent judicial construction of the elements of section 504's language has created an ambiguous body of civil rights law that has ultimately rendered section 504 ineffective as a discrimination prohibition. Because ambiguous language invites misconstruction, the act's phrase, 'program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance,' requires legislative clarification to bridge the interpretative gaps and the prevent further judicial circumvention of the term's intended broad application. Only when Congress removes the cloud of confusion currently obscuring section 504 will the Rehabilitation Act ensure handicapped persons full participation in society as independent persons. 234 footnotes.