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Paper money discriminates against blind

Well, I'm not going to comment on this too much other than to speculate that this sort of suit (a 2-1 D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision) will certainly be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court at some point. See Paper Money Discriminates Against Blind; Court Rules U.S. Bills Discriminate Against Blind. The case (for now available here or here) is captioned American Council of the Blind v. Paulson, No. 07-5063 (D.C. Cir. May 20, 2008). The money line, so to speak, comes at the end: "We hold that the Council has demonstrated both the denial of meaningful access and the availability of facially reasonable accommodations that are feasible and efficacious, and that the Secretary has not demonstrated that implementation of every such accommodation would involve an undue burden." Id. at 33. The dissent makes a much more salient point: "The case is therefore not even close to being in the proper shape for reasoned appellate decision-making." Id. at 5 (Randolph, J., dissenting).

Next thing you know the blind are going to sue the Department of Transportation alleging that street signs are somehow discriminatory in case a blind person decides to get behind the wheel. Don't blind employees have some sort of bill reading machine that helps them read the denomination of the bill? See generally Karla Gilbride, Ourmoneytoo Disappointed In Government's Decision to Continue Court Fight On Tactilely Discernible Currency (2006); Barbara Cheadle, Aids for the Blind: Attitudes the Key (1984); Selective Placement Program Helps Blind, Visually Impaired Employees Be Independent. Perhaps I am being too critical.

Regardless, I'm not going to digest the technicalities of this opinion since anyone can read it and decide who was right before another panel or another court determines otherwise. I do find it sort of interesting how quickly the news jumped over this one. Somehow I don't see the Treasury redesigning bills any time soon, but maybe the true of effect of this opinion is to increase/raise awareness. I'm sure a future article on the topic will be written (at the very least by some reporter the next time an aspect of this case comes up).

Full post as published by The Once and Future Lawyer on May 20, 2008 (boomark / email).

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