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Is obesity an ADA impairment?

Is obesity an ADA impairment?
Andrews v. Ohio, #95-3447, 104 F.3d 803
Source: AELE Law Enforcement Legal Center, http://www.aele.org/, Reproduced with permission. Copyright © 2008 AELE

A federal appeals court rejected a suit by Ohio state troopers who challenged weight and fitness regulations as discriminatory. They were neither disabled nor ?regarded? as impaired.
Various officers claimed they were subject to discipline, deprivation of incentive payments, or passed over for promotions because the State Patrol perceives them to have an impairment. The ADA prohibits discrimination against persons who are ?regarded? as having a disabling impairment. The 1973 Rehabilitation Act prohibits an employer from treating an employee as having an impairment.

A three-judge federal appeals panel noted that while morbid obesity is a recognized ADA impairment, simple obesity is not. These officers exceeded the Patrol?s weight requirement or failed to meet other fitness criteria. The court said:

?... a mere physical characteristic does not, without more, equal a physiological disorder... *** It would debase [the] high purpose [of the law] if the statutory protections... could be claimed by anyone whose disability was minor and whose relative severity of impairment was widely shared. *** The officers herein do not allege that their weights or their cardiovascular fitness are beyond a normal range, nor have they alleged that they suffer from a physiological disorder...?

It was true the plaintiffs have physical characteristics that management believed were undesirable. However, these were not disabling conditions or impairments within the meaning of federal law, nor was there any evidence that the Patrol regarded them as impaired. Andrews v. Ohio, #95-3447, 104 F.3d 803, 1997 U.S. App. Lexis 457 (6th Cir.).

The EEOC has long maintained that a morbidly obese person is disabled. (2) Morbid obesity is body weight more than 100% over the norm. A postal employee was morbidly obese with a body weight of 456.8 pounds, which was 268 percent of his ideal body weight. He also had pertension, sleep apnea, gout, and degenerative arthritis of both knees.

The EEOC concluded that a supervisor?s order that a morbidly obese employee lose weight constituted ?blatant and unjustified disparate treatment? in violation of Sec. 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Kellus v. Runyon, #01933281, 1994 EEOPUB Lexis 438 & 1994 EEOPUB Lexis 439 (EEOC 1994).

The Virginia State Police hired a 219 lb. woman as a trooper, on condition she lose weight. After repeated warnings she was ordered to lose 3 lbs. a month. When she failed to achieve that goal, she was reclassified as a dispatcher, with a pay reduction.

A federal court dismissed her disability discrimination claims. She failed to prove her obesity substantially limits her ability to hold any job, or that the State Police ?regarded? her as incapacitated. She therefore was not ?handicapped? or ?disabled? within the meaning of federal law. Smaw v. Va. State Police, 862 F.Supp. 1469 (D.Va 1994).

In a more recent private sector case, the EEOC failed to prove that an employee?s morbid obesity was the result of a physiological condition. To qualify as an ADA impairment, a physical characteristic must relate to a physiological disorder. EEOC v. Watkins, #05-3218, 2006 U.S. App. Lexis 23177, 2006 FED App. 0351P, 18 AD Cases (BNA) 641 (6th Cir. 2006).

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on December 01, 2008 (boomark / email).