Facts of the case
The petitioner, Tony Goodman, a paraplegic prisoner using a wheelchair, sued the State of Georgia and others alleging that the conditions of his confinement in the Georgia state prison system violated ADA. Goodman stated that, because of his disability, he was kept in his cell for twenty-three hours per day, a cell too narrow for him to move his wheelchair, and denied access to medical treatment, such as catheters, treatment for bed sores and boils and access to mental health care, and to other privileges granted to prison inmates, such as access to programs, classes, and religious activities. [2] Further, he claimed the prison was not handicapped accessible. For example, the prison did not make toilet and bathing facilities accessible to him, such that he was occasionally forced to sit in his own human waste. [2] [3] He was also injured multiple times while trying to transfer from his wheelchair to the shower or toilet himself, as assistance in these matters was denied. [4]
The position of Georgia was that state prisons were immune from suit for damages, claiming that the U.S. Congress had exceeded its constitutional authority in authorizing suits for damages against states under ADA. [2]
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, and other characteristics illegal, and later sexual orientation and gender identity. In addition, unlike the Civil Rights Act, the ADA also requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities, and imposes accessibility requirements on public accommodations.
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