The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (together, ADA) have often been described as the most sweeping nondiscrimination legislation since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The ADA provides broad nondiscrimination protection in employment, public services, public accommodations and services operated by private entities, transportation, and telecommunications for individuals with disabilities. The ADA states that its purpose is "to provide a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities." In 2008, in response to Supreme Court and lower court decisions that narrowly interpreted the term disability , Congress passed the ADA Amendments Act to, among other things, "carry out the ADA's objectives of providing 'a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination' and 'clear, strong, consistent, enforceable standards addressing discrimination' by reinstating a broad scope of protection to be available under the ADA." This report focuses on Title I of the ADA, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment. Section 12112 provides that no "covered entity shall discriminate against a qualified individual on the basis of disability in regard to job applications or procedures, the hiring, advancement, or discharge of employees, employee compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment." The definition of terms used in the ADA is the starting point for determining the rights granted and legal duties imposed by the ADA. In order to be protected by the ADA, a qualified individual must have a disability. The ADA defines the term disability with respect to an individual as: (A) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of such individual; (B) a record of such impairment; or (C) being regarded as having such an impairment. Prior to the ADA Amendments Act, the Supreme Court interpreted the term substantially limits to require that a claimant's impairment "severely restricts" the individual. Many claimants with disabilities whom Congress intended to be covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act lost their cases because they could not establish that they had disabilities under this standard. The ADA Amendments Act rejected the "severely restricts" standard as too demanding, but did not specify another interpretation in its place. After the ADA Amendments Act, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency responsible for enforcing Title I of the ADA, issued regulations that provide the following guidance on interpreting the term substantially limits : The primary object of attention in cases brought under the ADA should be whether covered entities have complied with their obligations and whether discrimination has occurred, not whether an individual's impairment substantially limits a major life activity. Accordingly, the threshold issue of whether an impairment "substantially limits" a major life activity should not demand extensive analysis. The ADA Amendments Act clarified the sorts of activities included within the term major life activities : "Major life activities include, but are not limited to, caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping, walking, standing, lifting, bending, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating, and working." The act makes clear that the term major life activities includes "major bodily functions": "A major life activity also includes the operation of a major bodily function, including but not limited to, functions of the immune system, normal cell growth, digestive, bowel, bladder, neurological, brain, respiratory, circulatory, endocrine, and reproductive functions." The ADA also expands on the "regarded as having" a disability definition: "An individual meets the requirement of 'being regarded as having such an impairment' if the individual establishes that he or she has been subjected to an action prohibited under this chapter because of an actual or perceived physical or mental impairment whether or not the impairment limits or is perceived to limit a major life activity." The EEOC regulations explain that the "regarded as having" a disability definition applies to individuals who have: a physical or mental impairment that does not substantially limit major life activities but is treated as constituting such a limitation, a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits major life activities only as a result of the attitudes of others toward such impairment, or none of the identified impairments but are treated as having an impairment. However, the definition does not apply to "impairments that are transitory and minor." A transitory impairment is "an impairment with an actual or expected duration of 6 months or less." The ADA provides the following rules for interpreting the term disability : the definition of disability shall be construed in favor of broad coverage of individuals, to the maximum extent allowed; the term substantially limits should be interpreted to impose a less demanding standard than "significantly limits" and "severely restricts"; an impairment that substantially limits one major life activity need not limit other major life activities in order to be considered a disability; an impairment that is episodic or in remission is a disability if it would substantially limit a major life activity when active; and the determination of whether an impairment substantially limits a major life activity must be made without regard to effects of mitigating measures. The ADA governs the employment practices of "covered entities." The ADA defines the term covered entity to mean an employer, employment agency, labor organization, or joint labor-management committee, and defines the term employer to mean "a person engaged in an industry affecting commerce who has 15 or more employees for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year" and any agent of such a person. The ADA exempts the federal government, wholly owned corporations of the U.S. government, Indian tribes, and bona fide tax-exempt private membership clubs (except labor organizations). It does not exempt state and local governments. The ADA defines the term employee to mean "an individual employed by an employer," a definition that, the Supreme Court wrote, is "completely circular and explains nothing." In Clackamas Gastroenterology Assoc. v. Wells , the Supreme Court considered the meaning of the term employee in a case in which the employer, a medical professional corporation, argued that the four doctors who owned the corporation did not qualify as employees, putting the total number of employees below the minimum of 15. The Court first explained that, in previous cases, when Congress used the term employee without defining it, the Court has turned to the common law definition of the term. Given that conclusion, the Court considered the guidance provided by the EEOC Compliance Manual in light of the common law, and concluded the EEOC guidance was valid. The Compliance Manual focuses on the amount of control that the organization exercises over the individual by looking at the following factors: the authority to hire and fire and set rules governing the individual's work; the degree to which the organization supervises the individual; whether the individual reports to someone within the organization; the extent to which the individual can influence the organization; whether there are any written documents indicating that the parties intended the individual to be an employee; and whether the individual shares in the profits, losses, and liabilities of the organization. The Court commented that whether an individual is an employee "depends on all the incidents of the relationship with no one factor being decisive." Ultimately, although the Court acknowledged that several factors tended to indicate that the four doctors were not employees, it remanded the case to the district court for consideration of all the factors. The ADA prohibits discrimination against "qualified individuals." It defines the term qualified individual to mean "an individual who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the employment position that such individual holds or desires." Therefore, if an individual could perform the essential functions of a job with a reasonable accommodation, an employer may not discriminate against him or her on the basis of disability. The ADA prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of disability only if the individual with a disability is "qualified" for the position he or she is seeking. An individual with a disability is "qualified" if he or she has the basic skills, education, and experience necessary to perform the job. Therefore, a court or the EEOC will determine the qualification of an individual with a disability for a job apparently without reference to the disability. If a qualified individual with a disability could perform the job he or she is seeking with reasonable accommodation by the employer, the employer may not discriminate against the individual on the basis of disability. The ADA provides that the term reasonable accommodation may include "making existing facilities used by employees readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities" and "job-restructuring, part-time or modified work schedules, reassignment to a vacant position, acquisition or modification of equipment or devices, appropriate adjustment or modifications of examinations, training materials or policies, the provision of qualified readers or interpreters, and other similar accommodations with disabilities." The EEOC regulations define "essential functions" to mean "the fundamental job duties of the employment position the individual with a disability holds or desires. The term 'essential functions' does not include the marginal functions of the position." The regulations provide the following guidance for determining "essential functions": The position exists to perform the duty; there are a limited number of employees who could perform the function; or the function is highly specialized. Evidence of essential functions includes the employer's judgment; written job descriptions; the amount of time spent performing the functions; the consequence of not requiring the incumbent to perform the functions; the terms of collective bargaining agreements; the work experience of past incumbents; and the current work experience of incumbents in similar jobs. The ADA provides that prohibited discrimination includes the following practices and actions. Section 12112(b)(1) prohibits covered entities from "limiting, segregating, or classifying" applicants or employees in a way that negatively affects their opportunities or status because of a disability. Section 12112(b)(2) prohibits covered entities from entering into contractual arrangements or other relationships that have the effect of subjecting employees or applicants with disabilities to prohibited discrimination. Such prohibited relationships include those with employment agencies, labor unions, and organizations providing employee benefits, apprenticeships, or training.