Opinion ID: 766203
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Acceptability of 28 C.F.R. S 35.130(f)

Text: 37 Although California acknowledges the constitutionality of Title II of the ADA, it claims that the prohibition in 28 C.F.R. S 35.130(f) against states charging even de minimis administrative fees violates the Fourteenth Amendment. We disagree. 38 The primary flaw in the government's approach is that it conducts its Fourteenth Amendment analysis in apiecemeal manner. Because the statutory scheme as a whole constitutes a proper exercise of Congress' power to legislate under S 5, see Clark, 123 F.3d at 1270-71, regulations promulgated pursuant to the ADA must be given `legislative and hence controlling weight unless they are arbitrary, capricious, or clearly contrary to the statute.'  Does 1-5, 83 F.3d at 1153 (quoting nited States v. Morton, 467 U.S. 822, 834 (1984)). 7 39 Here, the regulation is not arbitrary, capricious, or contrary to the ADA. See id. Title II protects the rights of disabled people to have the same public services, programs, and activities as those who are not disabled. See 42 U.S.C. S 12132. If public entities place a surcharge on measures that help disabled people achieve this parity, disabled people then are paying fees others do not and so are not being treated equally. 40 Forbidding such additional charges is a solution aimed at preventing this type of discrimination; it addresses the improper approach to funding services for the disabled, see 28 C.F.R. S 35.130(f), while leaving states broad flexibility to administer and fund their programs otherwise, cf. Duprey v. State of Conn., Dept. of Motor Vehicles, 28 F. Supp.2d 702, 708 (D. Conn. 1998) (If the DMV wants to pass on the costs of providing placards, rather than absorbing the costs itself, it must pass the cost on to all parkers, and not just those disabled individuals protected by the ADA.). The rationale for this regulation thus dovetails neatly with the purposes of Title II. We therefore hold that 28 C.F.R. S 35.130(f) has controlling weight.