Opinion ID: 783836
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Applicability of Musick Analysis

Text: 63 Although the Court's decision in Musick may seem to have been something of a departure from the course it appeared to be setting in Northwest Airlines and Texas Industries, we can read the three cases harmoniously. When a statute creates a private right of action but fails to provide expressly for a right to contribution, particularly if the remedial scheme created is detailed, Congress's silence with regard to contribution weights heavily against implying such a right because there is a presumption that the silence reflects congressional intent not to create such a right. On the other hand, when courts have implied a right of action it would be futile to look for congressional intent to create a right to contribution, inasmuch as Congress did not intend explicitly to create the cause of action on which such a right would be based. Musick, 508 U.S. at 291, 113 S.Ct. at 2088. In that situation, courts have somewhat broader latitude to determine whether a right to contribution is consistent with Congress's intent in creating the right sought to be enforced. The first question we must resolve, therefore, is whether the private rights of action under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II are express or implied. 64 This question is not as easily answered as one might expect. 20 In discussing rights and remedies available to aggrieved persons, Title II cross-references the Rehabilitation Act, which in turn cross-references Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title II was enacted in 1990, while the Title VI cross-reference of the Rehabilitation Act was enacted in 1978. By 1978, courts had recognized a private right of action under Title VI for at least a decade. Cannon, 441 U.S. at 696-97, 99 S.Ct. at 1957 (finding support, in a case decided in 1979, for a holding that Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, which was modeled on Title VI, creates a private right of action from the fact that a 1967 decision of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Bossier Parish School Board v. Lemon, 370 F.2d 847 (5th Cir.1967), finding a private right of action under Title VI was repeatedly cited with approval and never questioned during the ensuing five years and by presuming both that [the members of Congress who enacted Title IX in 1972] were aware of the prior interpretation of Title VI and that that interpretation reflects their intent with respect to Title IX). 65 Thus, although the remedy available to persons aggrieved by violations of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II is at root an implied one, those statutes, by cross-referencing Title VI, which already had been interpreted as creating a private right of action, arguably contain explicit provisions creating a private right of action. Indeed, the legislative history discussing Title II's cross-reference to sections 504 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act explicitly states: As with section 504, there is also a private right of action for persons with disabilities, which includes the full panoply of remedies. H.R.Rep. No. 101-485, pt. 2, at 98, reprinted in 1990 U.S.C.C.A.N. 303, 381; id., pt. 3, at 52, reprinted in 1990 U.S.C.C.A.N. 445, 475 (As in title I, the Committee adopted an amendment to delete the term `shall be available' in order to clarify that Rehabilitation Act remedies are the only remedies which title II provides for violations of title II. The Rehabilitation Act provides a private right of action, with a full panoply of remedies available, as well as attorney's fees.). 66 Thus, Title II and section 504 are unlike Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the antitrust laws, which spell out the private right of action available to aggrieved individuals, but are also unlike Rule 10b-5, which does not by its language contemplate any sort of private right of action. Of course, both the statutory language and the legislative history of Title II and section 504 are silent with respect to a right of contribution. The cross-reference language in both acts, therefore, could support two distinct inferences with respect to Congress's intent: either Congress intended to make available to aggrieved persons the Title VI rights and remedies in place at the time of passage of the two provisions (1978 for the Rehabilitation Act and 1990 for the ADA) or Congress intended to allow the rights and remedies under Title II and section 504 to expand and retract as the courts defined the contours of Title VI liability. 67 If the former is true, then we can say that, because reported cases had not found a right to contribution under Title VI as of 1978 or 1990 (or indeed as of the present), Congress must not have considered a right to contribution to be a part of the liability scheme of Title VI that should be incorporated into the liability schemes of section 504 and Title II. In other words, even though Congress acknowledged the private right of action under Title VI, which had been recognized by courts since at least 1967, and intended to make a similar private right of action available under section 504 and Title II, Congress could not be said to be acknowledging a right to contribution under Title VI, as the courts had not yet recognized that right. Congress likely would have included language explicitly providing for a right to contribution had it intended to expand the Title VI rights and remedies incorporated into section 504 and Title II. On the other hand, if we draw the latter reference, then we should read the cross-referencing language as an acknowledgement not of solely those rights and remedies available at the time of passage of the acts ( e.g., a private right of action but not a right to contribution) but also of the power of federal courts to define the contours of Title VI (and, therefore, section 504 and Title II) liability in much the same way a common law court might. 68 We find that Congress's decision to incorporate Title VI's rights and remedies, including those defined by courts rather than by Congress itself, into the Rehabilitation Act and Title II by simple cross-reference, without attempting to define more precisely those rights and remedies, constitutes a recognition on Congress's part of the somewhat broader role of federal courts in defining the contours of Title VI (and, therefore, section 504 and Title II) liability. Congress's use of cross-referencing language in section 504 and Title II is similar, in analytic terms, to the amendments to the securities laws considered by the Musick Court. Those two amendments made explicit reference to any cause of action implied from a provision under this title and to any private civil action implied under ... this title. Musick, 508 U.S. at 293-94, 113 S.Ct. at 2089. From this language, the Court reached the same conclusion we reach here with respect to section 504 and Title II: We infer from these references an acknowledgement of the 10b-5 action without any further expression of legislative intent to define it. Id. at 294, 113 S.Ct. at 2089. The Court used this inference to support its recognition of judicial authority to shape, within limits, the 10b-5 cause of action. Id. at 293, 113 S.Ct. at 2089. Similarly, through the cross-referencing language of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II, Congress acknowledged the private Title VI right of action implied by courts, but made no effort to define it more precisely. 21 That task, it would appear, Congress has left to us. Id. at 294, 113 S.Ct. at 2089. 69 The legislative history of the ADA lends some support to this view. In its discussion of Title III of the ADA, which prohibits discrimination in public accommodations and, therefore, cross-references the parallel Title II of the 1964 Civil Rights Act of 1964, the legislative history states:  As with other titles of the bill, the Committee intends that persons with disabilities have remedies and procedures parallel to those available under comparable civil rights laws. Thus, if the remedies and procedures change in title II of the 1964 Act, ... they will change identically in this title for persons with disabilities. H.R.Rep. No. 101-485, pt. 3, at 66, reprinted in 1990 U.S.C.C.A.N. 445, 489 (emphasis added). 70 Furthermore, Congress rejected the minority view of certain members that an amendment to Title I, which prohibits employment in discrimination and cross-references the parallel Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, should be adopted that would provide expressly for only then-existing Title VII remedies. Id., pt. 2, at 167, reprinted in 1990 U.S.C.C.A.N. 303, 444-45. The minority members were concerned that Congress was considering the Civil Rights Act of 1990, which would amend Title VII to include punitive and compensatory damages as well as injunctive relief and backpay, and, by reason of the cross-reference in Title I, might be thought to allow such damages in cases under Title I of the ADA as well. Id. Indeed, Representative Sensenbrenner offered an amendment on the last day of debate on the ADA that would have replaced Title I's cross-referencing language with express remedial provisions permitting only injunctive relief and the award of back pay. 136 Cong. Rec. H2599-01, H2612, 1990 WL 67606. In the ensuing debate, however, many other members of Congress expressed the view succinctly expressed by Representative Edwards, namely, that the heart of the Americans with Disabilities Act is to give the same civil rights protections to persons with disabilities that racial minorities and women have. Id. at H2615 (statement of Rep. Edwards); see also, e.g., id. (statement of Rep. Schroeder); id. at 2616 (statement of Rep. Glickman); id. (statement of Rep. Fish); id. at 2618 (statement of Rep. Bartlett); id. at 2620 (statement of Rep. Mazzoli). The proposed amendment subsequently was defeated and Congress approved the cross-referencing language on the theory that persons discriminated against on the basis of a disability should receive the same remedies as those subject to discrimination on the basis of race or sex. 71 Although this legislative history does not reveal explicitly Congress's view of the courts' role in defining the contours of the rights and remedies under the ADA, when taken together with Congress's implicit acknowledgment of the judicially created private Title VI right of action and failure to define that action further, it supports the inference that Congress intended to leave to the courts the task of defining the contours of liability-including the existence of a right of contribution-under Title VI, section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and Title II of the ADA. Of course, in turning to the question whether a right of contribution is within the contours of the private section 504 and Title II actions, we must not consider the relative efficiencies or equities of the parties' arguments, but rather must ask how the Congresses that enacted the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA would have addressed the issue had the private rights of action under those acts been included as express provisions. See Musick, 508 U.S. at 294, 113 S.Ct. at 2089-90. Unlike the 1934 Congress whose actions in enacting section 10(b) were considered in Musick, however, both Congresses in this case clearly contemplated the existence of some private right of action, even if they did intend to leave further definition of that right to the courts. That no right to contribution under Title VI had been recognized when the Rehabilitation Act and Title II were enacted and that Congress did not provide explicitly for such a right suggests that Congress did not intend for such a right to exist. We do not regard this evidence as conclusive, however, but must weigh it along with the other considerations that the Musick court identified.