Opinion ID: 548464
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Could Have Been Brought

Text: 19 The magistrate's conclusion that plaintiffs' section 1983 claims were barred by the Rehabilitation Act is erroneous for two reasons. First, the doctrine of Middlesex only bars section 1983 claims that could have been brought under a separate federal statute which provides remedial devices sufficiently comprehensive to demonstrate a congressional intent to preclude section 1983 claims. Plaintiffs' First Amendment claims could not have been brought under the Rehabilitation Act because they allege violations that are unrelated to issues of handicap discrimination. 5 Indeed, plaintiffs' 1983 claims are not predicated on violations of a federal statute at all, but on alleged violations of their rights under the First Amendment. 20 The alleged injuries suffered by plaintiffs are unrelated to their status as handicapped individuals. Their section 1983 claims allege that they suffered injury because of their activities, rather than because of their handicap. Indeed, plaintiffs argue that they suffered two separate injuries, arising from two distinct discriminations: discrimination on account of their blindness, in violation of the Rehabilitation Act, and discrimination on account of the exercise of their rights of free association and speech, in violation of the First Amendment. Although the NFB deals with concerns of the blind, free association and speech claims ought not to be foreclosed by the Rehabilitation Act, since the claims raise issues distinct from the right of blind people to be free from discrimination. 21 Furthermore, the authority relied on by the magistrate and cited by defendants is distinguishable from the case at bar. 6 Defendants primarily rely on Tyus v. Ohio Dept. of Youth Serv., 606 F.Supp. 239 (S.D.Ohio 1985), for the proposition that plaintiffs' First Amendment section 1983 claims are precluded by the Rehabilitation Act. 22 In Tyus, the plaintiff was a former employee of the Ohio Department of Youth Services, who alleged that he was terminated from his employment because he suffered from epilepsy. Id. at 241. He brought claims alleging violations of section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and his Fourteenth Amendment rights of due process and equal protection. Relying on Smith v. Robinson, 468 U.S. 992, 104 S.Ct. 3457, 82 L.Ed.2d 746 (1984), the Tyus court ruled that the Rehabilitation Act is sufficiently comprehensive to preclude suits under section 1983, on either statutory or constitutional grounds, based upon claims that could be brought under the provisions of the Rehabilitation Act. Tyus, 606 F.Supp. at 244. The court went on to point out that plaintiff's section 1983 claim, brought pursuant to the due process and equal protection clauses, was based on the same alleged injury as was plaintiff's Rehabilitation Act claim. Id. 23 In contrast to Tyus, the section 1983 claims presented in the case at bar could not have been brought under the Rehabilitation Act. The constitutional claims allege discrimination based on plaintiffs' association with the NFB, and retaliatory reorganization/constructiveischarge precipitated by plaintiffs' outspoken support of the NFB and because of plaintiffs' pending lawsuit against defendants. These alleged injuries are not protected under the Rehabilitation Act, since the Rehabilitation Act simply prevents discrimination on the basis of handicap. Smith v. Robinson, 468 U.S. at 1016, 104 S.Ct. at 3471. Plaintiffs' First Amendment claims do not raise handicap discrimination issues; they present alleged violations of rights possessed by all citizens, i.e., the right to engage in protected First Amendment activities. The section 1983 claims require different proof from that required to prove discrimination under the Rehabilitation Act on the basis of plaintiffs' blindness.