Opinion ID: 766203
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Application to the California Fees

Text: 22 Applying this approach to the California fee at issue, we find the fee to be a surcharge for a required measure in violation of the ADA. The ADA requires special parking arrangements such as handicapped parking spaces. These spaces allow disabled people equal access to public buildings in which California provides services, programs, and activities. Because California polices handicapped parking spaces, disabled people need placards or license plates to use them. California thus meets the ADA's requirement for nondiscriminatory access to public buildings by providing disabled people with placards and license plates. 23 Furthermore, California's provision of license plates alone would not be sufficient to give individuals nondiscriminatory access to public places. In addition to the fact that many disabled people may not own cars or have someone who drives them 51% of the time, even those who do may sometimes have to use other vehicles as passengers or as drivers. They may rent cars or wish to drive with another person. To require disabled people to use only a designated car for which they have a license plate restricts them far more in accessing public places than people who lack their disabilities. This reasoning comports with cases by other courts that have struck down fees like the one in California. See Thompson, 29 F. Supp.2d at 1231-32; Thrope, 19 F. Supp.2d at 825; McGarry, 7 F. Supp.2d at 1028. 24 Because providing the placards is a required measure under California's current program of providing access to handicapped parking spaces, we turn to the question of whether charging the fee for them constitutes a forbidden surcharge. This issue hinges on whether California provides the same fee for an equivalent service for nondisabled people. In support of such equivalence, the appellees argue that the placard fee is comparable to, and probably less than, charges nondisabled people accrue at parking meters. California thus claims that if the $6 fee is viewed as a partial payment of waived meter fees, then disabled people are not being charged more than other people. 25 California's argument fails, however, because many public places do not have parking meters and people who lack disabilities face no fees in parking at those places. Such a distinction is unacceptable. Charging disabled people for parking that would otherwise be free constitutes discrimination in the provision of access to public buildings, a measure required under the ADA. We thus affirm the district court on this issue and hold that California's fee for handicapped parking placards violates the ADA.