Court Opinion

ID: 9495116
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:54:29.158359+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:48.863554
License: Public Domain

NANGLE, District Judge,
concurring.
I concur with the majority opinion herein. However, I feel compelled to provide further comment on one issue in the case: the major life activity of working.5
Although the majority’s opinion correctly states and applies the law as it currently stands, I remain concerned that the EEOC regulations defining the “major life activity of working” have expanded the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) protections beyond the intent or expectations of Congress. Mr. Duty established his Arkansas Civil Rights Act (“ACRA”) claim by asserting that his disability substantially limits his ability to perform the major life activity of working.6 According to the EEOC regulations, to be substantially limited in the life activity of working, a plaintiff must be “significantly restricted in the ability to perform either a class of jobs or a broad range of jobs in various classes as compared to the average person having comparable training, skills, and abilities.” 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(j)(3)(i). Only under the current analytical framework could Mr. Duty, a man. who can lift 100 to 150 pounds occasionally; 50 to 75 pounds on a regular basis; and 50 pounds comfortably, be considered disabled. However, he was indeed able to obtain disability status by presenting a carefully crafted affidavit which explained how his lifting restrictions impacted his ability to serve as a maintenance mechanic in the Fort Smith, Arkansas area. In my opinion, Congress did not intend to extend ADA protections to such impairments.
In drafting the ADA, Congress sought to protect individuals with disabilities. In its findings, Congress emphasized that individuals with disabilities needed the ADA protections because:
[I]ndividuals with disabilities are a discrete and insular minority who have been faced with restrictions and limitations, subjected to a history of purposeful unequal treatment, and relegated to a position of political powerlessness in our society, based on characteristics that are beyond the control of such individuals and resulting from stereotypic assumptions not truly indicative of the individual ability of such individuals to participate in, and contribute to, society
*49942 U.S.C. § 12101(a)(7) (emphasis added). Congress further noted that individuals with disabilities historically have suffered discrimination in areas such as employment, housing, and public accommodations and that such discrimination prevents disabled individuals from enjoying the béne-fits of the free American society. 42 U.S.C. § 12101.
The ADA defines disability as “physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual .... ” Unfortunately, the ADA does not further define “major life activities;” instead, the EEOC elaborated on the phrase by concluding that major life activities include caring for one’s self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, breathing, learning and working. 20 C.F.R. § 1630.2(i) (1998). The EEOC stated, however, that the major life activity of “working” is to be considered as a last resort only “[i]f an individual is not substantially limited with respect to any other major life activity.” 29 C.F.R. pt 1630, App. § 1630.2(j) (1998).
By permitting an individual to prove a disability by showing a substantial limitation in the ability to work, the EEOC regulations greatly expand the scope of the term “disabled.” The ADA clearly covers typical disabilities such as quadriplegia, paraplegia, cerebral palsy, limb loss, and total blindness or deafness. Michel Lee, Searching for Patterns and Anomalies In The ADA Employment Constellation: Who Is A Qualified Individual With A Disability And What Accommodations Are Courts Really Demanding?, 13 Lab. Law. 149,153-54 (1997). As was discussed above, individuals with such disabilities have had to overcome substantial barriers in public accommodations as well as in the workplace. However, by allowing an individual to prove a “disability” through the major life activity of “working,” the ADA protections now extend to a “seemingly endless array of impairments and conditions that are not intuitively or universally perceived as disabilities .... ” Id. By pleading under the major life activity of working, an individual with a back injury is considered disabled simply because he presents evidence that his injury limits his ability to work — regardless of whether his back injury otherwise impacts his daily life. I would argue, however, that if a back injury is sufficiently severe to constitute a disability, then such an individual should be able to present evidence that he is substantially limited in other aspects of his life as well. See, e.g., Mullins v. Crowell 7, 74 F.Supp.2d 1067, 1141 (N.D.Ala.1999), rev’d, 228 F.3d 1305 (11th Cir.2000) *500(“[A] limitation on working is not a limitation on a basic’aspect of human functioning. Rather, it is a consequence — albeit in many cases greatly unfortunate — of a limitation on an area of basic human functioning”). Otherwise, the scope of the ADA reaches far beyond those individuals who, because of a disability, cannot freely participate and contribute to American society.
The Supreme Court recently stated that “[t]here is no support in the Act, our previous opinions, or the regulations for the ... idea that the question of whether an impairment constitutes a disability is to be answered only by analyzing the effect of the impairment in the workplace.” Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. v. Williams, 534 U.S. 184, 122 S.Ct. 681, 692-93, 151 L.Ed.2d 615 (2002). In my view, an individual should not be able to prove a disability merely by showing the effect of an impairment in the workplace. An individual who is truly disabled is impaired regardless of the context: A paraplegic is substantially limited in his ability to walk at the workplace, on public transportation, and at home. A finding that a person is limited from performing a “class of jobs” or a “broad range of jobs” does not support a conclusion that the individual is disabled if that individual is not impaired when performing another line of work. The major life activity of working allows an individual to obtain disability status by diverting attention away from a physical and mental impairment and toward his line of work.
In Sutton v. United Air Lines, 527 U.S. 471, 492, 119 S.Ct. 2139, 144 L.Ed.2d 450 (1999), the Supreme Court noted, for the first time, that there “may be some conceptual difficulty in defining ‘major life activities’ to include work, for it seems “to argue in a circle to say that if one is excluded, for instance, by reason of [an impairment, from working with others] ... then that exclusion constitutes an impairment, when the question you’re asking is, whether the exclusion itself is by reason of handicap.” ” Id.; see also Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. v. Williams, 534 U.S. 184, 122 S.Ct. 681, 692-93, 151 L.Ed.2d 615 (2002). The proof problem associated with the major life activity of working lies in an individual’s ability to substantiate a disability by focusing on his line of work instead of his impairment.
The circularity arising from defining a disability through the major life activity of working is apparent in this case. At trial, Mr. Duty presented evidence that he was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease which manifests itself in a variety of symptoms including chronic neck pain and numbness of the hands. Mr. Duty also presented an affidavit from a vocational consultant specifically tailored to substantiate his claim that his lifting restriction prevents him from performing a “broad range of jobs.” See Dale A. Thomas’s Affidavit at 4 (“Mr. Duty is precluded from a broad range of jobs within this class of jobs that he is able to perform using skills from past work.”). Based on evidence of an impairment and an artfully drafted affidavit, Mr. Duty presented sufficient evidence to substantiate his claim that his alleged disability substantially restricts his ability to work. Pursuant to the current analytical framework, the majority opinion correctly concluded that the district court properly denied defendant’s motion for a judgment as a matter of law. See 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(j)(3)(i); Sutton, 527 U.S. at 491-92, 119 S.Ct. 2139.
Nevertheless, I harbor serious reservations regarding Mr. Duty’s disability status. Mr. Duty did not present any evidence that his impairment limits his life outside of the workplace. In spite of his lifting restriction, Mr. Duty testified that *501he is capable of lifting 100 to 150 pounds occasionally; 50 to 75 pounds on a regular basis; and 50 pounds comfortably. Mr. Duty further testified that he can work on his farm performing strenuous activities such as bailing hay between 40 and 60 hours a week. If Mr. Duty had been working on a farm when he developed his impairment, then he would not have been labeled “disabled.” In my view, this is a case in which the tail is wagging the dog— the position is defining the disability. Outside the context of “maintenance mechanics positions in Fort Smith, Arkansas,” Mr. Duty would not be considered “disabled,” and yet, under the current legal framework, he was able to recover under the ADA. In my opinion, this case is a prime example of how the major life activity of working is being used to expand the ADA’s reach.
Under the current state of the law, I must concur in the opinion of my esteemed colleagues; however, I remain concerned about the EEOC regulations which allow individuals to prove a disability merely by demonstrating a substantial limitation in the major life activity of working.

. As Judge McMillian noted in the majority opinion, Appellant did not contest the validity of the major life activity of working in this appeal. However, I believe-this case shows how the EEOC regulations expand the scope of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA”) by allowing plaintiffs to prove a disability by showing that they are substantially limited in the major life activity of work. Thus, I feel compelled to provide brief commentary on this issue.

. As Judge McMillian emphasized above, we analyze a disability claim presented under the ACRA using the same principles employed in analyzing claims under the ADA, 42 U.S.C. § 12101 etseg.

. Unlike the instant case, the primaiy issue before the court in Mullins was whether working should constitute a major life activity. Thus, the district court in Mullins specifically considered whether an individual can predicate an ADA claim on a substantial limitation in the major life activity of work: Mullins, 74 F.Supp.2d at 1137-1142. The district court concluded that working is not a major life activity: "Working cannot be a major life activity ... working is not a life activity in the sense that it is an aspect of basic human physical or mental functioning. A limitation in one’s ability to work is contingent upon an impairment’s limiting some other area of physical or mental functioning. It makes sense to say that one is limited in his or her ability to work because he or she is limited in his or her ability to see; it makes no sense to say the contrary.” Id. at 1141. Although the Eleventh Circuit reversed the district court’s conclusion, it did not address the district court’s thoughtful analysis. Instead, the Eleventh Circuit deferred to the Supreme Court's holding in Sutton and concluded that "our precedent treating working as a 'major life activity’ is still valid and the district court erred by interpreting the Act contrary to our precedent.” Mullins, 228 F.3d at 1313. I believe the time has come for the Circuits to begin to consider whether the EEOC acted beyond the scope of its authority by including the activity of working in its list of major life activities.