High Court Ruling Backs Handicapped

The Supreme Court today gave handicapped groups greater power to remedy discrimination. A unanimous ruling said they do not have to prove intentional discrimination in federally supported programs.

The decision will help handicapped groups challenge alleged discrimination in a wide array of programs that receive federal funding in the areas of health care, education and construction, among others.

While the ruling, by Justice Thurgood Marshall, is a victory in the long run for supporters of rights for the handicapped, it went against the handicapped in Tennessee who challenged a state law reducing their Medicaid-funded hospital visits.

The court said the state program--which reduced the number of Medicaid funded inpatient hospital days from 20 per year to 14--did not single out the handicapped and was therefore not discriminatory.

But the court gave strong support for future battles against discrimination in a wide array of programs supported with federal funds, ruling that the handicapped were not limited to challenging intentional discrimination.

When the Rehabilitation Act was passed in 1973, “discrimination against the handicapped was perceived by Congress to be most often the product not of invidious animus, but rather of thoughtlessness and indifference--of benign neglect,” Marshall wrote.

In the Tennessee case, a group of handicapped Medicaid recipients filed suit against the state, Gov. Lamar Alexander and three other state officials in 1980 charging that the reduced benefits violated federal law.

Evidence presented in a U.S. District Court trial showed that 92.2% of all non-handicapped Medicaid patients and 72.6% of all handicapped Medicaid patients could be adequately served by a 14-day hospital stay.

In other action today, the court:

--Decided 9 to 0 that polluters generally may evade responsibility for cleaning up toxic waste sites by declaring bankruptcy.

--Ruled 9 to 0 that taxpayers may not evade money penalties by blaming their accountant for the tardy filing of taxes.