Floyd v. Office of Representative Sheila Jackson Lee

• Citation: 968 F.Supp.2d 308
• Decision Date: 30 September 2013
• Docket Number: Civil Action 11–1228 (RC)
• Parties: Mona K. Floyd, Plaintiff, v. Office of Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

968 F.Supp.2d 308

Mona K. Floyd, Plaintiff,

v.Office of Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, Defendant.

Civil Action 11–1228 (RC)

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

September 30, 2013

Mona K. Floyd, Alexandria, VA, pro se.

Kimberly Carey Williams, Gloria Lett, Victoria L. Botvin, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

RUDOLPH CONTRERAS, United States District Judge

For approximately seven months in 2010, Mona Floyd was the legislative director and chief counsel in the office of Representative Sheila Jackson Lee. ¹ Ms. Floyd, who is proceeding pro se, now brings suit against that office under the Congressional Accountability Act, 2 U.S.C. § 1301 et seq., alleging that the office of Rep. Jackson Lee discriminated against her by failing to reasonably accommodate her monocular vision, which had the effect of constructively discharging her. She also alleges that she was subjected to a discriminatorily hostile work environment, and that she was retaliated against for requesting a reasonable accommodation. The office of Rep. Jackson Lee moves to dismiss the complaint, arguing that the Speech or Debate Clause of the United States Constitution both renders it immune from this suit and deprives Ms. Floyd of the ability to introduce the evidence necessary to prove her claims. In the alternative, the office argues that Ms. Floyd has failed to state a claim on which relief can be granted.

I. FACTUAL ALLEGATIONS

According to her amended complaint, Mona Floyd began to work in the office of Representative Sheila Jackson Lee in 2006, when she was a fellow with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Am. Compl. at 3. Ms. Floyd suffers from monocularvision, which causes eye strain and eye fatigue, headaches, and bodily fatigue. Id. at 2. The condition also reduces the speed at which she can read, her concentration while reading and, consequently, her comprehension of what she has read. Id. The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation notified the office of Rep. Jackson Lee about Ms. Floyd's condition, and the office provided assistive software. Id. at 3. After a period of time, Ms. Floyd and the office determined that the software was not effective for her, and she was instead given rest breaks and additional time to perform assignments. Id. When Ms. Floyd completed her fellowship, Rep. Jackson Lee hired her as director of health policy and senior legislative assistant, and Ms. Floyd told the Representative about her monocular vision. Id. In late 2007, Ms. Floyd resigned from the office to pursue another professional opportunity. Id. at 3–4.

In February 2010, Rep. Jackson Lee's chief of staff recruited Ms. Floyd to be the Representative's legislative director and chief counsel. As they discussed the position, Ms. Floyd informed him of her impaired vision and said that she would only accept the job if the office would make accommodations similar to those it had made when Ms. Floyd worked there before. Id. at 4. Ms. Floyd also asked whether she and the other members of the Representative's Washington, D.C. staff would be responsible for preparing Rep. Jackson Lee for events in her district office, as had been the case when Ms. Floyd first worked for the Representative. Ms. Floyd expressed her concern that she might not be able to perform such duties in addition to the increased legislative responsibilities attendant upon the new position. Id. The chief of staff assured Ms. Floyd that the office would accommodate her monocular vision. Id. He said that the office was planning to hire additional staff to ensure that Ms. Floyd would have a reasonable workload, one which allowed her to take rest breaks and have additional time to perform reading-related assignments. Id. at 4–5. With these assurances, Ms. Floyd accepted the position. Id. at 5.

As Ms. Floyd recounts, shortly after she rejoined the office of Rep. Jackson Lee, the Representative began to assign tasks involving reading that Ms. Floyd was to personally perform. Id. Among other assignments, Ms. Floyd was asked to prepare speeches for the Representative to deliver in her district; to prepare press releases and materials for interviews; to write letters to, and arrange and attend meetings with, federal and state government officials; to prepare statements for staff members to deliver on the Representative's behalf; and to write a letter of recommendation for a constituent. Id. Once, Rep. Jackson Lee required Ms. Floyd to wait in the office until 2 a.m., so that she could drive the Representative home; at her front door, the Representative asked Ms. Floyd to prepare a statement for an early morning event with journalists and other newspaper employees. Id. at 6.

The volume of the Representative's assignments often forced Ms. Floyd to work from seven in the morning until eleven at night without a break for rest. Ms. Floyd was physically unable to maintain this pace of work. Id. By late April, when the office was without a chief of staff, Ms. Floyd had concluded that her monocular vision would not allow her to continue working in this way. Id. at 7. On the morning of April 26, Rep. Jackson Lee assigned Ms. Floyd a number of tasks that required reading, including several for events in the Representative's district. Id. The Representative made clear that Ms. Floyd needed to perform the tasks herself, and, as Ms. Floyd recalls, added that “it should not take ten years to get them done.” Id. The Representative often made similar comments—which Ms. Floyd describes as “humiliating” and “derogatory,” id. at 10—about her monocular vision and the pace at which she worked, which the Representative knew was a result of her limited vision. Id. at 7. Ms. Floyd reminded Rep. Jackson Lee about her monocular vision and explained that she needed time to rest her eyes, as well as additional time to perform assignments that required reading. Id. She asked the Representative if she could delegate the preparation of a speech and other materials for an education forum to the staff member who handled education issues, so that Ms. Floyd would be able to rest her eyes without delaying the work of the office. Id. at 8. She also asked the office (whether that day or earlier in her conversations with the chief of staff is not clear from the amended complaint) to either relieve her of or allow her to delegate the preparation of speeches, press releases and other statements that would be used or delivered in the Representative's district. Id. Ms. Floyd alleges that Rep. Jackson Lee responded, “I don't care anything about your disability.” Id. On Ms. Floyd's account, Rep. Jackson Lee went on to say that Ms. Floyd knew what she was getting herself into when she returned to the office, and that she had better get the work done herself. Id. Later that day, Ms. Floyd wrote an email to Rep. Jackson Lee, recommending ways in which the Representative could restructure her legislative team. Id. at 9. Although Ms. Floyd did not refer to her monocular vision in the email, those changes would have provided her with additional time to take rest breaks and complete tasks that required reading. Id. Rep. Jackson Lee did not respond. Id.

In June, shortly after the Representative hired a new chief of staff, Ms. Floyd informed him of her monocular vision and attempted to engage him in a conversation about how that condition could be accommodated. Id. at 10. The new chief of staff assured Ms. Floyd that he would discuss the matter with Rep. Jackson Lee. Id. Ms. Floyd revisited the matter with the new chief of staff at least twice, and mentioned the Representative's frequent comments about her disability and pace of work to him. Id. On August 6, 2010, as Ms. Floyd alleges, the new chief of staff told Ms. Floyd that he had spoken to Rep. Jackson Lee, but that the Representative only responded “I don't give a damn about her disability.” Id. Ms. Floyd told him that the office's response to her requests violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, and that she was considering filing a claim. Id. The chief of staff agreed and referred her to two employment lawyers. Id.

Ms. Floyd resigned from the position the following month, shortly after informing Rep. Jackson Lee's new chief of staff (the third that year) that she could no longer tolerate the working conditions, and that she believed that the office had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, and in doing so had constructively discharged her. Id. at 10. After completing the statutorily required counseling and mediation, Ms. Floyd filed this suit under the Congressional Accountability Act. The defendant has moved to dismiss the complaint.

II. STATUTORY AND CONSTITUTIONAL BACKGROUND

A. The Congressional Accountability and Americans with Disabilities Acts

The Congressional Accountability Act makes the employment discriminationprovisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act applicable to congressional offices. Oscarson v. Off. of Senate Sergeant at Arms, 550 F.3d 1, 2 (D.C.Cir.2008) (citing 2 U.S.C. § 1311(a)(3)).² The ADA, in turn, bars discrimination against “a qualified individual on the basis of disability in regard to ... the hiring, advancement, or discharge of employees ... and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment.” 42 U.S.C. § 12112(a).³ Claims of discrimination under the ADA can take one of four forms: intentional discrimination (or “disparate treatment”), e.g.,Swanks v. Wash. Metro. Area Transit Auth., 179 F.3d 929 (D.C.Cir.1999), disparate impact, Raytheon Co. v. Hernandez, 540 U.S. 44, 53, 124 S.Ct. 513, 157 L.Ed.2d 357 (2003), hostile work environment,⁴ and failure to accommodate, e.g.,Aka v. Wash. Hosp. Ctr. 156 F.3d 1284, 1288 (D.C.Cir.1998) (en banc).

When a plaintiff alleges intentional discrimination on the basis of disability, the defendant will usually assert that it acted “for reasons unrelated to the person's handicap.” Barth v. Gelb, 2 F.3d 1180, 1186 (D.C.Cir.199...