Stevens v. Il. Dept. of Transp.

• Decision Date: 11 April 2000
• Docket Number: No. 98-3550,98-3550
• Citation: 210 F.3d 732
• Parties: (7th Cir. 2000) Georgeen STEVENS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Illinois Department of Transportation, Defendant-Appellee
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 732

210 F.3d 732 (7th Cir. 2000)

Georgeen STEVENS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Illinois Department of Transportation, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 98-3550

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Argued December 8, 1999

Decided April 11, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Benton Division. No. 96-4358--James L. Foreman, Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted] Before Harlington Wood, Jr., Coffey and Flaum, Circuit Judges.

Flaum, Circuit Judge.

Georgeen Stevens brought suit alleging that her employer, the Illinois Department of Transportation ("IDOT"), discharged her for reasons related to her disability in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA" or "Act"), 42 U.S.C. sec. 12101 et seq. After a jury returned a verdict in favor of Stevens, the district court granted judgment notwithstanding the verdict in favor of IDOT. For the reasons stated herein, we vacate the judgment for IDOT and dismiss this case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

I. BACKGROUND

Georgeen Stevens worked as a highway maintainer at IDOT's District 7 Traffic Operations Division in Effingham, Illinois for approximately five years, from 1991 to 1996. Maintainers in that division are responsible for repairing and replacing road signs, striping lines on interstate highways, installing and maintaining highway lights and removing snow. On September 20, 1993, a mechanical hand lever pump she was operating on the job broke and struck Stevens in the right chest area injuring her. As a result of this injury, Stevens began to suffer from a painful neurological condition known as reflex sympathetic dystrophy. Because of this condition, Stevens was unable to lift more than ten pounds with her right arm or stay outside in temperatures lower than fifty degrees for longer than fifteen minutes without extreme pain.

Stevens's doctor wrote various letters to IDOT stating that she should be provided with accommodations for her disability but that her ability to work depended on her ability to withstand pain. The doctor stated that she should be allowed to determine her own work limitations and that her condition would not worsen or improve even if she worked without the recommended accommodations. Stevens requested accommodation from IDOT but informed her supervisors that she was willing to work without accommodation if it could not be provided.

Stevens filed a worker's compensation claim and it was determined that she suffered a 30 percent permanent partial disability as a result of the accident. After the worker's compensation decision, IDOT fired Stevens because it concluded that she was not able to perform the functions of her job. Stevens then filed claims in federal district court under Title VII for sex discrimination and under the ADA for disability discrimination. Her Title VII claim was dismissed on summary judgment and was not appealed. The ADA claim went to a jury trial where a verdict was returned in favor of Stevens.

After trial, IDOT filed a motion to vacate the verdict, claiming that the district court did not have jurisdiction to hear the claim because IDOT was immune from suit under the Eleventh Amendment. The trial court denied this motion. The trial court then overturned the verdict, entering a judgment as a matter of law in favor of IDOT because it found that there was not substantial evidence to support the jury's conclusion that Stevens could perform the essential functions of her job, a critical element of her ADA claim. Stevens now appeals.

II. DISCUSSION

In our recent decision Erickson v. Board of Governors, 207 F.3d 945 (7th Cir. Mar. 27, 2000), we reexamined our decision in Crawford v. Indiana Dep't of Corrections, 115 F.3d 481, 487 (7th Cir. 1997), in light of the subsequent Supreme Court decisions in Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Educ. Expense Bd. v. College Sav. Bank, 119 S.Ct. 2199 (1999), and Kimel v. Florida Bd. of Regents, 120 S.Ct. 631 (2000), in which the Court more precisely defined the limits of Congress's Section 5 power to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment. In Erickson, we concluded that the ADA was not enacted pursuant to a valid exercise of Congress's Section 5 power so that Congress had not effectively abrogated the States' Eleventh Amendment immunity for claims brought under that Act. We follow the majority's conclusion in Erickson and we find that IDOT, a department of the State of Illinois, is immune from suit brought by an individual in federal court under the ADA.¹ We write further to more fully explain the reasoning by which we have reached this conclusion.²

The ADA was enacted "to provide a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities." 42 U.S.C. sec. 12101(b)(1). The ADA specifically targets discrimination in two broad areas: employment (Title I) and public accommodations (Title II). This case only involves allegations of employment discrimination that fall under Title I. Under Title I, a covered entity may discriminate in two ways: disparate treatment of or failure to accommodate a disabled employee. 42 U.S.C. sec. 12112; see Foster v. Arthur Andersen, LLP, 168 F.3d 1029, 1032 (7th Cir. 1999); Weigel v. Target Stores, 122 F.3d 461, 464 (7th Cir. 1997). To make out a claim under the ADA, an individual must show: 1) that she is disabled; 2) that she is otherwise qualified to perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation; and 3) that the employer took an adverse job action against her because of her disability or failed to make a reasonable accommodation. 42 U.S.C. sec.sec. 12111-12; see Gile v. United Airlines, Inc., 95 F.3d 492, 496 (7th Cir. 1996). It is a defense to an ADA claim that an employment criterion that adversely impacts disabled persons is "job-related and consistent with business necessity." 42 U.S.C. sec. 12113; see EEOC v. AIC Security Investigations, Ltd., 55 F.3d 1276, 1283 (7th Cir. 1995).

The Eleventh Amendment renders a State immune from any suit brought by an individual in federal court unless the State has consented to being sued in that forum. See Kimel, 120 S.Ct. at 640 ("[T]he Constitution does not provide for federal jurisdiction over suits against nonconsenting States."); Seminole Tribe of Fla. v. Florida, 517 U.S. 44, 54 (1996).³ Congress may abrogate the States' Eleventh Amendment immunity and provide for federal jurisdiction over individual suits against States. However, Congress only has this power to abrogate when it is acting pursuant to its enforcement power under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. See Kimel, 120 S.Ct. at 644; Seminole Tribe, 517 U.S. at 58. Congress may not nullify States' Eleventh Amendment immunity when it is operating under its Article I powers. Kimel, 120 S.Ct. at 643-44; Florida Prepaid, 119 S.Ct. at 2205; Seminole Tribe, 517 U.S. at 72-73.

Congress has abrogated Illinois's Eleventh Amendment immunity, if it 1) unequivocally expressed its intent to abrogate the States' Eleventh Amendment immunity through the ADA, and 2) acted pursuant to a valid exercise of its power under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. See Kimel, 120 S.Ct. at 640; Florida Prepaid, 119 S.Ct. at 2205; Seminole Tribe, 517 U.S. at 55. The text of the ADA makes clear Congress's explicit intent to abrogate the States' Eleventh Amendment immunity for suits brought by individuals under that statute. See 42 U.S.C. sec. 12202 ("A State shall not be immune under the eleventh amendment to the Constitution of the United States from an action in Federal or State court of competent jurisdiction for violation of this chapter."); 42 U.S.C. sec. 12101(b)(4) ("It is the purpose of this chapter . . . to invoke the sweep of congressional authority, including the power to enforce the fourteenth amendment . . . ."). Therefore, it is only necessary to discuss the scope of the authority granted to Congress under Section 5 to enact the ADA.

Congress's enforcement power under Section 5 is not unlimited. See City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507, 518-19 (1997). Section 5 only authorizes Congress to enact legislation that remedies or prevents Fourteenth Amendment violations.⁴ See Kimel, 120 S.Ct. at 644. In order for a legislative enactment to be a valid exercise of this power, Congress must "identify conduct transgressing the Fourteenth Amendment's substantive provisions, and must tailor its legislative scheme to remedying or preventing such conduct." Florida Prepaid, 119 S.Ct. at 2207. This does not mean that Congress may only prohibit through federal legislation conduct that is itself unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment. Federal legislation may prohibit "a somewhat broader swath" than that which is directly forbidden by the Amendment, provided that the target of the legislation is to remedy or prevent unconstitutional conduct. Kimel, 120 S.Ct. at 644; see City of Boerne, 521 U.S. at 518. The ultimate test is that "[t]here must be a congruence and proportionality between the injury to be prevented or remedied and the means adopted to that end." City of Boerne, 521 U.S. at 520.

The analysis begins with identifying the conduct targeted by Congress through the legislation in question. The ADA purports to have the broad goal of "the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities." 42 U.S.C. sec. 12101(b)(1). The types of discrimination at which the statute is aimed are recited in the "Findings and purpose" section of the Act. 42 U.S.C. sec. 12101(a). Some of the "various forms of discrimination" outlined by Congress as targeted by the Act include:

outright intentional exclusion, the discriminatory effects of architectural, transportation, and communication barriers, overprotective rules and policies, failure to make modifications to existing facilities and practices, exclusionary qualification standards and criteria, segregation, and relegation to...