Sensible interpretation. We will see if it survives the environment of nonsense....
Given that legislative context, “the EEOC's decision to define disability to include severe temporary impairments entirely accords with the purpose of the amended Act,” the court said.
“The stated goal of the ADAAA is to expand the scope of protection available under the Act as broadly as the text permits,” Motz wrote. “The EEOC's interpretation--that the ADAAA may encompass temporary disabilities--advances this goal.”
“Moreover, extending coverage to temporarily impaired individuals produces consequences less 'dramatic' than Altarum seems to envision,” the court said. “Prohibiting employers from discriminating against temporarily disabled employees will burden employers only as long as the disability endures. Temporary disabilities require only temporary accommodations.”
Altarum argued that even if the court defers to the EEOC's regulations, Summers's temporary impairment can't be an ADA disability because it was caused by an injury, not a permanent underlying condition.
But the court said “nothing about the ADAAA or its regulations suggest a distinction between impairments caused by temporary injuries and impairments caused by permanent conditions.”