(Photo Credit: designer491/Shutterstock.com) 'I Concur With Trepidation': Ga. Appellate Court Expands Sovereign Immunity in ADA Claims
"Upsetting all of that will have policy consequences that we are ill-equipped to evaluate—and that it is not our role to evaluate," Presiding Judge Christopher McFadden wrote.
March 11, 2024 at 05:40 PM
5 minute read
What You Need to Know
- The Georgia Court of Appeals expanded sovereign immunity for Americans with Disabilities Act claims brought by state employees.
- The intermediate court reasoned that, just because the state enacted the Fair Employment Practices Act, doesn't mean it consented to being sued under the federal ADA.
- This decision overturns 21 years of state Court of Appeals precedent and, according to plaintiff-appellee attorney Ed Buckley, is bad news for state employees.
The Georgia Court of Appeals expanded state sovereign immunity when it unanimously overturned precedential case law in an Americans with Disabilities Act as Amended, or ADAAA, suit reversal on March 5.
"At its core, this case is about one thing: Does the state waive its sovereign immunity against a federal law simply by its waiving immunity against a similar state law? Of course not," wrote the defendant-appellant, the Augusta Public Defender's Office, represented by the state Attorney General's Office. "Georgia can only waive its sovereign immunity with a specific waiver, and so a waiver for a different cause of action brought under a different law does not suffice."
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