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Weighty issue of morbid obesity, protection from discrimination

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This article originally appeared in the October 3-4, 2006 edition of Boca Raton News, www.bocanews.com. Reprinted with permission.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal statute that protects qualified individuals with disabilities from discrimination on the basis of disability in the workplace. Since the enactment of the ADA, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has taken the position that people who are morbidly obese (body weight more than 100 percent over the norm) are disabled and protected under the ADA. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal appellate court with jurisdiction over Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee, recently disagreed with the EEOC’s longstanding interpretation. In their weekly Boca Raton News column, Hodgson Russ partners Larry Corman and Glenn Rissman discuss a recent federal appellate court decision on this topic.