Methods of Administration

Abstract

The Americans with Disabilities Act amounted to nothing less than a new Declaration of Independence for people with disabilities. Its five titles cover almost every aspect of human life. Title II, which prohibits discrimination by public entities, directs the Attorney General to issue implementing regulations. One such regulation is the methods of administration provision. That regulation prohibits public entities from employing discriminatory methods in the administration of their programs. This essay examines that provision and the doctrine surrounding it; places the provision in historical context; and, by reference to the pedagogical device of prison litigation, discusses the provision within the confines of civil rights class actions. This essay is offered as a short treatise, with the hope of it eventually being useful to courts and practitioners who encounter this rarely invoked, though highly powerful, regulatory provision.