On Politics

Mon Aug 14 2023

Marina Pitofsky | NOW reporter

Hi OnPolitics readers. What do you worry about when you're booking a hotel room? A neighbor playing loud music? A broken air conditioning unit?

That's not all for Julie Reiskin and millions of Americans living with disabilities, who fear they'll show up to a hotel that doesn't have necessary accommodations, such as ramps or roll-in showers.

People with disabilities and their loved ones rely on hotels to make note of accommodations on their reservation websites, disclosures that are required by a 2010 federal regulation, USA TODAY's John Fritze reports.

⚖️ Advocates fear a Supreme Court case this year could undermine the requirement, making it harder to punish hoteliers who defy or overlook it.

At issue for the Supreme Court is whether self-styled "testers" who scrutinize hotel booking websites for a lack of information about accommodations may sue those hotels in federal court – even if they have no intention of ever staying there.

Wait, what's the controversy? Civil rights groups such as the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union say testers are critical to enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act.

But opponents frame the practice as a cottage industry of lawyers using the courts to extract thousands in settlement fees from hotels.

How are officials responding? The Biden administration isn't taking a side technically, but it told the Supreme Court that a woman should not be allowed to sue. She lacks standing, the administration said, because she is only viewing the hotel reservation sites with no plans to use them.

'Sleeping in my car': This Supreme Court case could change how disabled Americans book hotel rooms

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