WallStreetJrnl- Justice Dept Backs Disabilities Lawsuit against LSAC
Justice Dept Backs Disabilities Lawsuit against LSAC
ByJoe Palazzolo
The Justice Department threw its muscle behind a class action against the organization that administers the law school admission test, alleging a widespread failure to accommodate exam takers with disabilities.
The agency’s Civil Rights Division on Wednesday asked U.S. District Judge Edward M. Chen in San Francisco for permission to intervene in the lawsuit, which was filed in March by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing on behalf of 17 test takers. The organization has faced several similar lawsuits in recent years.
The addition of the Justice Department, if approved by a federal judge, increases the stakes for the Law School Admission Council, which administered the law school exam to about 130,000 people in 2011-2012.
The lawsuit alleges that LSAC routinely denies accommodation requests, even in cases where applicants have submitted proper paperwork and demonstrated a history of testing accommodations.
In one case highlighted by the Justice Department, the LSAC allegedly denied nearly all requested accommodations for a woman with severe visual impairments, including a large-print test book and 20 additional minutes for each section. She had been receiving testing accommodations since kindergarten, the department said. In another case, the LSAC allegedly denied a dyslexic man’s request for extra time to take the exam.
In court documents, the Justice Department also alleged that LSAC improperly flags test scores obtained with testing accommodations — identifying prospective students with disabilities — and turns that information over to law schools in the admissions process.
A spokeswoman for LSAC said, “We won’t be commenting at this point.”
The class action alleges violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The department’s proposed complaint seeks damages and a civil penalty against LSAC, without giving a dollar amount.
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