Should Obese Workers Get Disability Protection? 7th Cir. to Say (1)

A former Chicago city bus driver hopes to show that severely obese workers must be protected from job discrimination under federal law, even without an underlying medical condition.

That’s the issue percolating in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Specifically, Mark Richardson wants the court to say that the Chicago Transit Authority violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when it fired him because it perceived his severe obesity as a disability.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission considers severe obesity alone to be a physical impairment protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But several courts have ruled ...