Maine Health Department Must Face Brothers’ Disability Bias Suit

Maine’s health department isn’t entitled to sovereign immunity in a suit alleging it discriminated against disabled brothers by providing them with less aid because they lived together.

Gavin and Jared McKenna could proceed with their claims under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act because the act expressly abrogates state immunity when its conduct violates the US Constitution, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit said Monday. The department’s decision to reimburse the brothers for only one in-home caregiver instead of two violated equal protection and due process by infringing their fundamental right to associate and live ...