State AGs Press Justice Department on ADA Guidance

A group of 19 state attorneys general is urging the Justice Department to issue guidance on website accessibility under the Americans With Disabilities Act—an effort that the department abandoned when President Trump took office.

“This void in the law has led to unnecessary lawsuits in an effort to exploit the law’s ambiguity for financial gain with little or no corresponding benefit to consumers,” the attorneys general said in their letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Consumers across the country are suing businesses, including credit unions, in an effort to collect damages, with varying success.

More than 100 plaintiffs, many represented by the same law firm, have sued credit unions over the past year contending that the institutions’ website access violated theADA.

The attorneys general said that the Justice Department could bring clarity to the issue.

“Such a regulation will provide much needed legal certainty and predictability, which in turn will benefit consumers and businesses alike,” they said, in the letter.

The Justice Department under President Obama had announced its intention to issue ADA guidance governing websites.

However, the Trump Administration put the guidance on an inactive list and did not take it off it in the Spring update of its regulatory agenda.

So far, the administration has resisted pressure to issue the guidance.

The House, in its version of the FY19 appropriations bill for the Justice Department included instructions directing the department to issue ADA guidance. The Senate version of the same bill does not include that provision.

More than 100 members of Congress have signed letters asking for the guidance to be issued, as have credit union trade groups.

Attorneys general signing the letter to Sessions were: Jahana Lindemuth of Alaska; Christopher Carr of Georgia; Leslie Rutledge of Arkansas; Lawrence Wasden of Idaho; Cynthia Coffman of Colorado; Curtis Hill of Indiana; Karl Racine of Washington, D.C.; Thomas Miller of Iowa; Pamela Bondi of Florida; Jeffrey Landry of Louisiana; Timothy Fox of Montana, Herbert Slatery III, of Tennessee; Douglas Peterson of Nebraska; W. Kenneth Paxton of  Texas; Adam Laxalt of Nevada; Sean Reyes of Utah; Wayne Stenehiem of North Dakota; Brad Schimel of Wisconsin and Alan Wilson of South Carolina.

To read a copy of the full letter, click here.