Garrett v. University of Alabama at Birmingham Board of Trustees

Citation: 276 F.3d 1227Docket: Nos. 98-6069, 98-6070

Court: Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit; December 19, 2001; Federal Appellate Court

SummaryOriginalCytator Case TreatmentBackward CitatorAnalysis

EnglishEspañolSimplified EnglishEspañol Fácil

The Petition for Rehearing is granted in the case involving Garrett v. University of Alabama at Birmingham Board of Trustees. The Eleventh Circuit previously reversed a district court decision based on the precedent set in Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents, which concluded that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) did not validly abrogate state immunity under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. The United States Supreme Court later reversed the Eleventh Circuit’s decision, reinforcing that Congress lacked the authority to abrogate state immunity under the ADA and remanded the case.

Upon remand, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court's decision regarding both the ADA claim and the Rehabilitation Act claim. The plaintiffs argued in their Petition for Rehearing that the defendants had voluntarily waived their Eleventh Amendment immunity under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act by accepting federal financial assistance that required such a waiver. The defendants agreed that the prior rulings did not address this potential waiver and requested that the case be remanded for the district court to consider the waiver argument and potentially develop an evidentiary record.

As a result, the Eleventh Circuit granted the Petition for Rehearing, vacated its prior opinion (except the part affirming the district court's decision regarding the ADA and Rehabilitation Act), and remanded the case to the district court to evaluate the waiver of immunity argument. The Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc was denied as moot. The outcome is thus affirmed in part, vacated and remanded in part.