[nagdu] Woman with guide dog says civil rights were violated

[Marion & Martin]

Jenine,
    You are correct about the language of the ADA. The quandry is that law 
enforcement officers are only charged with enforcement of state laws. Since 
the ADA is a Federal civil law, the remedies are not enforced by local law 
enforcement. One of the reasons NAGDU is diligently forming divisions at the 
state level is to have some influence on the legislative process and create 
sound laws that are enforceable by state officers. The state process is much 
quicker, in most cases, and more likely to be pursued than a Federal 
complaint. Very few Federal complaints are ever even investigated, let alone 
charged.
    My comments are not based upon Texas statute, only a point of 
information for those in other states to consider and check out. It seems, 
however, that this woman attempted to educate law enforcement about her 
civil rights and the State Attorney may have been  unwilling to file charges 
because of the ramifications for the same charges against the police 
officers who may have also violated her civil rights.

Fraternally,
Marion


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jenine Stanley" <jeninems at wowway.com>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, June 06, 2009 10:59 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Woman with guide dog says civil rights were violated


> Interesting logic, Marion, but federal law trumps state and local laws and
> there's no such mention of the term "Seeing eye" in the ADA. Now I suppose
> if a person just stuck with remedies provided under state law or local law
> and such a term was still in place then it would matter, but hopefully a
> good attorney could also argue against it as well as for it.
>
>
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