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Are Drug Addicts Covered Under The ADA?


— October 8, 2003

Raytheon v. Hernandez is the sort of case the Warren Court lived to hear: An old-fashioned sob story about a broken victim and the soulless corporation that wouldn’t cut him a break. On one side, Joel Hernandez, recovering addict fighting for his old job after he finds God and gets sober. On the other, Raytheon, huge defense contractor, which�along with the federal government�is defending its no-second-chances-for-cokeheads policy. Hernandez is, not to put too fine a point on it, screwed from the word go.

Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick explains why in her report on the oral argument in Hernandez’s case at the Supreme Court.

UPDATE: Law.com is now reporting on the argument here.

UPDATE UPDATE: The Christian Science Monitor also weighs in here with a typically thoughtful and comprehensive article.


Raytheon v. Hernandez is the sort of case the Warren Court lived to hear: An old-fashioned sob story about a broken victim and the soulless corporation that wouldn’t cut him a break. On one side, Joel Hernandez, recovering addict fighting for his old job after he finds God and gets sober. On the other, Raytheon, huge defense contractor, which�along with the federal government�is defending its no-second-chances-for-cokeheads policy. Hernandez is, not to put too fine a point on it, screwed from the word go.

Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick explains why in her report on the oral argument in Hernandez’s case at the Supreme Court.

UPDATE: Law.com is now reporting on the argument here.

UPDATE UPDATE: The Christian Science Monitor also weighs in here with a typically thoughtful and comprehensive article.

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