The Supreme Court issued its first decision of the term in an argued case — and the justices decided not to decide. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the opinion for the court dismissing the case as moot, since the disability rights advocate who brought the lawsuit dropped it before the justices could decide the case.
NBC News reported that the case “could have curtailed the ability of ‘testers’ to bring lawsuits to benefit the disabled community as a whole by ensuring hotels comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.” So a non-decision is better than a bad one.
The advocate, Deborah Laufer, had sued hundreds of hotels whose websites failed to say whether they have accessible rooms for the disabled as required by law, even if she wasn’t planning on staying there. The hotel operator in this case, Acheson Hotels v. Laufer, argued she didn’t have legal standing.
In her opinion, Barrett noted that the case took an “unusual turn” after the justices agreed to review it. Laufer’s lawyer was suspended from practicing law for defrauding hotels by lying in fee petitions and during settlement negotiations. After that, Laufer voluntarily dismissed the suit, but Acheson Hotels still wanted a ruling on the issue. The Supreme Court declined.
Generally, the more contentious decisions come later in the term because they take more time to sort out — hence the crush of blockbuster decisions that arrive in late June. But we’re awaiting a ruling that could come sooner in the South Carolina gerrymandering case that will affect the 2024 congressional elections. So look out for that one to possibly come this month. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for weekly updates on the top legal stories, including news from the Supreme Court, the Donald Trump cases and more.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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