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Subway station accessibility lawsuit against MTA can proceed


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Subway station accessibility lawsuit against MTA can proceed

The case, one of four challenging subway access, argues that the MTA and the city are in violation of the Human Rights Law.

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New York State Supreme Court Judge Shlomo Hagler on Wednesday denied motions from the MTA to dismiss a case regarding accessibility in the subway system. Photo Credit: Vincent Barone

By Vincent Barone

vin.barone@amny.com  @vinbarone

Updated June 5, 2019 4:42 PM

A State Supreme Court judge ruled that a lawsuit over inaccessible subway stations can move forward, reinforcing the hopes of advocates fighting for better wheelchair access in the city’s transit system.

Judge Shlomo Hagler on Wednesday denied motions from the MTA to dismiss the case, deciding in part that the state authority is not above the city’s Human Rights Law’s prohibitions of discrimination based on disability in public spaces.

“We’re thrilled. We’re vindicated. We expect to proceed to trial and we expect to win,” said Susan Dooha, executive director of Center for Independence of the Disabled, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “The judge was well-founded in his legal decisions about why our case survives those efforts to dismiss it.”

The case (Center for Independence of the Disabled New York (CIDNY), et al. v. New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA), et al.), filed by a coalition of accessibility advocacy groups, argues that the MTA and the city are in violation of the Human Rights Law because only about 25% of the subway system’s 472 stations include elevator access.

The lawsuit is one of four ongoing cases in state and federal courts challenging the MTA’s subway accessibility record. At a hearing last month, Hon. Hagler admonished the MTA over its failure to provide better subway access to commuters with disabilities, saying that authority officials claiming that the issue is a priority should put “the money where their mouths are” and fund more elevator installations.

James Kerwin, an attorney for the MTA, had in part argued that the case should be dismissed because the authority is meeting legal requirements of a law the State Legislature first passed in 1984 and then amended a decade later to require 100 “key stations” be made accessible by July 2020.

Kerwin reasoned that state law had supremacy over city law and that the State Legislature had worked to create a complex and thoughtful legal agreement to add elevators to a century-old subway system. Hon. Hagler disagreed.

“There has never been a decision from any court that has preempted the New York City Human Rights Law in the area of discrimination,” Hagler said. “There can never be a situation where the state would license any agency to discriminate against any individual.”

Source: https://www.amny.com/transit/subway-accessibility-nyc-1.32021995?fbclid=IwAR3OjS2xR9k5DUsS2K0RHN-u2oY4bpfAGixexveHsnClRpF4kSqas_9JCPM

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that.... 

I...

 

Brain.exe has preformed a illegal operation and will be shut down.....

 

I actually feel dumber having read that article. I can just feel the IQ points dropping like flies. 

 

HOW on God's green Earth can he make that kind of justification? or does the phrase "Dillons' Rule" mean nothing to that man...

 

The judge is wearing his biases on his sleeve. he should be removed from this case. 

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