Disability-related expulsion from son's basketball game does not violate Americans with Disabilities Act

This case was brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The plaintiff is the father of a high school basketball player who was expelled from an out-of-state athletic tournament, which prompted the basketball team, as a well as a team from a private league, to sever their relationships with the father and son, leaving the son without a team. The case was dismissed, and the Court of Appeals affirms, so the case is over.

The case is Lafayette v. Blueprint Basketball, a summary order issued on October 15. Here is what happened, according to the father: in 2018, the father suffered a traumatic brain injury while playing basketball; that injury has affected his emotions and limits his ability to interact with others. A year later, his son joined a private basketball club.When dad attended his son's basketball game, he was expelled following a dispute with "a game official," or referee. Dad sent an angry email that he claims was an instance of "impulsive symptomatic behavior." The son was next kicked off the team and the basketball director issued a no-trespass order against dad for the team practices. The son was also "not welcome" to join another team due to this dispute with Blueprint Basketball. The basketball coaches had "heavy concerns" about dad.

The ADA claim is dismissed. The Court of Appeals (Chin, Calabresi and Lee) holds that the Complaint asserts only that plaintiff and his son were barred due to plaintiff's disruptive behavior. While the disability might explain the father's outburst which resulted in the expulsion, the Second Circuit holds that such "misconduct is a legitimate and nondiscriminatory reason for terminating [the relationship], even when such misconduct is related to a disability."

The Court of Appeals had previously applied such reasoning to an employment case, McElwee v. County of Orange, 700 F.3d 635 (2d Cir. 2012), a case that I handled. The idea is that even the expulsion from work (or an athletic event) stems from disability-related behavior, that does not give rise to an ADA violation, as some workplace behavior is too intolerable for management to accept even if the ADA prohibits disability discrimination. That rule is so rock-solid these days that Lafayette's case does not even proceed beyond the Rule 12 motion-to-dismiss stage, and he is unable to generate discovery to further support his claim.