Originally Posted by Katja
I am not a lawyer, but after a very careful reading of ADA Title III (Public Accomodation), I really have trouble justifying that this sort of stuff is in any way covered. As a person who counts on the protection of the ADA for really big important things (can I get in to buildings, can I use public restrooms and other facilities, can my employer fire me for being disabled and no other reason, etc), I can't get behind nuisance lawsuits.
Also, the ADA is an unfunded mandate. The DOJ has absolutely no motivation, financial or otherwise, to come down on anybody for a nuisance ADA complaint.
In this instance, IMHO, TSA is just not following their own stupid rules that they made up. They're not breaking laws.
What makes the ADA work, other than the situations you cite, is advocacy groups that can put the squeeze on government agencies in a very public manner. (FYI, I have a mentally handicapped sister-in-law and am plugged into some of these advocacy groups.) Even in his best days, the TSA's former Baghdad Bob, Mark Hatfield, couldn't "no comment" and ADA issue. That's the advantage -- public embarassment that causes them to take positive action. All of this can happen well short of a lawsuit. If nothing else, you can force the TSA into conducting remedial training of its problem employees and perhaps prevent this sort of thing happening to someone in a worse situation than either you or my sister-in-law.
And, for the record, I certainly don't consider what happened to you to be a "nuisance complaint," and I'm willing to bet that most folks who post here would agree with me.