Seventh Circuit Reverses Course On Reassignment Accommodation

For over a decade, employers in the Seventh Circuit have been able to rely on EEOC v. Humiston-Keeling, 227 F.3d 1024 (7th Cir. 2000), to adopt perfectly valid uniformly enforced policies allowing for disabled employees who can no longer perform the essential functions of their current jobs to be considered for reassignment on a competitive basis. In other words, if a more qualified candidate sought the same position as the disabled candidate, the employer could select the best-qualified candidate without running afoul of the ADA. No longer, says the Seventh Circuit.

The circuit court held that under the Supreme Court precedent of U.S. Airways, Inc. v. Barnett, 535 U.S. 391 (2002) (requiring an employee to show that an accommodation is reasonable on its face, i.e., ordinarily or in the run of cases, which then shifts the burden to the employers to demonstrate case-specific undue hardship in the particular circumstances), reassignment of a disabled but qualified