When 'Direct Threat' Beats A Disability Accommodation Claim: Lessons From The Eighth Circuit

Employers are usually familiar with the language of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which allows an employer to decline to provide requested accommodation to an individual with a disability if the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the company's business. For many employers, it's less common to consider the ADA's language permitting employers to apply job-related qualification standards that require an employee not to pose a direct threat to the health or safety of other individuals in the workplace.

The Eighth Circuit recently produced a thorough discussion of the direct threat defense in the case of Christensen v. Union Pacific Railroad Co. In Christensen, both the district court (in granting summary judgment for Union Pacific) and the Eighth Circuit went directly to an analysis of the employer's affirmative defense to the plaintiff's disparate treatment claim under the ADA. Union Pacific created a solid case by following textbook