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WHEN IS SEPARATE UNEQUAL?

This book does not start from the premise that separate is inherently unequal. Writing from an “anti-subordination perspective,” Ruth Colker provides a framework for the courts and society to consider what programs or policies are most likely to lead to substantive equality for individuals with disabilities. In some contexts, she argues for more tolerance of disability-specific programs, and, in other contexts, she argues for more disability-integrated programs. Her highly practical investigation includes the topics of K–12 education, higher education, employment, voting, and provision of health care. At the end of the book, she applies this perspective to the racial arena, arguing that school districts should be given latitude to implement more use of racial criteria to attain integrated schools because such environments are most likely to help attain substantive equality from an anti-subordination perspective. The book measures the attainment of equality not on the basis of worn-out mantras but instead on the basis of substantive gains.

Ruth Colker is one of the leading scholars in the United States in the areas of constitutional law and disability discrimination. She is the author of eight books, two of which have won prizes. She has also published more than 50 articles in law journals such as the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Journal, Pennsylvania Law Review, University of Virginia Law Review, and University of Michigan Law Review. She has been a frequent guest on National Public Radio to comment on disability and constitutional law topics.

Colker is the Heck Faust Memorial Chair in Constitutional Law in the Michael E. Moritz School of Law at The Ohio State University. Before joining the faculty at Ohio State, she taught at Tulane University, the University of Toronto, the University of Pittsburgh, and in the women's studies graduate program at George Washington University. She also spent four years working as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice, where she received two awards for outstanding performance.

Professor Colker was a recipient of Ohio State University’s Distinguished Lecturer Award in 2001, the University's Distinguished Diversity Enhancement Award in 2002, and the University Distinguished Scholar Award in 2003. She is a 1978 graduate of Harvard University and a 1981 graduate of Harvard Law School.

Disability, Law and Policy

The Disability, Law and Policy series examines these topics in interdisciplinary and comparative terms. The books in the series reflect the diversity of definitions, causes, and consequences of discrimination against persons with disabilities, while illuminating fundamental themes that unite countries in their pursuit of human rights laws and policies to improve the social and economic status of persons with disabilities. The series contains historical, contemporary, and comparative scholarship crucial to identifying individual, organizational, cultural, attitudinal, and legal themes necessary for the advancement of disability law and policy.

The book topics covered in the series also are reflective of the new moral and political commitment by countries throughout the world toward equal opportunity for persons with disabilities in such areas as employment, housing, transportation, rehabilitation, and individual human rights. The series will thus play a significant role in informing policy makers, researchers, and citizens of issues central to disability rights and disability antidiscrimination policies. The series grounds the future of disability law and policy as a vehicle for ensuring that those living with disabilities participate as equal citizens of the world.

Ruth Colker

The Ohio State University

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© Ruth Colker 2009

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2009

Printed in the United States of America

A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication DataColker, Ruth. When is separate unequal? : a disability perspective / Ruth Colker.p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-0-521-88618-5 (hardback) – ISBN 978-0-521-71381-8 (pbk.)1. People with disabilities – Legal status, laws, etc. – United States.I. Title.KF480.C658 2009342.7308′7–dc22 2008028631

ISBN 978-0-521-88618-5 hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-71381-8 paperback

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To my mother, Janice Seiner Colker, for her love, compassion, and wisdom

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