Michael Cousins v. Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation

857 F.2d 37, 1 Am. Disabilities Cas. (BNA) 1374, 1988 U.S. App. LEXIS 12854, 47 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 38,353, 47 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1640, 1988 WL 96048
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedSeptember 20, 1988
Docket88-1106
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 857 F.2d 37 (Michael Cousins v. Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Michael Cousins v. Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation, 857 F.2d 37, 1 Am. Disabilities Cas. (BNA) 1374, 1988 U.S. App. LEXIS 12854, 47 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 38,353, 47 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1640, 1988 WL 96048 (1st Cir. 1988).

Opinion

BOWNES, Circuit Judge.

This appeal raises the question of whether there is a private right of action under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794, against the federal government acting in its regulatory capacity. 1 Plaintiff-appellant, Michael Cousins, is a deaf man who was unable to obtain employment in Maine as a tractor-trailer driver because a regulation promulgated by the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) effectively prohibits deaf persons from driving motor carriers in interstate commerce, regardless of their ability to perform such duties. See 49 C.F.R. § 391.41(b)(11) (1987). 2 Plaintiff challenged this regulation in the United States District Court for the District of Maine by bringing suit under section 504 against Elizabeth Dole in her official capacity as the Secretary of DOT. He alleged that, by promulating and threatening to enforce the regulation against him, defendant caused him to be denied employment as a commercial truck driver. 3 The district court found that the plaintiff had no private right of action against DOT under section 504, and accordingly, dismissed the complaint without prejudice to the filing of an amended complaint stating a claim for relief under the Administrative Procedure Act. See Cousins v. Dole, 674 F.Supp. 360 (D.Me. 1987). Plaintiff appealed. 4

I.

Our analysis is controlled and therefore simplified by Traynor v. Turnage, — U.S. -, 108 S.Ct. 1372, 99 L.Ed.2d 618 (1988), in which the Supreme Court rested its holding on the assumption that there is a private right of action under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act against the federal *39 government acting in its regulatory capacity. A procedural exegesis of Traynor is necessary.

Traynor was a consolidation of cases from different circuits challenging the same regulation issued by the Veterans’ Administration (VA). Veterans Traynor and McKelvey were recovered alcoholics who sought veterans’ educational assistance benefits under the G.I. Bill. See 38 U.S.C. § 1661. Although these benefits generally must be used within ten years following discharge or release from active duty, veterans may obtain an extension beyond this ten-year period, if they were prevented from using their benefits earlier by “a physical or mental disability which was not the result of [their] own willful misconduct....” 38 U.S.C. § 1662(a)(1). Traynor and McKelvey claimed an extension under this provision on the ground that they had been disabled by alcoholism during much of the ten-year period. The VA rejected their position, relying on that part of the challenged regulation which characterizes a disability resulting from “the drinking of a beverage to enjoy its intoxicating effects” as “willful misconduct.” See 38 C.F.R. § 3.301(c)(2).

Traynor sought review of the VA decision in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and McKelvey, in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Both claimed that the VA’s refusal to extend them benefits, a decision made pursuant to the challenged regulation, violated their right under section 504 not to be discriminated against solely on the basis of a handicap, in their case, alcoholism. The district courts agreed. See Traynor v. Walters, 606 F.Supp. 391 (S.D.N.Y.1985); McKelvey v. Walters, 596 F.Supp. 1317 (D.D.C.1984).

On appeal, the Second Circuit reversed the decision in favor of Traynor on the ground that a separate provision of the Veterans’ Benefits statute, 38 U.S.C. § 211(a), 5 barred review of the section 504 claim. See Traynor v. Walters, 791 F.2d 226 (2d Cir.1986). The District of Columbia Circuit disagreed, but reversed the decision in favor of McKelvey on the merits. See McKelvey v. Turnage, 792 F.2d 194 (D.C.Cir.1986). The Supreme Court granted cer-tiorari “to decide whether the Veterans’ Administration’s decision is subject to judicial review and, if so, whether that decision violates § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 87 Stat. 394, 29 U.S.C. § 794, which requires that federal programs not discriminate against handicapped individuals solely because of their handicap.” Traynor, 108 S.Ct. at 1376.

The Court concluded that the question of “whether a [VA] regulation violate[d] the Rehabilitation Act is not foreclosed from judicial review by § 211(a)[,]” id. at 1380, but that the regulation in question did not violate the Act. Id. at 1380-84. In spite of the Court’s explicit reference to the Rehabilitation Act, defendant-appellee argues that it is unclear from Traynor whether the petitioners’ claims arose directly under the Rehabilitation Act, or under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Specifically, defendant suggests that the Supreme Court might have been assessing the validity of the veterans’ benefit regulation under the APA provision which provides that agency action must be set aside if it is “arbitrary, capricious, ... or otherwise not in accordance with law.” 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A). We think that defendant’s argument defies the plain meaning of the Supreme Court’s decision.

At no point in Traynor did the Court mention the APA. Its only reference to the type of claim that might be brought pursuant to the APA appears implicitly in its discussion of whether section 211(a) barred judicial review of the section 504 claim. The Court stated:

*40 [T]he eases now before us involve the issue whether the law sought to be administered is valid in light of a subsequent statute whose enforcement is not the exclusive domain of the Veterans’ Administration. There is no claim that the regulation at issue is inconsistent with the statute under which it was issued.

Traynor, 108 S.Ct. at 1379 (footnote omitted) (emphasis added).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
857 F.2d 37, 1 Am. Disabilities Cas. (BNA) 1374, 1988 U.S. App. LEXIS 12854, 47 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 38,353, 47 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1640, 1988 WL 96048, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/michael-cousins-v-secretary-of-the-united-states-department-of-ca1-1988.