Justices Extend Disabled Act to Cruises
a.. Foreign ships sailing from U.S. ports can't charge higher fares or 
provide a lower level of service, a split Supreme Court says.

By David G. Savage, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON - Foreign cruise ships operating from U.S. ports may not 
discriminate against disabled passengers, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The 5-4 decision holds that the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to 
foreign-flagged cruise ships and bars them from charging higher fares to 
disabled passengers.

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More than 7 million passengers annually board these "floating resorts" at 
U.S. ports, the court noted. And though Americans make up the majority of 
those who travel aboard cruise ships, most of the vessels fly foreign flags.

The ruling was a victory for Douglas Spector, a Houston man who uses a 
wheelchair. He sued Norwegian Cruise Lines, a Bermuda corporation whose 
principal place of business is Miami and whose ships fly the flag of the 
Bahamas, where they are registered.

Spector alleged that he was charged more for a cabin than other passengers. 
He also said he was dismayed to learn he did not have access to restaurants, 
swimming pools and other shipboard amenities because of physical barriers. 
His suit was dismissed before trial by the U.S. Court of Appeals in New 
Orleans, and he appealed.

"With this decision, the Supreme Court has told the cruise lines that we are 
entitled to what every other passenger receives.. The cruise lines 
aggressively market themselves as American and accessible, and maybe now, 
they will truly become just that," Spector said in a statement issued by his 
lawyers.

The 1990 law says disabled persons are entitled to the "full and equal 
enjoyment of public accommodations" and public transportation. Where 
possible, the law requires that barriers to disabled persons be eliminated 
in hotels, restaurants, buses and airplanes.

Although Congress did not say whether the law extended to cruise ships, the 
court's majority said it assumed lawmakers meant for its antidiscrimination 
rules to apply to ships operating in U.S. waters.

"To hold there is no [antidiscrimination] protection for disabled persons 
who seek to use the amenities of foreign cruise ships would be a harsh and 
unexpected interpretation of a statute designed to provide broad protection 
for the disabled," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion 
in Spector vs. Norwegian Cruise Lines.

Passengers may not be charged higher fares or given second-class treatment 
because of their disability, he said. However, ship owners need not 
undertake a major redesign of older ships to accommodate disabled persons, 
he added. Rather, they should make modifications that are "readily 
achievable."

Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen 
G. Breyer joined Kennedy's opinion.

Justice Antonin Scalia dissented, saying that foreign ships should not be 
required to modify their rules to comply with U.S. law. Chief Justice 
William H. Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas 
joined in dissent.

Monday's ruling is likely to revive several other related lawsuits. Dorene 
Giacopini, a special-education mediator from Contra Costa County, sued Los 
Angeles-based Crystal Cruises alleging that she was unable to move around 
the ship in her wheelchair on a cruise to Alaska. However, a federal judge 
had dismissed her claim, citing the ruling by the appeals court in New 
Orleans.