by CREEC | Jan 15, 2015 | Accessibility, Systemic change litigation
The Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center (CREEC), along with three individuals who use wheelchairs for mobility, today filed federal class action lawsuits against three major hotel owner/operators, RLJ Lodging Trust, Hospitality Properties Trust, and Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. Each lawsuit alleges that the hotel owner/operator discriminates against individuals with mobility disabilities in the provision of hotel shuttle transportation. These three entities own or operate more than 500 hotels in the United States, including more than 50 in California. Specifically, the cases challenge the hotels’ consistent failure to provide accessible options when they choose to offer transportation services to guests, and charge that this failure violates the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and California state law. “For those of us who use wheelchairs and other mobility devices, it is difficult enough to get around most cities when we travel,” said Ruthee Goldkorn, a plaintiff in two of the cases who uses a wheelchair for mobility. “As it stands at these hotels, all other hotel guests can get shuttled around the city to events, the airport, and downtown attractions, but we just get left at the hotel. I joined this lawsuit to make hotel transportation services accessible for everyone.” “Hotels that choose to provide transportation services to their guests must include accessible transportation options,” said Timothy P. Fox, Executive Director of the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center and one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs in the three cases. “This has been the law under the ADA for more than twenty years, and these three defendants have not complied with it.” “Offering a service to nondisabled guests while excluding...
by CREEC | Jan 14, 2015 | News
We’re starting the new year with a bang (or rather, a fancy accomplishment we’re going to boast shamelessly about). Tim and Amy were selected to 5280 Magazine’s Top Lawyers 2015 list and specifically recognized for their expertise in Civil Rights and Disability law. The list consists of 345 legal rock stars in the Denver metro area. You can scope out the list on 5280’s website or read it in the January 2015 issue, which is on newsstands now! 5280’s editors assembled the list by sending ballots to thousands of attorneys in the greater Denver area, asking them to recommend top lawyers in various legal categories. The editors also interviewed local lawyers to get an in-depth, insider look at the legal profession and its current up-and-comers and movers-and-shakers. For more information about how 5280 assembled their list, check out the FAQ about halfway down this page. CREEC congratulates all of the other fine lawyers on the list, especially the extraordinary company we find ourselves in under the heading “Civil Rights.” We raise our glasses in the general direction of John Holland, David Lane, Mari Newman, Laura Rovner, Mark Silverstein and Rebecca Wallace. And by “raise our glasses,” I mean we’d like to take you all out for drinks! Thank you to 5280 Magazine for including Amy and Tim (and CREEC) in their Top Lawyers...
by CREEC | Jan 5, 2015 | News
Late last year, CREEC was honored to have received a grant allocated by the heirs of Eleanor Elizabeth Gish Crow. Based on Eleanor’s lifelong commitment to civil rights in general and fair housing specifically, her family and heirs decided that a donation to CREEC would be a fitting way to honor her memory and continue the work about which she was most passionate. Eleanor was a giant in several fields, notably mathematics, community activism, and civil rights. Born in 1917, she earned Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Mathematics and was tapped to work on the Manhattan Project; she was also a public school physics teacher. After moving to Colorado in the early 1950s, Eleanor pursued a Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Colorado-Boulder. While living in Boulder she became involved in community activism and helped pass the Boulder Human Rights Ordinance. She began working with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission in 1965 and remained there until 1985. Eleanor was active in a plethora of organizations geared towards public justice, such as the American Association for Affirmative Action, the League of Women Voters, Mental Health Partners, the National Association of Human Rights Workers, the American Association of University Women, and the National Organization for Women. Eleanor’s commitment to fair housing issues was most apparent in her active role as a board member for the anti-discrimination non-profit Housing for All. It was in that context that I met Eleanor, and got the benefit of her experience and expertise. What was most striking, though, was that I did not learn of all of all the rest of her amazing life experience...
