GRIFFIN, Circuit Judge.
In this class action suit, defendant City of Columbus, Ohio ("the City"), appeals the district court's order granting in part and denying in part plaintiffs' motion for partial summary judgment, denying defendant's summary judgment motion, and granting plaintiffs' request for permanent injunctive relief. The plaintiffs consist of two certified classes, all of whom are current or former employees of the City of Columbus, Division of Police. Plaintiffs initiated the present action in December 2007 alleging that, as employees, they were subject to certain impermissible city Division Directives that mandate the procedures governing their return to regular duty following sick leave, injury leave, or restricted duty.
At issue in the present appeal is Directive 3.07 § III(H)(1)(c) ("the Directive"), which requires returning employees to submit a copy of their physician's note, stating the "nature of the illness" and whether the employee is capable of returning to regular duty, "to your immediate supervisor." Upset by the mandatory disclosure and funneling of confidential medical information through immediate supervisors, plaintiffs asserted class claims, alleging that the Directive violates the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 791 et seq., and the privacy provisions of the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution through 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
The facts of this case are accurately set forth in the district court's decision:
(Citations to record and footnote omitted.)
The parties thereafter filed cross-motions for summary judgment on plaintiffs' class claims for injunctive relief under the Rehabilitation Act and § 1983. In addition, the City moved for summary judgment on plaintiffs' claim for compensatory damages. On July 15, 2009, the district court issued an opinion and order granting partial summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs on the Rehabilitation Act and § 1983 claims, denying the City's cross-motion, and permanently enjoining the City from enforcing Directive 3.07 § III(H)(1)(c).
"A party is entitled to a permanent injunction if it can establish that it suffered a constitutional violation and will suffer continuing irreparable injury for which there is no adequate remedy at law." Wedgewood Ltd. P'ship I v. Twp. of Liberty, Ohio, 610 F.3d 340, 349 (6th Cir. 2010) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). "In determining whether a district court has properly granted a permanent injunction, we review factual findings for clear error, legal conclusions de novo, and the scope of injunctive relief for abuse of discretion." Gibson Guitar Corp. v. Paul Reed Smith Guitars, LP, 423 F.3d 539, 546 (6th Cir.2005).
"Summary judgment is proper when, viewing the facts and drawing all inferences in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, there is no genuine issue of material fact for trial and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Harris v. Metro. Gov't of Nashville & Davidson Cnty., Tenn., 594 F.3d 476, 482 (6th Cir.2010) (citing Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c)). "The standard of review for cross-motions for summary judgment does not differ from the standard applied when a motion is filed by only one party to the litigation." Ferro Corp. v. Cookson Group, PLC, 585 F.3d 946, 949 (6th Cir.2009).
The Rehabilitation Act provides that "[n]o otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States ... shall, solely by reason of her or his disability,... be subjected to discrimination under
Thus, to recover on a claim of disability-based discrimination under the Rehabilitation Act, an employee must establish that: "1) he is an individual with a disability; 2) he is otherwise qualified to perform the job requirements, with or without reasonable accommodation; and 3) he [suffered an adverse employment action] solely by reason of his handicap." Jones v. Potter, 488 F.3d 397, 403 (6th Cir.2007) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).
Citing McPherson, the district court in the case at hand held that the Rehabilitation Act incorporates the limitations on the disclosure of medical information contained in the ADA. The ADA provides in relevant part:
42 U.S.C. § 12112(d)(4)(A). A "disability" is defined by the ADA as "(A) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual; (B) a record of such an impairment; or (C) being regarded as having such an impairment." 42 U.S.C. § 12102(2) (2006); see also Spees v. James Marine, Inc., 617 F.3d 380, 395-96 (6th Cir.2010).
Under the category of "Acceptable examinations and inquiries[,]" the ADA permits an employer to "make inquiries into the ability of an employee to perform job-related functions." 42 U.S.C. § 12112(d)(4)(B).
The district court found that the Rehabilitation Act encompasses these ADA provisions because "the limited disclosure protection [provided by these ADA provisions] furthers the anti-discrimination thrust of both statutory schemes. The restriction on broad disclosure is a protection against undue discrimination of sensitive information that could lead to discrimination." Lee, 644 F.Supp.2d at 1009. Following the lead of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Conroy v. New York State Dep't of Correctional Services, 333 F.3d 88 (2d Cir. 2003), the district court held that the City's medical inquiries conducted pursuant to the Directive invoked the ADA's protections:
Id. at 1012.
The district court determined that the Directive's requirement that the confidential medical information be disclosed to immediate supervisors violates § 12112(d)(4)(A), because supervisory personnel in the chain of command are not authorized by the statute to have unfettered access to confidential medical information:
Id. at 1010 (citation and quotation marks omitted). The district court held that the Directive was overly intrusive and improperly provided supervisors with confidential medical information even when they had no reason to possess such knowledge, particularly in light of the fact that the City had a human resources department which presumably could be used to create a "confidentiality barrier between these personnel, whose jobs consist of handling medical information, and supervisors." Id. (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Finding that the City otherwise failed to make out the affirmative defense of business necessity, the court granted summary judgment and permanent injunctive relief to plaintiffs on their Rehabilitation Act claim. Id. at 1013-15.
As a preliminary matter, we note that the Rehabilitation Act addresses the confidentiality of medical records only in the limited context of pre-employment examinations. See 28 C.F.R. § 42.513; 24 C.F.R. § 8.13(a). However, we agree with the district court and other courts that the ADA's limitations on the disclosure of medical information set forth in 42 U.S.C. § 12112(d) are incorporated by reference into the Rehabilitation Act. See Doe v. U.S. Postal Service, 317 F.3d 339, 340 (D.C.Cir.2003); Scott v. Napolitano, 717 F.Supp.2d 1071, 1082 n. 4 (S.D.Cal.2010); Brady v. Potter, No. Civ. 02-1121, 2004 WL 964264, at *4 (D. Minn. April 30, 2004) (unpublished); Greer v. O'Neill, No. 01-1398, 2003 WL 25653036, at *9 (D.D.C. Sept.25, 2003) (unpublished). Plaintiffs must therefore show that the Directive's mandate amounted to a prohibited inquiry into their medical disability within the meaning of the ADA, 42 U.S.C. § 12112(d)(4)(A).
Moreover, the district court appropriately determined that plaintiffs are proper parties to challenge the Directive. See Lee, 644 F.Supp.2d at 1011. A plaintiff need not prove that he or she has a disability in order to contest an allegedly improper medical inquiry under 42 U.S.C. § 12112(d). See Harrison v. Benchmark Elecs. Huntsville, Inc., 593 F.3d 1206, 1214 (11th Cir.2010) ("[A] plaintiff has a private right of action under [§ 12112(d)], irrespective of his disability status."); Thomas v. Corwin, 483 F.3d 516, 527 (8th Cir.2007) (Section 12112(d)(4)(A) "applies to all employees, regardless of whether the employee has an actual disability."); Conroy, 333 F.3d at 94 (and cases cited therein) ("[A] plaintiff need not prove that he or she has a disability unknown to his or her employer in order to challenge a medical inquiry or examination under 42 U.S.C. § 12112(d)(4)(a)."); Roe v. Cheyenne Mountain Conf. Resort, Inc., 124 F.3d 1221, 1229 (10th Cir.1997) ("It makes little sense to require an employee to demonstrate that he has a disability to prevent his employer from inquiring as to whether or not he has a disability.") (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).
However, beyond this point, we part ways with the district court's analysis, which follows the Second Circuit's holding in Conroy that because an employer's general request for a "diagnosis" upon an employee's return from sick leave "may tend to reveal" a disability, it therefore constitutes a protected disability-related inquiry under § 12112(d)(4)(A) of the ADA. Conroy, 333 F.3d at 95. Because
At issue in Conroy was an ADA challenge, under § 12112(d)(4)(A), to a correctional-facility sick-leave policy, similar to the Directive in the present case, that required employees to submit general diagnoses as part of a medical certification procedure following certain absences. Id. at 92. The certification included a brief diagnosis that was "sufficiently informative as to allow [the defendant facility] to make a determination concerning the employee's entitlement to leave or to evaluate the need to have an employee examined by [the Employee Health Service] prior to returning to duty." Id. (citation and internal quotation marks omitted; second alteration in original). Although certification was not usually required for absences of less than four days, the policy indicated that in "exceptional circumstances, a supervisor may exercise the right to request certification for any absence charged to sick leave or family sick leave regardless of duration." Id. (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). A second related directive stated that "[m]edical certification may be required of any employee who requests to charge an absence to sick leave credits[,]" but clarified that only "[e]mployees suspected of attendance abuse may be required to furnish medical certification for all absences which they seek to charge to sick leave." Id. (citation and internal quotation marks omitted; alteration in original). Examining this policy, the Second Circuit held:
Id. at 95-96. The Conroy court found support for its conclusion in the EEOC's guide published for the purpose of clarifying the application of § 12112(d)(4)(A):
Id. at 96. The Conroy court therefore concluded that the sick-leave policy at issue constituted a prohibited disability-related inquiry under § 12112(d)(4)(A) that must be justified by business necessity.
The Conroy court's holding in this regard has yet to be followed by any of our sister circuits, and we decline to apply it to the present circumstances. First, we do not find the requirement that an employee provide a general diagnosis—or in this case, an even less specific statement regarding the "nature" of an employee's illness—to be tantamount to an inquiry "as to whether such employee is an individual with a disability or as to the nature or severity of the disability" under § 12112(d)(4)(A). By painting with such a broad brush, and finding suspect any routine or general inquiry simply because it "may tend to reveal" an employee's disability, the Conroy court has unnecessarily swept within the statute's prohibition numerous legitimate and innocuous inquiries that are not aimed at identifying a disability. Obviously, asking an employee whether he is taking prescription drugs or medication, see Doe, 531 F.3d at 358-59, or questions "seek[ing] information about illnesses, mental conditions, or other impairments [an employee] has or had in the past[,]" trigger the ADA's (and hence the Rehabilitation Act's) protections. Scott, 717 F.Supp.2d at 1084-85. Asking an employee returning to work to describe the "nature" of his illness, however, is not
This is particularly problematic in the present context, which involves a claim brought under the Rehabilitation Act, not the ADA. The mere fact that an employer, pursuant to a sick leave policy, requests a general diagnosis that may tend to lead to information about disabilities falls far short of the requisite proof that the employer is discriminating solely on the basis of disability. See, e.g., Verkade v. U.S. Postal Service, 378 Fed.Appx. 567, 578 (6th Cir.2010) (unpublished) ("An employer makes an adverse employment decision `solely' because of its employee's disability when the employer has no reason left to rely on to justify its decision other than the employee's disability.") (citation and internal quotation marks omitted); Turner v. City of Englewood, 195 Fed. Appx. 346, 354 (6th Cir.2006) (unpublished) ("Plaintiff cannot make out a prima facie case of discrimination under the Rehabilitation Act because she cannot prove that discrimination was the sole motivation for Defendant's rezoning of her property.") (emphasis added).
In Conroy, the Second Circuit was interpreting the ADA, which does not contain language requiring that plaintiffs demonstrate that they have been discriminated against "solely by reason" of a disability. The Second Circuit therefore, appropriately, did not factor that requirement into its decision. The Rehabilitation Act, in contrast, requires that plaintiffs make exactly that showing. Consequently, the analysis in the present circumstances should focus on whether a medical inquiry is intended to reveal or necessitates revealing a disability, rather than whether the inquiry may merely tend to reveal a disability. Cf. 24 C.F.R. § 8.13(a) (Rehabilitation Act regulation providing that "a recipient may not make a preemployment inquiry or conduct a preemployment medical examination of an applicant to determine whether the applicant is an individual with handicaps or the nature or severity of a handicap.") (emphasis added).
Here, the generalized and uniform inquiry mandated by the City's Directive—requiring that employees returning from more than three days of sick leave submit a note to their immediate supervisor from their doctor stating the "nature of the illness"—is not ipso facto a prohibited inquiry "as to whether [an] employee is an individual with a disability," as "disability" is defined by the ADA. There is no evidence that this inquiry is intended to reveal or necessitates revealing a disability. Thus, we conclude that the Directive does not trigger the protections of § 12112(d)(4)(A).
Even assuming arguendo that the requirement of the Directive can be characterized as a disability-related inquiry, it is not prohibited by the ADA because it is a workplace policy applicable to all employees, disabled or not. As the EEOC Enforcement Guidance cited by the Conroy court further explains:
Questions and Answers: Enforcement Guidance on Disability-Related Inquiries and Medical Examinations of Employees under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 2000 WL 33407183, at *4.
In fact, on the basis of this Guidance, other courts and the EEOC have held that an employer's request for employees to supply information justifying the use of sick leave is not an improper medical inquiry under the Rehabilitation Act or the ADA. In White v. Potter, EEOC Dec. 01A14266, 2002 WL 31440931 (Oct. 23, 2002), the EEOC rejected the employee's claim that he was discriminated against on the basis of age, where the employer placed him on leave without pay for failing to provide the required leave documentation, holding:
2002 WL 31440931, at *4 n. 2.
Similarly, in Donoghue v. Nicholson, EEOC Dec. 0120063441, 2007 WL 2907575 (Sept. 26, 2007), the EEOC rejected the complainant's claim under the Rehabilitation Act that her employer failed to accommodate her disability by retracting previously approved sick leave and denying her leave request, finding that "[e]ven if complainant verbally informed her supervisor that she needed the leave because of a medical test, complainant's supervisor was entitled to request reasonable medical documentation[,]" which was never provided by the complainant. 2007 WL 2907575, at *4 (citing EEOC Enforcement Guidance on Disability-Related Inquiries, Notice 915.002, at question 15). See also 5 C.F.R. § 630.405 (requiring certain federal employees to provide "administratively acceptable evidence or medical certification" for a sick-leave absence).
In McGill v. Munoz, 203 F.3d 843, 847-48 (D.C.Cir.2000), an action brought under the Rehabilitation Act, the court held that evidence that a federal agency discriminated against an employee on the basis of her depression by requiring her to provide a doctor's note for requested sick leave was insufficient for submission to a jury, where the requirement "complied with the written sick leave policy" and there was no evidence that employees with similarly suspicious patterns of absenteeism were treated differently. See also Ogawa v. Henderson, 10 Fed.Appx. 587, 588 (9th Cir.2001) (unpublished) (holding that postal carrier, who suffered an on-the-job injury, failed to establish that he was terminated solely on the basis of his disability, as required by the Rehabilitation Act, where "[t]he USPS based its termination... on his failure to provide medical documentation after each absence, as required by its sick leave policy. Employers may terminate otherwise disabled individuals who violate company rules."); Luther v. Gutierrez, 618 F.Supp.2d 483, 493 (E.D.Va. 2009) (holding that terminated employee, who failed to follow supervisory instructions, failed to follow sick-leave procedures,
In the present case, the City's Directive is a universal sick-leave policy applicable across the board to all Division employees, disabled or not, who use contractual sick leave for a personal illness of more than three days or a family illness of more than two days, as well as those employees who are on a sick-leave verification list. Consistent with the above authorities, it constitutes a valid and acceptable inquiry under § 12112(d)(4)(A).
In granting plaintiffs' motion for injunctive relief, the district court reluctantly acknowledged the legitimacy of such sick-leave policies, Lee, 644 F.Supp.2d at 1009, but nevertheless enjoined enforcement of the Directive, concluding that it is impermissible "to require an employee to give the note or slip containing his or her medical diagnosis to his or her immediate supervisor, when the Division of Police maintains a human resources department." Id. at 1010. The court reasoned:
Id. at 1013 (citation omitted). The district court stated: "Of course, not every employer will have human resources personnel. The City of Columbus does, however, which creates a distinction and a confidentiality barrier between these personnel, whose jobs consist of handling medical information, and supervisors." Lee, 644 F.Supp.2d at 1010 (citation omitted).
The district court has created an artificial distinction where none exists. It is not within the province of the courts to rewrite legislation, superimpose language
The confidentiality provisions set forth in § 12112(3)(B)(i), cited by the district court, "protect disabled employees from job discrimination by ensuring that the results of job-related medical examinations would not be kept in their personnel files. The statute goes no further than requiring employers to keep that limited class of medical records confidential[.]" Yoder v. Ingersoll-Rand Co., 31 F.Supp.2d 565, 569 (N.D.Ohio 1997), aff'd, 172 F.3d 51 (6th Cir.1998) (table). Section 12112(3)(B)(i) neither expressly nor implicitly restricts the role of supervisory personnel in receiving and processing an employee's medical information.
Plaintiffs have no basis to challenge the Directive based on unwarranted speculation that supervisors will disobey the statute's confidentiality strictures or the City's Directive. Supervisors are obligated to follow the City's rules and policies, which include an express prohibition against discrimination on the basis of disability and disclosure of confidential medical information. Division policy prohibits supervisors from sharing or disseminating doctors' notes or any confidential information contained therein.
As the City points out, the legitimacy of sick-leave policies that require employees returning from leave to provide medical information to supervisors is demonstrated by the sick-leave policy for employees of the EEOC, which essentially mirrors the Directive. The EEOC's own policy provides that "[t]he approval of sick leave is a responsibility of the supervisor," who "shall determine that ... medical documentation submitted by the employee ... supports charging the absence to sick leave." The EEOC also recognizes that in the context of disability requests, which would likely entail medical information of a more serious nature than a doctor's note furnished for occasional sick leave, that it is appropriate for first-line supervisors to review and approve ADA accommodation requests in the first instance: "To eliminate unnecessary levels of review, agencies should authorize first-line supervisors to approve requests for reasonable accommodation wherever possible." Policy Guidance on Executive Order 13164: Establishing Procedures To Facilitate The Provision of Reasonable Accommodation, No. 915.002, 2000 WL 33407185, at *6 (Oct. 20, 2000) (emphasis omitted).
In sum, we hold that the City's Directive comports with the Rehabilitation Act and does not violate the proscriptions pertaining to disability-related inquiries set forth in § 12112(d)(4)(A) of the ADA, incorporated by reference into the Rehabilitation Act. Because the City's implementation of the Directive does not constitute an adverse employment action, plaintiffs have failed to establish a prima facie case of
For these reasons, we vacate the injunction and reverse the district court's judgment in favor of plaintiffs on the Rehabilitation Act claim and remand with instructions that the district court enter judgment in favor of the City.
The district court also denied the City's summary judgment motion and granted summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs on their claim brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that implementation of Directive 3.07 § III(H)(1)(c) and the disclosure of their personal medical information to immediate supervisors violates their privacy rights protected by the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The court concluded "that Directive 3.07 § III(H)(1)(c) `encompasses unwarranted intrusion into all areas of an employee's personal medical information without a sufficiently exculpatory animus' and, therefore, violates the privacy provisions found in the United States Constitution." We disagree.
"The Sixth Circuit ... has developed and applied a different approach to assessing informational privacy claims" that "requires that the asserted privacy interest implicate a fundamental right." Lambert v. Hartman, 517 F.3d 433, 442 (6th Cir. 2008). As we explained in Lambert:
Lambert, 517 F.3d at 440 (emphasis added). See also Wilson v. Collins, 517 F.3d 421, 429 (6th Cir.2008) ("[T]he Sixth Circuit has held that the Constitution does not encompass a general right to nondisclosure of private information. Instead, the Sixth Circuit has continued to restrict the right of privacy to those rights that can be deemed `fundamental' or `implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.'") (internal quotation marks and citations omitted); Overstreet v. Lexington-Fayette Urban Cnty. Gov't, 305 F.3d 566, 574 (6th Cir. 2002) ("Since DeSanti, this Court has not strayed from its holding, and continues to evaluate privacy claims based on whether the interest sought to be protected is a fundamental interest or an interest implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.").
With regard to the dissemination of medical information, we have acknowledged that "a person possesses no reasonable
The present case is no different. Directive 3.07 § III(H)(1)(c), which requires an employee returning from sick leave to provide to the immediate supervisor a physician's note stating the "nature of the illness," does not implicate the preservation of life and personal security interests recognized in Kallstrom, or the interest in shielding sexuality and choices about sex, protected in Bloch. In short, it does not raise an informational-privacy concern of a constitutional dimension.
Moreover, as we have already noted, plaintiffs have no basis to challenge the Directive based on unwarranted speculation that their immediate supervisors will disobey it. Supervisors are obligated to follow the City's policies, which include express prohibitions against the disclosure of confidential information. See Wilson, 517 F.3d at 430 ("The hypothetical possibility of some future abuse does not substantiate a justiciable controversy.").
The district court therefore erred in entering judgment in favor of plaintiffs on their § 1983 claim and in denying defendant's cross-motion for summary judgment.
For these reasons, we vacate the injunction and reverse and remand for the entry of a judgment in favor of the City on plaintiffs' claims brought under the Rehabilitation Act and § 1983.
Id. at 1094. See also Sullivan v. River Valley Sch. Dist., 197 F.3d 804, 812 (6th Cir.1999) ("While it is true that the ADA limits an employer's ability to request unfounded examinations to prevent the unwanted exposure of the employee's disability and stigma it may carry, an employer may order a well-founded examination.") (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).