Obese gain protection under disabilities law.

Job discrimination against obese people is illegal, a federal appeals court has ruled recently in a precedent-setting decision. (Cook v. Rhode Island, No. 93-1093, 1993 WL 470697 (1st Cir. Nov. 22, 1993).)

The decision, the first of its kind by a federal appeals court, "closes the door on an obesity exception to disability discrimination law," said attorney Lynette Labinger of Providence, Rhode Island. "This decision makes it dear that we look at all disabilities the same way and apply the same analysis without any differentiation," she added.

Labinger represented Bonnie Cook in a suit against the Rhode Island Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals. Citing Cook's morbid obesity - she weighed 300 pounds at the time - the department had refused to hire her as an attendant at a school for mentally retarded people.

A jury ruled in favor of Cook, and the state appealed the decision. The appeals court rejected the state's argument that Cook wasn't protected under the federal disabilities law because she could reduce her weight. (Wade Lambert, U.S. Court Ruling Bars Hiring Bias Against the Obese, Wall St. J., Nov. 23, 1993, at B12.) The court said that voluntariness is not a criterion for determining whether a person is disabled or perceived to be disabled. Voluntariness only comes into play if the condition can be easily controlled by the person, it added.

"This decision will send a very positive message to people in Bonnie Cook's position across the country that they can fight this type of discrimination," said Steven Brown, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union affiliate in Rhode Island, which handled the case. An amicus brief in Cook's behalf, filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, declared that obese people are indeed protected under the federal disabilities law.

Mark Kosieradzki, an attorney in Minneapolis with a background in facial-disfigurement cases, applauded the ruling. "I'm happy to see the courts finally facing the right direction" with regard to people's employability, he said. "People should just start looking at people for who they are."