Opinion | A Moot Supreme Court on ADA Lawsuits

The Supreme Court on Tuesday offered a reprieve to lawsuit factories, an outcome that’s disappointing if unsurprising, given how the oral argument went. “This is, like, dead, dead, dead in all the ways that something can be dead,” Justice Elena Kagan argued. The Justices have now said Acheson Hotels v. Laufer is moot, yet the legal issue is far from it.

Deborah Laufer, who has multiple sclerosis, filed 600 lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA. Federal regulations require hotels to post accessibility information on their websites, and Ms. Laufer trolled the internet for places that were out of compliance, without any intention of booking a room. The question at the Supreme Court was whether a Florida resident has standing to sue a local Maine inn merely for a website omission.