Why Tennessee Should Withdraw the Paul Summers Appeal to the Supreme Court:

• Tennessee v. Lane is an embarrassment to the state. Tennessee will be associated with continuing the legacy of bigotry in the south. 
• Citizens with disabilities especially need federal civil rights protections from discrimination of US states. In the recent past, states have forcefully sterilized people with disabilities, prevented them from marrying and prohibited immigration. Currently, forced institutionalization threatens all people with disabilities because most states cater to more expensive and less desirable institutional care and nursing homes.
• Nearly nine out of ten (87%), of those who are aware of the ADA, support and approve of the Americans with Disabilities Act [Louis Harris and Associates survey 1999].
• "...We will not accept, we will not excuse, we will not tolerate discrimination in America." - President George H. W. Bush, July 26, 1990, signing the ADA.
• Tennessee is becoming more dependent on federal funding; the "sovereign immunity" issue is a hollow and petty assertion of our States true authority. 
• It is unjust that federal civil rights laws protect citizens with disabilities from discrimination by Tennessee cities and counties, but not the state of Tennessee.
• The clear purpose of Title II of the ADA is to prevent discrimination by state and local governments, Tennessee is claiming sovereign immunity in opposition to the stated intent of the law. 
• Tennesseans care more about our Constitutional Rights than about an obscure, outdated and trivial issue of law.

Read Deborah Cunningham's reasons for opposing Tennessee v. Lane.