Supreme Court will decide if cruise ships subject to Americans with Disabilities Act
February 6, 2005

By PAUL PINKHAM
The Times-Union

In Jacksonville during Super Bowl week, the cruise ship industry has touted its ships as floating hotels, accommodating thousands of guests in town for America's grandest sporting event.

But in Washington three weeks from now, the industry will argue to the nation's highest court that cruise ships aren't hotels at all, and certainly not American.

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments Feb. 28 on a Texas man's claim that Norwegian Cruise Line violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. Douglas Spector claims he and other passengers were denied access to basic amenities and equipment during a 1998 cruise.

Norwegian responded that because its ship is registered in the Bahamas, it isn't subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Nearly all the industry's ships are foreign-flagged.

And though none of the cruise lines with ships in Jacksonville for today's big game -- Carnival, Holland America and Radisson Seven Seas -- are accused of violating the ADA, the industry is supporting Norwegian with a brief to the high court pointing out that cruise ships are subject to international requirements that sometimes conflict with U.S. disabilities law.

"Regardless of whether they're docked ... or not, they're still ships that are subject to all the requirements of these international treaties," said Michael Crye, president of the International Council of Cruise Lines. "If they were predominantly moored and used as a hotel and gave up their identity as a ship, I could see where the land-based requirements of the ADA would be more applicable."

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans sided with Norwegian last year, but in a similar Florida case from 2002, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta sided with a disabled rights group. So the Supreme Court agreed this term to settle the issue.

Attorney David George of Houston, who represents Spector, said Jacksonville's "innovative" use of cruise ships to provide enough luxury hotel rooms to host Super Bowl visitors will definitely be part of his argument to the high court.

"Our case isn't talking about on the high seas or when they're down in Mexico or the Caribbean," George said. "What we're talking about it when they're in U.S. waters or ... being used as hotels for the most quintessential American spectacle there is."

George said the Americans with Disabilities Act should apply to foreign-flagged cruise ships because their cruise lines are based in the United States and sail from U.S. ports with predominantly U.S. passengers. The Super Bowl underscores how much like hotels the ships are, he said.

George's interpretation is supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation, eight state attorneys general and a host of disabled rights groups, which have filed supporting documents with the Supreme Court.

"This decision is not going to be just about Norwegian. It's about the entire industry," George said.

The industry has countered with supporters of its own, including the Bahamian government and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Crye said ships have unique issues not faced by hotels. For example, he said, safety dictates locating special needs cabins together, where they can be easily evacuated, rather than throughout the ship, as the ADA would require. Some of those mandates are written into international treaties under which the ships operate, Crye said.

He said the conflicts would be better resolved by Congress, not the courts. Or, better yet, by the industry itself.

"The cruise industry has attempted to sort out many of these issues voluntarily, simply because this passenger group is so important to us and will continue to be important to us as the baby boomers become more needy," Crye said.

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