Supreme Court punts question of ‘tester’ standing for ADA Title III violations

After the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case on the propriety of “tester” standing (the ability to file a lawsuit), interested parties have anxiously awaited its much-needed guidance on who may sue for alleged violations of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). However, when oral arguments occurred on October 4, 2023, the justices’ questions signaled we may have to wait longer. In its decision, published on December 5, the nation’s highest court chose to decide the case on other procedural grounds, leaving the question of standing to be decided another day.

Background

Deborah Laufer, who filed the lawsuit that reached the Supreme Court, has a disability and is a self-proclaimed “tester” of ADA Title III violations. She systematically searched the Internet to find hotels that failed to provide adequate information about their accessibility for disabled individuals on their websites in compliance with the Department of Justice’s Reservation Rule.