TALHASSEE – The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled against firefighters who retired early due to Parkinson’s disease, alleging that the city of Sanford violated the Disability Act by limiting health insurance subsidies.
The judge upheld a decision by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals filed by Karyn Stanley, a fire department aide who retired in 2018 at the age of 47 due to the effects of the illness.
The dispute stemmed from Stanley’s loss of health insurance subsidies two years after he retired, and involved questions about whether the city violated parts of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which aimed to prevent discrimination in employment.
The main opinion on Friday, written by Judge Neil Gorsuch, focused on the language of the law prohibiting discrimination against “qualified individuals based on disabilities.” The opinion was stated by the definition of “qualified individuals,” known as Title I of the Act, which applies only to current employees or those seeking work.
Gorsuch wrote that the law “protects people rather than profit from discrimination.” The law also tells us who those people are.
However, Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson wrote a fierce dissent, claiming that the law “says nothing about employment or post-employment timing for discriminatory behaviors with people with disabilities – zero.”
“Americans with disabilities who have retired from the workforce simply want to enjoy the fruits of work that are free from discrimination,” she writes. “The Congress clearly protected the right to do so when it was created Title I. The courts still ignore that right today.”
Stanley began working as a city firefighter in 1999, but was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2016.
When Stanley was hired in 1999, the city provided health insurance subsidies up to age 65 to firefighters who retired after 25 years of service or due to disability, according to court documents. The city changed its policy in 2003, cutting profits for employees who retired early due to disability over two years.
As a result, Stanley received a grant for two years after retirement, not until he was 65 years old. The summary submitted to the case stated that at the end of the grant, Stanley faced $1,000 a month in health insurance costs.
Stanley challenged the city in court, but a US district judge dismissed the disability law claim. A panel in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supported the decision, saying that Stanley, as a former employee, was unable to sue under Title I of the Act.
The Biden administration and organizations such as the AFL-CIO, the International Association of Firefighters and AARP have filed briefs with the Supreme Court in support of Stanley. Meanwhile, groups such as the US Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Counties and National Urban Federations supported Sanford with their briefs.
Gorsuch joined Friday with Secretary John Roberts and Justice Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Connie Barrett, with some of his opinions. He was joined by Justices Alito, Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor in another section.
Sotomayor joined some of Jackson’s opposition.
Original issue: June 20, 2025, 7:53pm EDT
