US DOJ and Uber reach $2M settlement in disability discrimination lawsuit News
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US DOJ and Uber reach $2M settlement in disability discrimination lawsuit

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Monday announced that rideshare app Uber will pay more than $2 million and waive wait time fees for disabled passengers to settle allegations that the company violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

DOJ initiated a lawsuit in November 2021 over allegations that Uber charged disabled passengers wait time fees if they did not reach the car within 2 minutes of their driver’s arrival. As part of the settlement, Uber will pay $1.7 million to disabled passengers who complained about wait time fees and will pay over $500,000 to riders harmed by Uber’s practices.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke praised the settlement, saying:

People with disabilities should not be made to feel like second-class citizens or punished because of their disability, which is exactly what Uber’s wait time fee policy did. This agreement sends a strong message that Uber and other ridesharing companies will be held accountable if their services discriminate against people with disabilities.

THIS DAY @ LAW

28 countries unite against Axis Powers

On January 2, 1942, twenty-eight countries formally agreed not to make peace with the Axis Powers separately. At the time, all twenty-eight were fighting against the Axis as Allies in World War II. The agreement was part of the Declaration by the United Nations, signed the previous day. In December of 1941, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt referred to this group of allies as the "United Nations."

US government agents arrested thousands in Palmer raids

On January 2, 1920, over 500 government agents acting on the direction of US Attorney General Mitchell Palmer carried out a massive counter-terror operation in 33 US cities, arresting between six and ten thousand aliens suspected of Communism, radicalism and anarchism. The "Palmer Raids" and the detentions and deportation proceedings that followed them were denounced by a number of prominent lawyers and judges who later established the American Civil Liberties Union. Read an excerpt from Attorney General Palmer's 1920 article, The Case Against the 'Reds' and learn more about the Palmer Raids and the Red Scare of 1919-20.