Parker v. Metropolitan Life Insurance

Citation
'''Parker v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 121 F.3d 1006 (6th Cir. 1997) (full-text), ''cert. denied,'' 522 U.S. 1084 (1998).

[Note Although the facts of this case did not relate to the IT industry, the holding is relevant in interpretating the application of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 definition of "place of public accommodation" to the IT industry.]

Appellate Court Proceedings
In this case, the Sixth Circuit held that the ADA's nondiscrimination prohibition relating to public accommodations did not prohibit an employer from providing employees a disability plan that provided longer benefits for employees disabled by physical illness than those disabled by mental illness. In arriving at this holding, the Sixth Circuit found that "a benefit plan offered by an employer is not a good offered by a place of public accommodation. . . . A public accommodation is a physical place."