A lawsuit has been filed by the National Association for the Deaf for sign language interpretation services to be restored at White House press briefings and Donald Trump isn’t happy.
Now, the White House is appealing the court orders, expressing concern about President Donald Trump’s “image” over sign language interpreters. The Trump administration is now making an unusual argument to resist advocates’ push for sign language interpretation at press briefings conducted by Trump and his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt.
While having sign language interpreters is common in most major meetings, Justice Department lawyers argue that they “would severely intrude on the President’s prerogative to control the image he presents to the public.
According to NPR, the image argument is only a small part of the White House’s case against offering American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation, but Department of Justice attorneys have yet to elaborate on the intrusion, but concerns have been raised among advocates, and even the judge in the case.
National Association of the Deaf (NAD) Sues White House For Failing To Provide Sign Language Interpreters During Televised Coronavirus Briefings — read more: https://t.co/nASHoUQRBY pic.twitter.com/yucxcHofvb
— nad1880 (@NAD1880) August 3, 2020
The order was issued in November by US District Judge Amir Ali, requiring the White House to provide real-time ASL interpretation for the president and Leavitt’s briefing. The argument that closed captioning and transcripts offer Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing access to the press statements was firmly rejected.
“To the extent the defendants argue that they prefer to act free from association with accessibility for people with disabilities, their gripe is with Congress and federal anti-discrimination laws themselves,” Ali wrote.
However, Ali’s ruling led the Trump administration to immediately appeal the matter. While the White House does offer interpretation for some events since the injunction was issued, both sides of the case disagree over the specifics of what is required.
According to the administration, complications could arise if, for example, Donald Trump spontaneously chooses to take questions from the press at other events rather than just briefings. The Trump administration asked Ali to keep his ruling only to events other than briefings. Moreover, the administration has asked the US District Judge to limit the ruling only to events scheduled a minimum of 24 hours in advance.
However, Ali said the administration’s concerns are based on a misunderstanding of his order. The judge says the requirement is for officials to “take all reasonable steps” to provide sign language interpretation wherever there is advance knowledge that Trump or Leavitt will provide information or take questions.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit also note that US President Joe Biden’s administration always provided ASL interpretation for events that had been announced to the press pool less than an hour before the president delivered his remarks.
According to White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson, “the Administration is in compliance with” the judge’s November order. However, the Trump administration did not respond to additional questions seeking to clarify its position in the matter.
Brittany Shrader, director of legal services at the National Association of the Deaf Law and Advocacy Center chose not to speculate on the administration’s “image” arguments.
“The disability laws don’t require a showing of animus or ill will toward people with disabilities to prove discrimination. The laws require that the White House provide access and the failure to provide that access is itself discrimination,” she said. Shrader added that the Trump administration’s arguments are “not a sound basis for declining to provide reasonable accommodations.”
The National Association of the Deaf first sued over the lack of sign language interpretation during Trump’s first term as president. Their lawsuit was made during the COVID-19 pandemic, in a bid to ensure that deaf and hard of hearing Americans had access to critical health information from government leaders. At that stage, the White House fought against the lawsuit, but made no arguments about the president’s image.
Joe Biden’s White House provided ASL interpreters for all its press briefings, but this practice ended when Trump came back into the White House. The plaintiffs filed a new discrimination lawsuit in May, naming Trump, Leavitt and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles among the defendants. Now, the National Association of the Deaf and the White House await action from the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit as to whether to uphold or block Judge Ali’s order.
