Good Sixth Circuit "Regarded As" Opinion

In its opinion issued yesterday in Moorer v. Baptist Memorial Health Care System, the Sixth Circuit affirmed a judgment of ADA liability against an employer who terminated the plaintiff allegedly because it perceived him to be an alcoholic. The lower court concluded that the plaintiff was "regarded as" having a disability because the employer perceived his condition as substantially limiting the major life activity of working. The Sixth Circuit, affirming on this point, offered a helpful discussion of how a court should go about deciding whether an employer (who presumably isn't thinking about anything but his or her own workplace) perceived an employee as having a condition that restricted the ability to perform a "broad class of jobs."