Earlier this week, the Supreme Court denied a petition for review from a case holding that morbid obesity, without an underlying physiological condition, is not a “disability” under The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA prohibits an employer from discriminating against “a qualified individual on the basis of disability” in regard to terms of employment, including termination or providing reasonable accommodations. The petitioner in the lawsuit asserted that the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, which substantially broadened the definition of “disability,” now includes “obesity.”

The lawsuit stemmed from a 2013 occurrence where a railroad company withdrew its conditional offer of employment when it discovered that the applicant was morbidly obese. In Morriss v. BNSF Railway Co., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled that morbid obesity, by itself, is a physical characteristic, and therefore unless it is the result of an underlying physiological condition, falls beneath the standard of a recognized disability. This was true even under the broadened ADA Amendments Act. Employers should nonetheless proceed with caution as to employees who request accommodations relating to obesity, as other federal courts may differ in their treatment, evidenced by previous holdings in the Second and Sixth Circuit denying that obesity is a disability on its own, and the First Circuit finding to the contrary. The Eighth Circuit’s decision in Morriss v. BNSF Railway Co., No. 14-3858 (8th Cir. Apr. 5, 2016) is available here.