The ADAAA sleeping giant is finally awake and he's not a morning person. The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act, which dramatically expanded the definition of "disability" in the Americans with Disabilities Act, was signed into law by President George W. Bush in September 2008 and took effect in January 2009. However, it has taken until now for some of the cases applying the new law to bubble up through the court system. Recently, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that it was filing suits against three employers, and a federal court in Indiana denied summary judgment to an employer who sought to defend itself based on the ground of "no disability," formerly a strong defense under the ADA.

The EEOC suits include one against a drug store chain that allegedly refused to provide a stool to an employee who had arthritis in her knees, one against a surveying company that terminated two individuals in a reduction in force -- one of whom had hypertension, and the other of whom had diabetes, and one against a printing company that allegedly refused to allow an employee a part-time schedule so that he could receive chemotherapy.