ALBANY — Holding that states cannot be sued in federal court for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, a federal judge yesterday dismissed claims against New York by disabled plaintiffs seeking the right to drive motor vehicles into wilderness areas of the Adirondack Park.
But Northern District Judge Lawrence E. Kahn ruled sovereign immunity does not bar ADA suits against individual state officials for the same relief. And he expressed concern about the State’s decision to raise Eleventh Amendment immunity as a defense against what he called “a likely case of a federal civil rights violation.”
