Posted on 12/12/2006 4:36:58 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
(AP) WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration on Tuesday asked an appeals court to overturn a ruling that could require a redesign of the nation's currency to help the blind.
Justice Department lawyers filed the appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on behalf of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
The appeal seeks to overturn a ruling last month by U.S. District Judge James Robertson, who ordered Treasury to come up with ways for the blind to recognize the different denominations of paper currency.
Robertson had ruled in a lawsuit brought by the American Council of the Blind. The council proposed several options for changes, including printing different size bills or changing the texture by adding embossed dots or foil.
Jeffrey Lovitky, an attorney for the council, said he planned to petition the appeals court to reject the appeal until Robertson makes a decision on what remedies the government should pursue. A hearing to hear the government's recommendations is scheduled for next month.
In his ruling, Robertson said that of 180 countries issuing paper currency, only the United States prints bills that are identical in size and color in all their denominations.
He said the current practice violates the Rehabilitation Act, a law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in government programs.
In the government's appeal, Justice Department lawyers argued that visually impaired people are not denied "meaningful access" to money by the way the nation's currency is designed.
They noted the existence of portable reading devices that the blind can use to determine the denomination of paper money. The government said the blind can also use credit cards instead of currency.
The government also argued that Robertson was wrong in ruling that making changes to help the blind would not be unduly burdensome.
Tara Cortes, president of Lighthouse International, an advocacy group for the blind, said the government's decision to fight making changes in the currency was "misguided and harmful to millions."
She said there are 1.3 million people in the United States who are legally blind and there will be millions more in coming years as the baby boom generation ages and more people fall victim to macular degeneration and other diseases that can affect vision such as diabetes.
"While the government may argue that changing the dollar bill will cost billions, it will pale in comparison to the costs of the vision loss epidemic," Cortes said.
BUMP
What will the headline on this be?
BUSH IS AGAINST BLIND PEOPLE??
BUSH ATTACKS PLAN TO HELP THE BLIND???
That seems to overstate the case. A slight modification to existing bills woulddo the trick.
In Canada the bills are stamped with a braile symbol causinbg slight bumps that can be 'read'. Seems easy enough.
Currency is regularly redesigned about every 7 years anyway. Sounds like a couple of those changes could be easily adopted (although, I hate the idea of the bills being different sizes, I think that one will never happen.)
Also, most currency is already color coded. It is amazing the number of newspaper articles I have seen about this that claim that all American currency is the same color.
Sounds like the Supreme Robed One might be heavily into recreational drugs. People have been using money for hundreds of years. This is the first time the blind people decided to bitch about it. The Supreme Robed One needs to get himself a REAL JOB and a life!
I just had a counterfeiting idea...
And I bet I'm not the only one.
I'm blind and I have no fingers. I want my dollars to talk to me.
I would question that. Modification of current design, to add impacted raised dots, would not be that expensive. Now if we had to remove all old currency and replace it with new, that is another thing.
Huh? All American currency is the same from denomination to denomination within each series. Where does the color variation come in?
I'm thinking there is a market to be made by creating a stamping machine that can be sold to banks so they can imprint the currency with braille bumps to give out to blind clients to use. The US Treasury won't have to spend an extra dime and some smart bank can corner the market on blind customers! And if this blind lawyer is right and suddenly half of america is going blind, then some bank is going to get richer than hell! A free market solution will beat the hell out anything the Treasury comes up with and for trillions less.
You're right -- adding the dots wouldn't cost much, if it's phased in. I meant cheaper than recalling all current notes.
Tomorrow we will hear of a "judge" ruling that our driving laws need to be changed to allow blind people to drive. I used to laugh at this stuff.
Great idea!
This has to be Greenspan's fault.
In college, I lent a blind fellow student $20 at a bar one night (actually it was a $10 bill but he didn't know the difference). The bastard never paid me back.
They want to be able to differentiate denominations by color (e.g. orange for tens, green for twenties, blue and red for fifties.)
When did the government restart to issue paper currency? All the paper money (bank notes) presently in use is issued by the Federal Reserve System of banks, not the government, although the gov. prints the paper for the banks.
Indeed they do, as they are presently all the same. I thought you said they were already different.
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