Issue 1: Can an employer refuse to hire an applicant because his performance would endanger his health or others due to a disability? In an ADA case, the U.S. Supreme Court says yes. The case was Chevron USA, Inc. v. Echazabal. Chevron refused to hire Mario Echazabal because of his liver condition--a condition that Chevron's doctors said would be exacerbated by continued exposure to various toxins at the refinery. Chevron argued it was concerned that this applicant, if hired, somehow could risk OSHA violations by Chevron. Fortunately for Chevron, the EEOC Agency had an interpreting regulation on point that employers could refuse to hire a person because his performance on the job could endanger his own health. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the EEOC's "direct threat to an employee's own health" regulation as a reasonable extension of the American with Disabilities Act's (ADA) legal defenses sections, stating:
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