West Bloomfield Man Fights for Law School Test Waiver

May 25, 2011  

BY DAVID ASHENFELTER
DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Angelo Binno graduated from high school in three years, is fluent in three languages and landed a job with a high-security clearance at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

But the 28-year-old West Bloomfield man said, despite repeated tries, he can't get into law school because he can't get a waiver from taking the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), which contains several questions that require diagramming -- a task he said blind people can't do. He scored low.

"I'm frustrated and angry," Binno said Tuesday, hours after his lawyer, Richard Bernstein of Farmington Hills, filed a federal discrimination lawsuit on Binno's behalf.

Bernstein sued the American Bar Association (ABA) in U.S. District Court in Detroit, saying the ABA's accreditation process prevents law schools from granting LSAT waivers. Schools that do risk losing their accreditation, Bernstein said.

He said the test violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The ABA wouldn't comment.

Some law school officials were surprised by the charges.

Sarah Zearfoss, assistant dean of admissions at the University of Michigan Law School, wouldn't comment on the specifics of the suit, but said U-M has admitted several blind students in recent years -- all of whom took the LSAT -- and that three students with varying degrees of blindness graduated in May.

Although some blind students have done poorly on the LSAT over the years, Zearfoss said U-M, like many other schools, considers several factors in addition to the LSAT, including grades and recommendations when admitting blind students.

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