42 U.S.C. § 12203
Section 12203 · Prohibition against retaliation and coercion
This is § 503 of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 857 court decisions — leading case 133 S. Ct. 2517 - University of Tex. Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar (2013)
Most recently applied in Strife v. AISD (May 2025)
Applied most in the First Circuit Circuit (89 decisions)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 42 U.S.C. § 12112 · 42 U.S.C. § 12101 · 42 U.S.C. § 12102
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
No person shall discriminate against any individual because such individual has opposed any act or practice made unlawful by this chapter or because such individual made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under this chapter.
It shall be unlawful to coerce, intimidate, threaten, or interfere with any individual in the exercise or enjoyment of, or on account of his or her having exercised or enjoyed, or on account of his or her having aided or encouraged any other individual in the exercise or enjoyment of, any right granted or protected by this chapter.
The remedies and procedures available under sections 12117, 12133, and 12188 of this title shall be available to aggrieved persons for violations of subsections (a) and (b) of this section, with respect to subchapter I, subchapter II and subchapter III of this chapter, respectively.