Cite as: 527 U. S. 581 (1999)
Thomas, J., dissenting
jected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."
In keeping with the traditional paradigm, we have always limited the application of the term "discrimination" in the Rehabilitation Act to a person who is a member of a protected group and faces discrimination "by reason of his handicap." Indeed, we previously rejected the argument that § 504 requires the type of "affirmative efforts to overcome the disabilities caused by handicaps," Southeastern Community College v. Davis, 442 U. S. 397, 410 (1979), that the majority appears to endorse today. Instead, we found that § 504 required merely "the evenhanded treatment of handicapped persons" relative to those persons who do not have disabilities. Ibid. Our conclusion was informed by the fact that some provisions of the Rehabilitation Act envision "affirmative action" on behalf of those individuals with disabilities, but § 504 itself "does not refer at all" to such action. Ibid. Therefore, "[a] comparison of these provisions demonstrates that Congress understood accommodation of the needs of handicapped individuals may require affirmative action and knew how to provide for it in those instances where it wished to do so." Id., at 411.
Similarly, in Alexander v. Choate, 469 U. S. 287, 302 (1985), we found no discrimination under § 504 with respect to a limit on inpatient hospital care that was "neutral on its face" and did not "distinguish between those whose coverage will be reduced and those whose coverage will not on the basis of any test, judgment, or trait that the handicapped as a class are less capable of meeting or less likely of having," id., at 302. We said that § 504 does "not . . . guarantee the handicapped equal results from the provision of state Medicaid, even assuming some measure of equality of health could be constructed." Id., at 304.
Likewise, in Traynor v. Turnage, 485 U. S. 535, 548 (1988), we reiterated that the purpose of § 504 is to guarantee that individuals with disabilities receive "evenhanded treatment"
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