The Supreme Court debated on Wednesday whether people with disabilities can sue hotels for failure to disclose accessibility information on commercial websites even if a litigant has no intention to make a reservation.

The case involves activist Deborah Laufer and has the potential to thwart the ability for legal "tester" suits that disability advocates say help ensure that hotels are in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Laufer has filed over 600 similar cases across the country, but the case on Wednesday surrounded a 2020 complaint against an Acheson Hotels property in Maine.

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The justices touched on several complications with the current status of the case that could result in it being dismissed outright. For example, Acheson Hotels no longer owns the Maine-based hotel, and the information initially sought about accessibility has now been added to its website.

Justice Elena Kagan, an appointee of then-President Barack Obama, said this case is "dead, dead, dead in all the ways that something can be dead," a point of agreement by Justice Clarence Thomas, who asked whether it would be more convenient to moot the case or wait for another lawsuit.

A bulk of the discussion during oral arguments centered on whether Laufer faced discrimination simply because the company's website did not offer any clear accessibility information prior to her lawsuit. The Biden administration's Justice Department has sided with the hotel on that point in a brief, saying that by only viewing hotel information online, a plaintiff has not suffered injury.

Laufer's attorney, Kelsi Corkran, took the broader position among civil and disability rights advocates who say it would be impossible to say that a disabled plaintiff should have to wait until they arrive at a hotel to file their suit.

Acheson's lawyer, Adam Unikowsky, countered that the more than 600 lawsuits targeting small hotels and inns can create substantial litigation costs for the businesses subjected to the claims. He also said that Laufer wasn't injured because she resides in Florida and never intended to book a room.

The plaintiff's lawsuit was initially tossed out on standing grounds in federal district court, but a 2022 ruling in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived her claim.

The hotel's attorney said he wasn't seeking the high court to overrule the 1983 civil rights decision in Havens Realty Corp. v. Coleman, a case that held a black "tester" could sue a landlord under the Fair Housing Act for falsely saying there were no apartments available even though the tester didn't intend to rent one.

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Acheson Hotels merely wants the court to hold there is no intent by the company to discriminate because of their view that Laufer didn't sustain any injury or constraint by using the hotel's website.

A decision in the case is likely to come before June.