Preview of arguments in reverse-discrimination age case at Supreme Court

Warren Richey of the Christian Science Monitor has a good summary of the issues and arguments in this important age discrimination case in this story: “Age bias: Does it apply to the young?”

“The Age Discrimination in Employment Act outlaws discrimination against employees because of their age.”

“Seems simple enough. But is it illegal when the employee being discriminated against is younger than the worker receiving the favored treatment?”

“Wednesday, the US Supreme Court takes up a major employment case examining whether the 1967 statute is intended exclusively to protect older workers, or whether it also authorizes so-called reverse-discrimination claims by younger workers.”

“The case holds important implications for many retirement benefit plans and early-retirement packages. To the extent that such plans offer increasingly generous benefit levels triggered solely by age, they could become the litigation targets of younger employees complaining about illegal disparate treatment.”

Good article worth reading in full.

I think an important point is that unlike other discrimination statutes (except the ADA), the ADEA is expressly limited to a protected class (those age 40 or over). In contrast, Title VII prohibits discrimination because of race, sex, etc., leaving open the possibility of reverse-discrimination claims.

Title VII can be read as having the aim of a color-blind (etc.) society; ADEA cannot. It was passed by a bunch of old men to protect older folks from being discriminated against because they are older. It clearly would not protect a 25-year old not hired or promoted because of a fear that he looked too young to be taken seriously by the much older employees he would be supervising. (Though as a matter of policy and fairness, it should.)

This means ADEA is about discrimination because of being older, not discrimination because of age per se (whether it be younger or older). Why should a 40-year old, but not a 39 year old, be able to sue for reverse age discrimination?