All local and state governments—no matter their size—need to comply with a federal law banning discrimination against employees on the basis of age, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Tuesday.
The case stems from a dispute between a small Arizona fire district and two firefighters, who were laid off in 2009 during a budget crisis. John Guido and Dennis Rankin say they were terminated because they were the oldest employees at the district covering the Santa Catalina Mountains, later filing an age discrimination lawsuit.
But the issue before the Supreme Court was not whether the Mount Lemmon Fire District discriminated against Guido and Rankin. Instead, the justices looked at if a small public employer like Mount Lemmon could even be sued under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. The fire district, which at the time of the lay off had just 13 full-time employees, argued it was exempt from the law, as is the case with small businesses with fewer than 20 workers. But Guido and Rankin, along with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said the law covers all governments.
In a short opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sided with the firefighters. All the other justices joined the 8-0 decision, except new Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who didn’t take part in the case because he wasn’t on the court when it was heard in early October.
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