Age Discrimination Act 89 Stat. 728 (1975)

• Author: Theodore Eisenberg
• Pages: 60-61

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Enacted as Title III of the Older Americans Amendments of 1975, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, like Title VI

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of the CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964 and other laws, links ANTIDISCRIMINATION LEGISLATION to Congress's spending power. Subject to important but ambiguous exceptions, the act prohibits exclusion on the basis of age from federally financed programs. In covered programs, the act affords greater protection against AGE DISCRIMINATION than the Supreme Court has held to be required under the EQUAL PROTECTION clause. In MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF RETIREMENT V. MURGIA (1976), in upholding a statute requiring police officers to retire at age fifty, the Court found age not to be a SUSPECT CLASSIFICATION. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act, as well as some state laws, protect against age discrimination in employment.

THEODORE EISENBERG

(1986)

Bibliography

SCHUCK, PETER H. 1979 The Graying of Civil Rights Laws: The Age Discrimination Act of 1975. Yale Law Journal 89:27?93.