By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services via Arizona Capitol Times
Two former Mount Lemmon firefighters have won the right to sue the tiny department for age discrimination.
In a unanimous ruling Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments by attorneys for the district located outside of Tucson that they were not subject to the federal anti-discrimination laws. The district’s attorney had said only entities with at least 20 employees had to comply.
But Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the court, said that defies the actual reading of the law.
Ginsburg acknowledged that Congress did put in a 20-employee floor for private employers. But she said the statute contains no such minimum for government employers like the fire district.
The decision has implications nationwide, subjecting other small local governments to the same anti-discrimination laws that larger entities already must obey.
Tuesday’s ruling does not guarantee that the pair, John Guido and Dennis Rankin, will get any money from the district. But it does give them a right to sue for damages, something they were denied by the trial judge who threw their case out of federal court after concluding the district was just too small to be subject to the law.
