By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services via Arizona Capitol Times
Arizona’s smallest towns and fire districts do not have the same protections against federal age-discrimination lawsuits as small private companies, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by the Mount Lemmon Fire District that the federal law does not apply to government employers of fewer than 20 workers. That, the attorneys said, means the men have no legal right to claim they were fired because of their age.
But Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain, writing for the unanimous three-judge panel, said that’s not the way Congress wrote the law.
