Bloomberg Law: Chief Justice asks if ‘OK, Boomer’ enough to show age bias

If a prospective employer said “OK, boomer” to a job applicant, is that sufficient to show age discrimination? That’s the hypothetical question posted by Chief Justice John Roberts in one of two cases this term focused on how courts should analyze discrimination lawsuits in the private and government sectors. Sandra Sperino, Judge Joseph P. Kinneary Professor of Law at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Law, weighs in in a Bloomberg Law news story examining the central question facing the justices as they consider oral arguments in a case where the ultimate ruling will apply to roughly 2.1 million federal workers and either make it easier or harder for them to prove age bias under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967.

“The key issue is how to translate causal language in statutes into legal language,” said Sperino, who teaches torts and employment law at Cincinnati Law. “There are many different paths to do that, and so the Supreme Court is struggling which path to choose.”

Read the story here.

Featured image at top: The U.S. Supreme Court building in November 2019.  Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg