Meme a winner in high court
WASHINGTON — Well, OK, boomer. The Supreme Court made it easier Monday for federal employees 40 and older to sue for age discrimination.
The justices ruled 8-1 that federal workers have a lower hurdle to overcome than their counterparts in the private sector. The decision came in the case in which Chief Justice John Roberts, a 65-year-old baby boomer, invoked the “OK, boomer” meme during arguments in January for the first time in high-court records.
The court issued the opinion without taking the bench for the third straight week because of the coronavirus. Arguments scheduled for the spring have been postponed indefinitely.
An employee can win a lawsuit by showing that age discrimination was part of the process, even if the people who were selected were better-qualified, the court held in an opinion by another boomer, 70-year-old Justice Samuel Alito. The ruling came in the case of a Veterans Affairs Department employee who was in her early 50s when she sued for age discrimination after being denied promotions and training opportunities.
Also on Monday:
Police can pull over a car when they know only that its owner’s license is invalid even if they don’t know who’s behind the wheel, the Supreme Court ruled. The court said in an 8-1 decision that unless there’s reason to believe otherwise, it’s common sense for an officer to think the car’s owner will be driving. Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented.
The Supreme Court rejected an appeal from a Catholic church in Washington, D.C., that sought to place religious-themed ads on public buses. The justices are leaving in place a federal appeals court ruling that found no fault with the Washington transit agency policy that banned all issue-oriented advertisements on the region’s rail and bus system.
The Supreme Court declined to take up the case of a Texas death row inmate who argued that he should get a new trial because the judge who presided over his case was biased against Jews. The justices said they would not hear the case of Randy Halprin, one of the so-called Texas 7, but Halprin’s claim of bias and his argument that he should get a new trial are still under review by a Texas court.
The Supreme Court declined to take the case of a 1960s black militant formerly known as H. Rap Brown who is in prison for killing a Georgia sheriff ’s deputy in 2000. As is usual, the justices didn’t comment Monday in turning away Brown’s case. Brown had argued that his constitutional rights were violated at trial.