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1 1 (March 25, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govcaxz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: ~* or 101 ' Researh Servi kM- Babb v. Wilkie: The Age Discrimination in Employment Act and Mixed Motives March 25, 2020 Can a federal employee claim age discrimination whenever age bias is one factor in an employment decision, or must she show that the employer would have made a different decision but for her age? The Supreme Court is to take up this question in Babb v. Wikie as the latest turn in a decades-long legal debate on what qualifies as discrimination because of' or based on an impermissible motive. A Supreme Court decision will likely resolve a circuit-court spit on the meaning of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), and a Court ruling could affect courts' application of other, similarly worded antidiscrimination laws. This Sidebar discusses motive requirements in antidiscrimination cases, summarizes the litigation in Babb, and presents key considerations for Congress. The ADEA, Mixed-Motives Discrimination, But-for Discrimination, and Federal Workers Several federal statutes prohibit various forms of discrimination in the employment context. The most comprehensive of these, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibits many employment practices that treat workers differently on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. A similar statute, the ADEA, bars discrimination against workers over 40 on the basis of age. Both the ADEA and Title VII also have separate provisions for federal and non-federal employees. Congress added these provisions as amendments and used language different from the non-federal-sector text, and courts must consider whether federal and non-federal workers should be treated the same under the two statutes. Differences in the ADEA's text and history also raise questions about whether courts should follow rules developed to implement Title VII. In Babb, the Supreme Court may clarify the ADEA's requirements for federal-sector employees, including, perhaps, whether courts should interpret the statute in line with Title VII. The issue before the Court is how to assess an employer's age-related motive under this provision when faced with evidence of other motives unrelated to age that also informed an employer's treatment of a worker. Courts have struggled to decide discrimination cases when confronted with evidence of an employer's mixed motives-both a discriminatory motive prohibited by the statute and another, permissible motive. The Supreme Court has repeatedly wrestled with the problem. In Price Witerhouse i. Hopkins, a majority Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10431 CRS Lega Sidebar Prepaed for Membeivs and Cornnittees o4 Cor~qress ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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