Opinion ID: 200290
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether the ADEA Remains Applicable to the States

Text: 19 SPARA contends that the Supreme Court's decision in Kimel renders the ADEA inapplicable to the states in the present situation. Under this view, the continuing permanent injunction issued in the Gately action, enforcing the ADEA in such a way as to nullify the state's mandatory age 55 retirement law, is an illegal and invalid exercise of federal judicial power, leaving the Commonwealth's statute requiring the age-based retirement of state police officers in full force. 20 This reading of Kimel is erroneous. The Kimel Court reiterated the Supreme Court's earlier holding in Wyoming, 460 U.S. 226, 103 S.Ct. 1054, 75 L.Ed.2d 18 (1983), that the ADEA constitutes a valid exercise of Congress's power under Article I, § 8, cl. 3 `[t]o regulate Commerce ... among the several States.' Kimel, 528 U.S. at 78, 120 S.Ct. 631 (quoting Wyoming, 460 U.S. at 243, 103 S.Ct. 1054). Moreover, nothing was said in Kimel to question Wyoming 's determination that Congress had extended the ADEA to cover state and local governments and their employees in addition to private firms and individuals. Nor did Kimel alter Wyoming 's holding that the ADEA's regulation of state and local government workers did not violate the Tenth Amendment or other provisions of the Constitution. Wyoming, 460 U.S. at 232-243, 103 S.Ct. 1054. All that Kimel held was that — although the ADEA remained a valid exercise of Congress's power under the Commerce Clause — this fact alone did not, and could not, enable Congress to override a state's Eleventh Amendment immunity against suit. 528 U.S. at 91, 120 S.Ct. 631. Hence Kimel did not declare the standards of the ADEA invalid nor inapplicable as they pertained to the states, but simply endorsed the rights of states and political subdivisions to enforce against ADEA lawsuits the immunity conferred by the Eleventh Amendment. 21 The Eleventh Amendment, however, does not confer upon the states a total immunity against suit. Alden v. Maine, 527 U.S. 706, 755, 119 S.Ct. 2240, 144 L.Ed.2d 636 (1999). Kimel involved a private action for monetary damages. Neither Kimel, nor Eleventh Amendment jurisprudence, prevents individuals, such as the Gately plaintiffs, from obtaining injunctive relief against a state based upon the ADEA pursuant to Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908). See Bd. of Trs. of the Univ. of Ala. v. Garrett, 531 U.S. 356, 374 n. 9, 121 S.Ct. 955, 148 L.Ed.2d 866 (2001) (private individuals may sue for injunctive relief to enforce the standards of the ADA under Ex parte Young ); Laro v. New Hampshire, 259 F.3d 1, 17 (1st Cir.2001). 22 Indeed, the United States itself may enforce the standards of the ADEA against states both in actions for money damages and for injunctive relief. See Garrett, 531 U.S. at 374 n. 9, 121 S.Ct. 955; Alden, 527 U.S. at 755, 119 S.Ct. 2240; Laro, 259 F.3d at 17. The EEOC, an agency of the United States, was a party to the suit that resulted in the issuance of the permanent injunction that SPARA now seeks to invalidate. In Alden the Court stated that [i]n ratifying the constitution, the States consented to suits brought by other States or by the Federal Government. 527 U.S. at 755, 119 S.Ct. 2240. Thus, even though private individuals are precluded by the Eleventh Amendment from suing the Commonwealth for money damages for violations of the ADEA, the provisions of the ADEA remain fully applicable and may be enforced against the Commonwealth in the manner described. Kimel has not so altered the legal landscape as to invalidate the permanent injunction issued in Gately.