Opinion ID: 2995965
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Kimel

Text: The Age Discrimination in Employment Act was the next Congressional enactment to meet with an Eleventh Amendment challenge. In Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents, 528 U.S. 62 (2000), the Court addressed the issue of whether Congress validly abrogated Eleventh Amendment immunity in the ADEA. The Court reiterated the breadth of congressional power pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment: “Congress’ power ‘to enforce’ the Amendment includes the authority both to remedy and to deter violation of rights guaranteed thereunder by prohibiting a somewhat broader swath of conduct, including that which is not itself forbidden by the Amendment’s text.” Id. at 81. However, applying its now-established congruence and proportionality requirements, see id. at 82, the Court held that “the ADEA is not ‘appropriate legislation’ under § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment.” Id. at 82-83. Initially, the Court observed that, because age discrimination is subject only to rational basis review under the Equal Protection Clause, only irrational age classifications violate the Constitution. “Judged against the backdrop of our equal protection jurisprudence [on age discrimination],” the Court stated, “it is clear that the ADEA is ‘so out of proportion to a supposed remedial or preventive object that it cannot be understood as responsive to, or designed to prevent unconstitutional behavior.’ ” Id. at 86 (quoting City of Boerne, 521 U.S. at 532). However, “[t]hat the ADEA prohibits very little conduct likely to be held unconstitutional, while significant, d[id] not alone provide the answer to [the] § 5 inquiry.” Id. at 88. The Court’s task was to discern whether the ADEA was proper prophylactic legislation or an attempt by Congress “to substantively redefine the States’ legal obligations with respect to age discrimination,” and one means to make such a determination was to examine the legislative record. Id. To the Court, this review conNo. 01-3448 15 firmed that Congress’ extension of the ADEA to the States “was an unwarranted response to a perhaps inconsequential problem.” Id. at 89. According to the Court, Congress never identified any pattern of age discrimination by the States, much less any discrimination whatsoever that rose to the level of constitutional violation. The evidence compiled by petitioners to demonstrate such attention by Congress to age discrimination by the States falls well short of the mark. That evidence consists almost entirely of isolated sentences clipped from floor debates and legislative reports. Id. Looking back to its decision in City of Boerne, the Court held that, although this lack of support in the legislative record was not determinative, “Congress’ failure to uncover any significant pattern of unconstitutional discrimination here confirms that Congress had no reason to believe that broad prophylactic legislation was necessary in this field.” Id. at 91. The Court then concluded that, “[i]n light of the indiscriminate scope of the Act’s substantive requirements, and the lack of evidence of widespread and unconstitutional age discrimination by the States, we hold that the ADEA is not a valid exercise of Congress’ power under § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment.” Id.