US Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Two Interesting Cases Today

According to my perusal of SCOTUSBlog, an invaluable resource for all things Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in two cases of interest to us today.

This afternoon, parties will present their arguments in a case involving issues of age discrimination and retirement plans in Kentucky Retirement Systems v. EEOC.** According to the "liibulletin" from Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute, the case involves the following:

This Petition involves a public employee retirement plan that includes normal and disability retirement benefits. A member who is eligible for normal retirement benefits based on attained age plus a minimum service requirement, or based on service alone, is not eligible for disability retirement benefits. Because age may be a factor in determining eligibility for normal retirement, it is an indirect factor in determining eligibility for disability retirement. Moreover, the calculation of disability retirement benefits is based upon actual years of service plus the number of years remaining before the member reaches retirement age or eligibility based on years of service alone; age may thereby be an indirect factor in determining the amount of disability retirement benefits.

The question presented in this Petition is accordingly: Whether any use of age as a factor in a retirement plan is “arbitrary” and thus renders the plan facially discriminatory in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act?

The other case, which the Supreme Court will hear this morning, isn't an employment law case. Rather it's of interest to some of us, because it involves whether the Indiana voter ID law violates the U.S. Constitution. See the description of the issue in that case here.

** In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that my former colleagues at the Indianapolis District Office of the EEOC have been handling this case at the trial level. In fact, I worked on this case a number of years ago when I was still at the EEOC, on an issue unrelated to the one that the Supreme Court will consider today. I cannot remember whether my involvement was formal (i.e., whether I entered an appearance on behalf of the EEOC in the case) or whether it was informal (i.e., if I just helped draft a portion of a brief).