JKSCHW at aol.com wrote:
>
> > the elderly are not a "discrete and insular" minority in
> the parlance of the courts, so there is a lower level of scrutiny for
> legislation that makes distinctions in the treatment of the elderly versus
> the
> non-elderly.
>
> That's what the Court said. This reasoning is so awful it cries out for
> mockery and abuse. The "eldery" may be an actual minority, but since everyone
> will be older sometime if they are lucky, they are not. So apparantly we
> determine what counts as a minority with a broad time slice. Justice O'C
> really outdid herself this time. I note that when she is insisting on strict
> scrutiny for affirmative actions, she doesn't use the "insular minority"
> analysis--she uses an equal respect and concern analysis. What a dishonest
> move.
>
I agree it is a lousy conclusion on her part.
>
> >The disabled are more likely to be considered such a discrete
> minority where strict scrutiny is required and the 14th Amendment kicks in.
> >>
>
> You want to bet?
We do have a substantial history of unequal treatment that the elderly have not it seems been able to demonstrate. As I pointed out earlier PWDs have a long history of States denying us not only jobs but basic human and civil rights -- the rights to vote, serve on juries, marry, procreate, and live in freedom. Our history includes forced institutionalization, sterilization, medical experimentation, and educational segregation. We were the targets of state eugenics and euthanasia advocates in the U.S. when the Nazis were gassing PWDs in Germany. Congress took note of this history when it enacted the ADA.
I am entirely suspicious of the court's reasons for granting cert to taking the Dickson case in Florida. It is an opportunity to chip away at worker discrimination and to attack Title II of the ADA given the states rights frenzy it has already engaged in. My point was that it will have a more difficult time justifying using the14th Amendments to do that than it did with the age discrimination case -- not that it was justified in ruling the way it did in Kimel.
cheers, Marta