The U.S. Supreme Court Monday ruled against a 70-year-old drama teacher who sued Francis W. Parker School for age discrimination and ruled against paint manufacturers seeking to overturn a city ban on spray-paint sales.
The court refused to consider an Equal Employment Opportunity complaint against the private Chicago school on behalf of Harold Johnson, who had 30 years of teaching experience when he applied for a teacher opening in 1989.
“Because of Mr. Johnson’s teaching experience, his salary would have been substantially higher than the salary budgeted for the drama position,” said Robert Krupka, president of Parker’s board of trustees. “We didn’t say he had too much experience for the job, but that it was too much to pay him for his experience.
“The court held this was not improper discrimination because we followed our established guidelines.”
In refusing to hear the case, the court upheld a lower court ruling that allowed employers to make hiring and firing decisions based on business or monetary factors even if such a policy tends to harm older workers.
The court also refused to overturn a May 1992 Chicago ordinance making it illegal for retail outlets to sell spray paint and large indelible-ink markers in Chicago.
“I’m pleased that we finally established the right of the city to legislate out of existence the tools that vandals have used to terrorize Chicagoans for far too many years,” said Ald. Edward Burke (14th). “I don’t think anybody can quantify the amount of money these vandals have cost the taxpayers, but certainly it is in the tens of millions of dollars.”
Under the city ordinance, violators face fines of $200 to $500 for each offense and could face the revocation of retail sales licenses.
“The city is gratified that the authority of the City Council to regulate problems as serious as graffiti vandalism in innovative ways has been upheld,” said Larry Rosenthal, the city’s deputy corporation counsel.
The National Paint and Coating Association filed a lawsuit challenging the ordinance, saying the ban did not deter graffiti vandals and that it also violated constitutional protections of interstate commerce.
The lawsuit was joined by several paint and local hardware companies.
U.S. District Judge Marvin Aspen ruled against the city in a bench trial in 1993, but that decision was reversed earlier this year by the U.S. Court of Appeals. That court found the city was within its rights to regulate trade.
In the age discrimination case, government lawyers said they were disappointed that the Supreme Court would not consider Johnson’s claim.
“We believed that the action of the school was an unlawful employment practice under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act,” said John Hendrickson, Chicago regional attorney for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Johnson, who now teaches drama for the Chicago Park District, said he was not surprised by the Supreme Court decision.
“I’m disappointed of course, but with all this Republican conservatism going on, I sort of expected it,” he said.
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Charles L. Michod Jr, the attorney for Parker School, said Johnson had applied late for the position and the three finalists had already been chosen.
“I’m elated by the decision because it really reaffirms the school’s position all along that it had independent business justification in deciding not to hire Mr. Johnson, namely that he was too expensive for the position that was available,” he said.