Ahlmeyer v. Nevada System of Higher Education

**What Happened:** Patricia Ahlmeyer worked for the Nevada System of Higher Education and claimed she faced age discrimination at work. She filed a lawsuit under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), which protects workers over 40 from workplace age bias. When her initial case was dismissed, she tried to file a different type of discrimination claim under a federal civil rights law called Section 1983, which allows people to sue government employers for constitutional violations. **What the Court Decided:** The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Ahlmeyer. The court said that when workers face age discrimination from government employers, they can only use the ADEA to file their lawsuit. They cannot also file a separate claim under Section 1983 based on the same discriminatory conduct. The court affirmed the lower court's decision to dismiss her case and deny her request to add the additional claim. **Why This Matters for Workers:** This ruling limits options for government workers who experience age discrimination. If your ADEA claim fails, you generally cannot pursue the same age discrimination allegations through other federal civil rights laws. Government workers facing age discrimination should work with employment attorneys to build the strongest possible ADEA case from the start, since this may be their only legal avenue for relief.