Wanda L. Adams v. Florida Power Corporation

**Adams v. Florida Power Corporation: Court Rules on Age Discrimination Claims** Wanda Adams sued Florida Power Corporation, claiming the company's employment practices had a discriminatory impact on older workers. Adams argued that even if the company didn't intentionally discriminate based on age, their policies still hurt older employees as a group more than younger ones. This type of claim is called "disparate impact" - where a seemingly neutral policy affects one protected group more harshly than others. The court ruled against Adams and sided with Florida Power Corporation. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decided that workers cannot use disparate impact theories when filing age discrimination lawsuits under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). The court determined that this type of claim simply isn't available under federal age discrimination law. This ruling matters significantly for older workers. It means that to win an age discrimination case, workers must prove their employer intentionally discriminated against them because of their age. They cannot argue that company policies, while appearing neutral, disproportionately harm older workers. This makes age discrimination cases harder to win compared to other types of discrimination claims, where disparate impact theories are often allowed.