BFOQ: An Exception Becoming the Rule

Recent court decisions interpreting section 4(f)1 of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and defining bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) exemptions have done little to promote employment of or prohibit discrimination against older Americans. Nor have the decisions helped employers or workers understand applicable BFOQ standards. In essence, recent court decisions have so distorted the BFOQ exemption as to gut the lofty intent of the law set forth in the preamble. It is the purpose of this article to examine these recent court decisions, to assess the court\u27s misapplication of their own historic BFOQ test, and to attempt to probe the source of this judicial failure