354
Opinion of the Court
R. Eddie Wayland argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief was Elizabeth B. Marney.*
Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court.
The question before us is whether an employee discharged in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 is barred from all relief when, after her discharge, the employer discovers evidence of wrongdoing that, in any event, would have led to the employee's termination on lawful and legitimate grounds.
I
For some 30 years, petitioner Christine McKennon worked for respondent Nashville Banner Publishing Company. She was discharged, the Banner claimed, as part of a work force reduction plan necessitated by cost considerations. McKennon, who was 62 years old when she lost her job, thought another reason explained her dismissal: her age. She filed suit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, alleging that her discharge violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA or Act), 81 Stat. 602, as amended, 29 U. S. C. § 621 et seq. (1988
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations by Marsha Berzon and Laurence Gold; for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law et al. by William F. Sheehan, Steven R. Shapiro, Helen Hershkoff, Michael A. Cooper, Norman Redlich, Thomas J. Henderson, Richard T. Seymour, Sharon R. Vinick, and Cathy Ventrell-Monsees; and for the Women's Legal Defense Fund et al. by Judith L. Lichtman and Donna R. Lenhoff.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the Chamber of
Commerce of the United States by Zachary D. Fasman, Charles A. Shanor, Kelly J. Koelker, Stephen A. Bokat, and Robin S. Conrad; and for the Equal Employment Advisory Council et al. by Douglas S. McDowell, Ann Elizabeth Reesman, Lee T. Paterson, Dwight H. Vincent, John F. Sturm, René P. Milam, and Peter G. Stone.
Jeffrey Robert White, Nancy Erika Smith, and Neil Mullin filed a brief for the National Employment Lawyers Association et al. as amici curiae.
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