9th Circuit decision highlights two kinds of age discrimination statutes

Most of us are familiar with the California and federal laws prohibiting age discrimination in any aspect of employment against employees or applicants over the age of 40. But there’s another age discrimination statute that, in some circumstances, protects employees under 40. Would it help a medical student who claimed he couldn’t get an internship because of his age?

Doctor without a residency

Jordan Spatz graduated from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), medical school in 2021. At the time of his graduation, he was 36 years old. In 2017 and 2018, while he was in medical school, he reported to the school two instances of harassment based on his age, but UCSF declined to investigate.

Spatz’s performance in medical school was mixed. He received some positive performance evaluations, some negative evaluations, and overall, his grades were “middle of the pack.”

Medical school graduates must complete a residency program at a certified institution before they can become fully licensed doctors. Medical students are placed in residency programs through the National Resident Matching Program. As part of this process, medical schools rank the applicants they would like to accept into their program, and applicants do the same with respect to the medical school residency programs they would like to join. These rankings are then fed into a centralized algorithm that matches students with programs based on a variety of factors. There’s no guarantee that every medical student will be matched with a residency program.