Massachusetts Board of Retirement v. Murgia

Robert Murgia (defendant), a uniformed Massachusetts state police officer, was retired at age fifty under a mandatory-retirement statute despite having passed a physical exam just four months earlier, with no dispute that he remained physically capable of the job. Murgia sued the Massachusetts Board of Retirement (plaintiff), claiming the forced retirement violated equal protection; the district court dismissed, but the court of appeals reversed, and the Board appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.