Jack Gross is 63 years-old and a resident of Des Moines.  He is famous for one thing – bringing the Supreme Court case that bears his name, in which the Court raised the bar for federal ADEA plaintiffs to prove discrimination.  As we noted in our April 12^th blog, where before a plaintiff seeking to prove age discrimination need only prove by a preponderance of the evidence that age was a "motivating factor” in the employer’s decision, a plaintiff now must establish that “but-for” unlawful discrimination, the employer would not have taken the adverse action, such as termination.  

According to the DesMoinesRegister.com., Gross feels miserable about the case and about how he has been treated. Gross did not quit when he was demoted and he has suffered from feeling shunned at work and feeling socially isolated. He said he was denied access to the computer, removed from corporate committees, and not invited to staff meetings. “I was just basically set aside.”

He suffers from anxiety attacks because “My case has been used as precedent to deny hundreds of people their day in court. That’s been one of the most distressing things for me.”

Now, as we mentioned in our earlier blog, U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin seek to pass a law overturning Gross. Grassley and Harkin say that “Older Americans have immense value to our society and our economy, and they deserve the protections Congress originally intended.”