Iowa State Daily Editorial Board: Troy McCullough, Tim Davis, Jennifer Holland, Kathleen Carlson and Jenny Hykes.

Out with the old, in the new. A cute little saying. One that should apply to spring cleaning and wardrobe items, but not, however, to one’s employees.

Almost six years ago, James O’Connor’s employer attempted to utilize that old axiom when he fired the then 56 year-old salesman.

O’Connor’s boss allegedly repeatedly made comments about his age, once even bluntly telling O’Connor he was “too damn old for this work.”

When discussing golf, O’Connor’s employer told him he was “too old” to play 18 holes five days a week.

Allegedly this same boss told O’Connor he was going to get “some young blood in the company.”

Two days later, O’Connor was fired, replaced by a 40-year-old employee.

O’Conner faced all this despite earning the highest bonus in his company for top sales the year before.

Age discrimination laws have been prevalent in America to protect elder employees from having their jobs terminated on the basis of their age.

However, O’Connor’s employer technically did not violate any civil rights codes since he replaced him with a worker of approximately the same age range.

Until now.

In a unanimous Supreme Court ruling, it was decided companies may be in violation of the federal Age Discrimination Act if they replace workers 40 and older with other workers 40 and older.

As our workforce continues to age and people realize workers can be vital long past the stereotypical age of work efficiency, perhaps our judgement of worth of workers will truly become based upon their job performance, and not their age, gender, color, sexual preference or any other type of irrational discrimination we seem to force upon each other.