Saturday, October 03, 2009
Elizabeth Colton
Elizabeth Colton got a late start on her diplomatic career, joining the Foreign Service when she was 54. Now, the former journalist is facing an arbitrary restriction that’s threatening to end her brief Foreign Service career.
Next August, Colton will turn 65—the age at which all Foreign Service personnel must retire. But she’s not ready to hang it up, especially since the mandatory retirement would prevent her from accepting a new, two-year assignment as chief of the political-economic section at the U.S. Embassy in Algiers.
So, Colton is suing the State Department, arguing that the 65-year-old rule amounts to age discrimination. Her attorney points out that the retirement age does not apply to political appointees, such as Richard Holbrooke, 68, or George Mitchell, 76, or the person running the State Department.
“Imagine if someone told Hillary Clinton she couldn’t be secretary of state because she would turn 65 before her term is up,” attorney Thomas R. Bundy III told The Washington Post. Clinton will turn 65 in October 2012.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Too Old for Foreign Service Work? (by Steve Vogel, Washington Post)
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