Also known as: able bodied · ablebodied · physically fit · fit for duty
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Having full physical strength, mobility, and capacity without impairment from injury, illness, or disability. The term distinguishes such persons from those whose physical limitations require adjustment of legal standards or trigger protections against discrimination.
Antonio Alvarado, a 51-year-old police officer, remains in peak physical condition and passes every fitness test administered by the department. The city nevertheless enforces a mandatory retirement rule at age 50. The court upholds the rule because the age limit bears a rational relationship to maintaining an effective force.
Congress enacts a statute requiring every free able-bodied white male citizen between eighteen and forty-five to enroll in the militia. Andrew Avery, a 30-year-old resident meeting the description, receives his enrollment notice and must report for training. Failure to comply subjects him to federal penalties.
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City police arrest Alexis Archer, an able-bodied adult with no visible means of support who spends days loitering in public parks. The statute defines vagrants to include any able-bodied person living in idleness on another's earnings. Archer moves to dismiss, arguing the provision is unconstitutionally vague.
A school board requires all pregnant teachers to stop working five months before their due date. Ariana Azizi, an able-bodied teacher with a normal pregnancy, is forced to leave the classroom early even though medical evidence shows she can continue teaching. The regulation compels able-bodied instructors to quit despite their capacity to perform.
A state university department chooses an able-bodied applicant over a qualified candidate who uses a wheelchair for a laboratory assistant position. The rejected applicant sues, alleging the decision reflects a pattern of preferring nondisabled workers. The court reviews the claim under rational-basis standards applicable to disability classifications.
State regulations deny food-stamp benefits to households containing an able-bodied adult between eighteen and sixty-five who refuses offered employment. Anita Ali, an able-bodied resident who declines a job referral, loses eligibility for her household. The restriction aims to encourage workforce participation among those physically capable of working.
The standard of care for an able-bodied defendant is that of a reasonably prudent person without physical limitations. When the defendant has a physical impairment, the jury instead compares the defendant's conduct to that of a reasonable person who shares the same impairment.
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Explicit comments favoring young, able-bodied applicants supply direct evidence of discriminatory motive. Such statements can render a facially neutral policy pretextual even if the landlord also cites legitimate cost concerns.
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Age is not a suspect classification, so the rule receives rational-basis scrutiny. A limit rationally related to ensuring a physically capable workforce is constitutional even if some individuals above the age remain fit.
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Large, nonselective organizations open to the public must comply with state antidiscrimination laws. Requiring admission of disabled members does not significantly impair the group's ability to advocate its chosen message when the group is already broadly accessible.
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…a body already in existence, ibid. , cl. 16. This is fully consistent with the ordinary definition of the militia as all able-bodied men. From that pool, Congress has plenary power to organize the units that will make up an effective fighting force. That is what Congress did in the first militia Act, which specified that…