2007 Decisions

Opinions of the United

States Court of Appeals

for the Third Circuit

3-19-2007

El v. SEPTA

Precedential or Non-Precedential: Precedential

Docket No. 05-3857

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PRECEDENTIAL

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

 

No. 05-3857

 

DOUGLAS EL,

Appellant

v.

SOUTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA TRANSPORTATION

AUTHORITY ("SEPTA"),

Defendant/Third-Party

Plaintiff

v.

J&D JAGICLA ENTERPRISES, INC., 

trading as LIBERTY VANS;

KING LIMOUSINE SERVICE, INC.; 

ANDERSON TRAVEL;

KRAPFS CPS, INC.; COMMUNITY TRANSIT, INC.;

ATLANTIC PARATRANS, INC.; TRIAGE, INC.; 

EDENS CORPORATION;

KING PARATRANSIT SERVICE, INC.,
 Honorable Jane A. Restani, Chief Judge, United States *

Court of International Trade, sitting by designation.

2

Third-Party Defendants

 

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

(D.C. Civil Action No. 02-cv-03591)

District Judge: Honorable J. Curtis Joyner

 

Argued September 28, 2006

Before: MCKEE, and AMBRO, Circuit Judges

RESTANI, Chief Judge *

(Opinion filed March 19, 2007)

Eugene A. Spector, Esquire

David J. Cohen, Esquire (Argued)

Spector, Roseman & Kodroff, P.C.

1818 Market Street, Suite 2500

Philadelphia, PA 19103

Timothy M. Kolman, Esquire

Wayne A. Ely, Esquire

Tomothy M. Kolman and Associates

225 N. Flowers Mill Road

Langhorne, PA 19047
3

Counsel for Appellant

Saul H. Krenzel, Esquire (Argued)

Robert J. Haurin, Esquire

Saul H. Krenzel & Associates

42 South 15th Street, Suite 800

Philadelphia, PA 19102

Counsel for Appellee

Theodore M. Shaw

 Director-Counsel and President

Norman J. Chachkin, Esquire

Robert H. Stroup, Esquire

Melanca D. Clark, Esquire

NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc.

99 Hudson Street, Suite 1600

New York, NY 10013

Sharon M. Dietrich, Esquire

Community Legal Services, Inc.

1424 Chestnut Street

Philadelphia, PA 19102

Counsel for Amicus-Appellants

 

OPINION OF THE COURT

 
 We do not comment on whether the policy actually has a 1

disparate impact, as the District Court ruled that the issue was

not resolvable at the summary judgment stage. See infra, at 8–9.

4

AMBRO, Circuit Judge 

This appeal arises out of a Title VII action alleging

employment discrimination based on race. Plaintiff Douglas El

claims that the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation

Authority (“SEPTA”) unnecessarily disqualifies applicants

because of prior criminal convictions—a policy that he argues

has a disparate impact on minority applicants because they are

more likely than white applicants to have convictions on their

records.1

The Court granted summary judgment, however, in favor

of SEPTA, concluding that it had borne the burden of proving

that its policy is consistent with business necessity. Though we

have reservations about such a policy in the abstract, we affirm

here because El did not present any evidence to rebut SEPTA’s

expert testimony.

I. Factual Background and Procedural History

In January 2000, King Paratransit Services, Inc. (“King”)

conditionally hired El to drive paratransit buses. The position

involves providing door-to-door and curb-to-curb transportation

service for people with mental and physical disabilities. King
 El actually had disclosed the conviction on his application, 2

but King personnel apparently did not notice it until they

examined the criminal background report.

5

subcontracted with SEPTA to provide paratransit services on

SEPTA’s behalf. King’s subcontract with SEPTA disallowed

hiring anyone with, among other things, a violent criminal

conviction. Accordingly, among the conditions stipulated in

El’s offer was successful completion of a criminal background

check. Within the first few weeks of El’s employment, King

discovered that El had a 40-year-old conviction for seconddegree murder. Following the terms of King’s subcontract with 2

SEPTA and El’s employment offer, King terminated his

employment. According to King personnel, the murder

conviction was their sole reason.

As the background check revealed, El was convicted of

second-degree murder in 1960. According to his testimony, the

murder took place in the context of a gang-related fight in which

the victim was shot and died. El was 15 years old at the time,

and the victim was 16. El claims not to have been the

triggerman, and, indeed, he was not the only person convicted

of the murder, but no objective report of the circumstances

appears in the record before us. Following his conviction, El

served three-and-a-half years for his crime. This now 47-yearold conviction is El’s only violent offense.

According to the contract in place between King and
6

SEPTA in 2000, King was required to ensure that anyone in

SEPTA service as a driver or attendant have:

e. no record of driving under [the]

influence (DUI) of alcohol or

drugs, and no record of any felony

or misdemeanor conviction for any

crime of moral turpitude or of

violence against any person(s);

f. have no record of any conviction

within the last seven (7) years for

any other felony or any other

midemeanor in any category

referenced below (see section

F.2 .1 0 .C) [listin g sp e c ific

offenses], and not be on probation

or parole for any such crime, no

matter how long ago the conviction

for such crime may be.

App. at 429. 

The parties dispute whether this provision accurately

states the hiring policy that was applied to El. SEPTA contends

that it does. El, on the other hand, argues that King and SEPTA

applied a much broader exclusion taken from language in

another part of the contract that seems to disallow hiring anyone
 It may be that other SEPTA subcontractors applied other 3

hiring policies around this time. Because El does not—at least

at this time in the litigation—represent a class, the only hiring

policy properly at issue is the one applied to him, and all of the

evidence indicates that it was the narrow policy that King used

in deciding to terminate his employment.

7

with a criminal conviction of any kind. Specifically, El argues

that King applied a nearby provision in the contract stating that

“[t]he Contractor [King] shall . . . reject/bar any applicant or

current employee from SEPTA-related work whose record

includes . . . any conviction for any felony and/or misdemeanor.”

App. at 430.

The District Court found that King applied the narrower

policy. King personnel testified that they applied the narrower

policy to El and to all of its SEPTA-related applicants.

Moreover, personnel from other SEPTA subcontractors testified

that they applied the narrower policy in similar contracts, and

SEPTA personnel testified that the narrower policy was the one

that SEPTA intended for them to apply and the one that they

referred to when asked for assistance with contract

interpretation. SEPTA’s transactional lawyers may have been

less than precise in writing an internally inconsistent contract,

but all of the record evidence shows that one particular

interpretation of that inconsistency prevailed, and so we cannot 3

conclude that the issue is genuinely disputed. Thus, we decide

this case on the basis of the narrower hiring policy quoted
 Title VII broadly prohibits employers from discriminating 4

against applicants and employees on the basis of race, color,

religion, sex, or national origin. See generally 42 U.S.C. §

2000e-2.

8

above. 

After his employment was terminated, El filed a

complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

(“EEOC”) in which he alleged that SEPTA’s hiring policy

violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by 4

discriminating on the basis of race. Specifically, he argued that

the policy has a disparate impact: because African Americans

and Hispanics are more likely to have a criminal record, they are

more likely to run afoul of the policy. After investigating his

complaint, the EEOC found in El’s favor. The agency was,

however, unable to resolve the dispute, and the Civil Rights

Division of the Department of Justice declined to pursue the

matter. 

El elected to pursue this claim himself in District Court

as a class action. The District Court decided not to determine

immediately whether to certify the proposed class. Rather, it

allowed full discovery leading up to a period in which parties

could file dispositive motions. After completing discovery,

SEPTA moved for summary judgment, arguing that (1) it was

not El’s employer for Title VII purposes, (2) El had not

submitted sufficient evidence that SEPTA’s policy had a
 The District Court had jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331; 5

we have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

9

disparate impact on racial minorities, (3) it had submitted

sufficient evidence to prove that its policy was justified by

business necessity, and (4) El had not submitted sufficient

evidence of an alternative policy that would accomplish

SEPTA’s legitimate goal of public safety. The District Court

denied the motion on the first two grounds, but granted it on the

second two, thus effectively ending the litigation in SEPTA’s

favor. This appeal follows.5

II. Standard of Review

The standard for awarding summary judgment is wellworn: it is fitting when “there is no genuine issue as to any

material fact and . . . the moving party is entitled to judgment as

a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). The moving party

“bears the initial responsibility of informing the district court of

the basis for its motion, and identifying those portions of the

pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and

admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, which it

believes demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material

fact.” Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323 (1986)

(internal quotation marks omitted). 

Because SEPTA sought summary judgment on its

affirmative defense of business necessity, it would bear the
 Many of the cases we cite use the terms “burden of proof” 6

and “burden of persuasion” interchangeably. Yet the two

concepts are not identical. The burden of proof comprises the

burdens of production and persuasion. McCann v. Newman

Irrevocable Trust, 458 F.3d 281, 287 (3d Cir. 2006). The

former is the obligation to come forward with evidence of a

litigant’s necessary propositions of fact. It often matters most

before trial because plaintiffs who have not come forward with

hard evidence to support their necessary allegations cannot

survive a summary judgment motion by the defense. The

burden of persuasion, on the other hand, is the obligation to

convince the factfinder at trial that a litigant’s necessary

propositions of fact are indeed true. 21B Charles Alan Wright

& Kenneth W. Graham, Jr., Fed. Prac. & Proc. § 5122 (3d ed.

2005); Black’s Law Dictionary 190 (7th ed. 1999).

10

burden of proof at trial and therefore must show that it has 6

produced enough evidence to support the findings of fact

necessary to win. Marzano v. Computer Sci. Corp., Inc., 91

F.3d 497, 502 (3d Cir. 1996); Sorba v. Penn. Drilling Co., Inc.,

821 F.2d 200, 202-03 (3d Cir. 1987). When a witness’s

credibility is critical to supporting the necessary findings of fact,

the District Court must consider whether there are sufficient

grounds for impeachment that would place the facts to which he

testifies in legitimate dispute. See Horowitz v. Fed. Kemper Life

Assur. Co., 57 F.3d 300, 302 n.1 (3d Cir. 1995) (“Summary

judgment is inappropriate when a case will turn on credibility

determinations.”) (citing Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477
11

U.S. 242, 255 (1986)). In considering the evidence, the court

should draw all reasonable inferences against the moving party.

Anderson, 477 U.S. at 255 (“The evidence of the non-movant is

to be believed, and all justifiable inferences are to be drawn in

his favor.”) (citing Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144,

158–59 (1970)); see also Atkinson v. LaFayette Coll., 460 F.3d

447, 451 (3d Cir. 2006). 

If the moving party successfully points to evidence of all

of the facts needed to decide the case on the law short of trial,

the non-moving party can defeat summary judgment if it

nonetheless produces or points to evidence in the record that

creates a genuine issue of material fact. Josey v. John R.

Hollingsworth Corp., 996 F.2d 632, 637 (3d Cir. 1993). The

non-moving party cannot rest on mere pleadings or allegations;

rather it must point to actual evidence in the record on which a

jury could decide an issue of fact its way. Berckeley Inv. Group,

Ltd. v. Colkitt, 455 F.3d 195, 201 (3d Cir. 2006) (“In this

respect, summary judgment is essentially ‘put up or shut up’

time for the non-moving party: the non-moving party must rebut

the motion with facts in the record and cannot rest solely on

assertions made in the pleadings, legal memoranda, or oral

argument.”).

Put another way, it is inappropriate to grant summary

judgment in favor of a moving party who bears the burden of
 Our use of the term “reasonable juror” here is purposeful, 7

for the Supreme Court has held that “some metaphysical doubt

as to the material facts” will not defeat a motion for summary

judgment. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co., 475 U.S. at 586. A

reasonable juror will be compelled to find for the moving party

unless there are reasonable—not fanciful or illusory—concerns

with the moving party’s evidence.

12

proof at trial unless a reasonable juror would be compelled to 7

find its way on the facts needed to rule in its favor on the law.

See Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475

U.S. 574, 587 (1986) (holding that summary judgment is

appropriate “[w]here the record taken as a whole could not lead

a rational trier of fact to find for the non-moving party . . . .”);

Hill v. City of Scranton, 411 F.3d 118, 127 n.11 (3d Cir. 2005)

(“Of course, because the defendant bears the burdens of proof

and persuasion on the third prong[,] . . . to prevail at summary

judgment on this prong the defendant must present evidence of

such quality that no reasonable juror could conclude that the

protected activity was the but-for cause of the termination.”);

see also Turner v. Hershey Chocolate U.S., 440 F.3d 604, 612

(3d Cir. 2006) (“Were we to uphold the District Court’s

conclusion and grant of summary judgment we would need to

conclude that reasonable jurors could not but find that rotating

among all three tables is an essential function of the shaker table

inspector position at Hershey.”) (emphasis added). After all, the

burden of proof includes the obligation to persuade the

factfinder that one’s propositions of fact are indeed true.
13

Black’s Law Dictionary 190 (7th ed. 1999). Thus, if there is a

chance that a reasonable factfinder would not accept a moving

party’s necessary propositions of fact, pre-trial judgment cannot

be granted. Specious objections will not, of course, defeat a

motion for summary judgment, but real questions about

credibility, gaps in the evidence, and doubts as to the sufficiency

of the movant’s proof, will.

III. Discussion

A. The Business Necessity Defense

1. Contours of the Defense

The Supreme Court first recognized that Title VII

plaintiffs can make out a viable employment discrimination

claim without alleging or proving discriminatory intent in

Griggs v. Duke Power, 401 U.S. 424 (1971). The Court held

that plaintiffs can succeed by showing that the challenged

employment policy has a discriminatory effect that is not

justified by the needs of the defendant’s business. The Court

announced that these “disparate impact” cases should proceed

in two steps: (1) the plaintiff must prove that the challenged

policy discriminates against members of a protected class, and

then (2) the defendant can overcome the showing of disparate

impact by proving a “manifest relationship” between the policy

and job performance. This second step came to be known as the
 The name derives from the Griggs opinion: 8

The [Civil Rights] Act proscribes

not only overt discrimination but

also practices that are fair in form,

but discriminatory in operation.

The touchstone is business

necessity. If an employment

practice which operates to exclude

Negroes cannot be shown to be

related to job performance, the

practice is prohibited.

401 U.S. at 431 (emphasis added).

 As we detail in Part III.B, infra, the successful assertion of 9

the business necessity defense is not an ironclad shield; rather,

the plaintiff can overcome it by showing that an alternative

policy exists that would serve the employer’s legitimate goals as

well as the challenged policy with less of a discriminatory

effect.

14

“business necessity” defense, and it serves as an employer’s 8

only means of defeating a Title VII claim when its employment

policy has a discriminatory effect.9

The Supreme Court further developed the business

necessity defense over a series of cases. In Griggs, it dealt with

aptitude tests administered by an employer in making hiring

decisions. The Court held that discriminatory employment tests

must “bear a demonstrable relationship to successful
15

performance of the jobs for which it was used.” Griggs, 401

U.S. at 431. It further held that “any given requirement must

have a manifest relationship to the employment in question.” Id.

at 432. In Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. 405 (1975),

it elaborated on the use of discriminatory tests by adopting the

EEOC’s determination that test results must predict or correlate

with “important elements of work behavior which comprise or

are relevant to the job or jobs for which candidates are being

evaluated.” Id. at 431 (quoting 29 C.F.R. § 1607.4(c)). In

Dothard v. Rawlinson, 433 U.S. 321 (1977), the Court rejected

height and weight criteria for hiring prison guards, holding that

discriminatory requirements must “be shown to be necessary to

safe and efficient job performance.” Id. at 331 n.14. The

employer in that case argued that strength was an essential

quality and that the height and weight criteria served as a proxy

for strength. The Court rejected this argument, holding that

while strength may have been an essential quality, the employer

had not specified the amount of strength necessary or

demonstrated any correlation between these height and weight

criteria and the necessary amount thereof. Id. at 331–32. In

Connecticut v. Teal, 457 U.S. 440 (1982), it held that an

employer may not justify using a discriminatory test for

determining promotion eligibility by also using an affirmative

action system after the fact to achieve an appropriate racial

balance. As the Court noted, Title VII operates not primarily to

the benefit of racial or minority groups, but to ensure that

individual applicants receive the consideration they are due and

are not screened out by arbitrary policies or devices. Id. at
16

453–54.

For our purposes, two aspects of these cases are

noteworthy. First, the Court refused to accept bare or “commonsense”-based assertions of business necessity and instead

required some level of empirical proof that challenged hiring

criteria accurately predicted job performance. Dothard is

particularly noteworthy because the Court rejected an

employer’s common-sense argument that prison guards must be

relatively strong to justify criteria that roughly measured

strength. The lesson is that employers cannot rely on rough-cut

measures of employment-related qualities; rather they must

tailor their criteria to measure those qualities accurately and

directly for each applicant. 

Second, the Court did not allow employers to rely on

“more is better”-style reasoning to justify their policies. In

Griggs, Albemarle, and Dothard, the employers argued that the

challenged criteria were justified by the fact that one would

naturally prefer smarter or stronger employees to less intelligent

or weaker ones, and so it was of no moment that the criteria

might be set a bit higher than strictly necessary. The Court held,

however, that some abstract notion that more of a given quality

is better is insufficient to justify a discriminatory policy under

Title VII; rather, the employer must present real evidence that

the challenged criteria “‘measure[s] the person for the job and

not the person in the abstract.’” Dothard, 433 U.S. at 332

(quoting Griggs, 401 U.S. at 436). 
17

The Supreme Court has never dealt directly with criminal

record policies, though it has done so tangentially with criminal

behavior in two cases. In McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green,

411 U.S. 792 (1973), the Court sustained an employer’s refusal

to rehire a former employee on the ground that the employee had

participated in various disruptive, illegal protests in front of the

employer’s premises. Id. at 794–95, 804. Specifically, it held

that the employer’s fear that this employee would continue to be

disruptive in violation of the law was a legitimate business

reason for the refusal. Id. at 804. In New York City Transit

Authority v. Beazer, 440 U.S. 568 (1979), the Court held that it

was permissible under Title VII to refuse to hire anyone using

methadone to treat their addiction to illegal drugs for “safety

sensitive” positions on a city transit system because such a

policy serves the “legitimate employment goals of safety and

efficiency.” Id. at 587 n.31. 

Although these two Supreme Court cases deal with

illegal activity on the part of the applicant, neither one squarely

addresses the issue of prior convictions. In McDonnell Douglas,

the employer had other specific reasons for fearing disruption

from the applicant than the mere existence of a criminal record.

In Beazer, the Court addressed the suitability of hiring people

actively using methadone to recover from addiction to illegal

drugs, not the suitability of people with records of past criminal

behavior. Moreover, the business necessity defense was not the

focus of either case, and so the Court did not articulate the

contours of the defense with any specificity.
18

In 1989 the Supreme Court expanded the business

necessity defense in Wards Cove Packing Co., Inc. v. Atonio,

490 U.S. 642 (1989). There it held that a challenged

discriminatory employment practice need not be necessary in the

sense of “essential” or “indispensable” to pass muster under

Title VII; rather, the practice must merely “serve[], in a

significant way, the legitimate employment goals of the

employee.” Wards Cove, 490 U.S. at 659. Even more

significant was that it shifted the burden of proof from the

employer to the employee. Id.

Recognizing this holding as a departure from Griggs,

Congress responded with the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (the

“Act”), which placed back on the employer the burden of proof.

42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(k). The Act also abrogated the Wards

Cove definition of business necessity. Civil Rights Act of 1991,

§ 3(2), Pub. L. No. 102-166, 105 Stat. 1071 (1991) (stating that

a purpose of the Act is to codify the concept of business

necessity as it existed prior to Wards Cove). Congress noted

both in the purpose section of the Act and in an authoritative

interpretive memorandum that “[t]he terms ‘business necessity’

and ‘job related’ [as used in the Act] are intended to reflect the

concepts enunciated by the Supreme Court in Griggs v. Duke

Power Co., 401 U.S. 424 (1971), and in the other Supreme

Court decisions prior to Wards Cove Packing Co., Inc. v. Atonio,

490 U.S. 642 (1989).” 137 Cong. Rec. S15, 273–01 (daily ed.

Oct. 25, 1991) (statement of Sen. Danforth); see also Civil

Rights Act of 1991, §§ 3(2) & 105(b) (adopting the Griggs
19

definition of business necessity and stating that only the

interpretative memorandum quoted may be used in construing

the Act). Thus, the text and legislative history lead directly to

the conclusion that Congress intended to codify the Griggs

definition of business necessity, as clarified and developed in

the Supreme Court’s pre-Wards Cove jurisprudence.

Unfortunately, as numerous courts and commentators

have noted, Griggs and its progeny did not provide a precise

definition of business necessity. See, e.g., Lanning v.

Southeastern Pa. Transp. Auth., 181 F.3d 478, 488 (3d Cir.

1999) (Lanning I) (noting that the Act was so unclear that both

proponents and opponents of a strict business necessity standard

claimed victory); Susan S. Grover, The Business Necessity

Defense in Disparate Impact Discrimination Cases, 30 Ga. L.

Rev. 387, 391–93 (1996); Andrew C. Spiropoulos, Defining the

Business Necessity Defense to the Disparate Impact Cause of

Action: Finding the Golden Mean, 74 N.C.L. Rev. 1479, 1520

(1996). Normally, we would look to additional legislative

history to determine if it clarifies what Congress meant by

business necessity. However, Congress stipulated that courts

may not consider any document other than the interpretive

memorandum quoted above as the Act’s legislative history.

Civil Rights Act of 1991, § 105(b) (stating that nothing other

than a specified interpretive memorandum should be considered

legislative history and thereby used to construe the Act). In

Lanning I and II, we heeded Congress’s instruction and looked

no further than the memorandum. Lanning v. Southeastern Pa.
 Even if we did review additional legislative history, it 10

would not clarify the issue. In floor debate, then-Minority

Leader Senator Robert Dole stated that the Act’s definition of

business necessity is less strict than those articulated in the

initial versions of the Senate bill that eventually became the Act

and the parallel House bill. 137 Cong. Rec. S15, 472–01 (daily

ed. Oct. 30, 1991) (statement of Sen. Dole). In the initial

version of the Senate bill, business necessity was defined as

“bear[ing] a manifest relationship” to “the performance of actual

work activities required by the employer for a job or class of

jobs” or “any behavior that is important to the job, but may not

comprise actual work activities.” S. 1745, 102d Cong. § 7 (Sep.

26, 1991). In the initial version of the House bill, business

necessity was defined as “bear[ing] a significant relationship to

successful performance of the job.” H.R. 1, 102d Cong. § 3

(Jan. 6, 1991). A confusing aspect of the House bill is that,

while it purports to overrule Wards Cove, the language is

strikingly similar to that used in the case. Compare id. with

Wards Cove, 490 U.S. at 659.

20

Transp. Auth., 308 F.3d 286, 289 (3d Cir. 2002) (Lanning II);

Lanning I, 181 F.3d at 488.

While some may be skeptical of Congress’s power to

instruct courts what legislative history they may take into

account when interpreting a statute, we need not consider

anything beyond the interpretive memorandum because doing so

would be unhelpful in this case. Members of Congress simply 10

could not agree on a precise definition of business necessity; all
21

they could agree upon was overruling Wards Cove and

reinstating the Supreme Court’s somewhat conflicting postGriggs and pre-Wards Cove jurisprudence. Thus, our task is to

be as faithful to that intent as possible.

Attempting to implement the Griggs standard, we have

held that hiring criteria must effectively measure the “minimum

qualifications for successful performance of the job in

question.” See Lanning I, 181 F.3d at 481. This holding reflects

the Griggs/Albemarle/Dothard rejection of criteria that are

overbroad or merely general, unsophisticated measures of a

legitimate job-related quality. It is also consistent with the fact

that Congress continues to call the test “business necessity,” not

“business convenience” or some other weaker term. 

However, hiring policies need not be perfectly tailored to

be consistent with business necessity. As we held in Lanning II,

employers need not set the bar so low that they consider an

applicant with some, but unreasonably low, probability of

successful performance. Lanning II, 308 F.3d at 292 (“It would

clearly be unreasonable to require SEPTA applicants to score so

highly on the run test that their predicted rate of [job] success be

100%. It is perfectly reasonable, however, to demand a chance

of success that is better than 5% to 20%.”). After all, the

Supreme Court has held that Title VII never forces an employer

to accept an unqualified—or even less qualified—applicant in

the name of non-discrimination. Griggs, 401 U.S. at 436

(“Congress has not commanded that the less qualified be
22

preferred over the better qualified simply because of minority

origins.”). Moreover, the Supreme Court has noted that brightline criteria, such as aptitude tests, are legitimate and useful

hiring tools so long as they accurately measure a person’s

qualifications. Id. 

Putting these standards together, then, we require that

employers show that a discriminatory hiring policy

accurately—but not perfectly—ascertains an applicant’s ability

to perform successfully the job in question. In addition, Title

VII allows the employer to hire the applicant most likely to

perform the job successfully over others less likely to do so.

2. Applying the Defense to Criminal Conviction

Policies

Prior decisions on business necessity do not directly

control here. The standards set out in Griggs and its progeny

(including the standards noted by our Court in Lanning I and II)

do not parallel the facts of this case. In the cases cited above,

the hiring policies at issue were tests designed or used—at least

allegedly—to measure an employee’s ability to perform the

relevant jobs. Here, however, the hiring policy has nothing to

do with the applicant’s ability to drive a paratransit bus; rather,

it seeks to exclude applicants who, while able to drive a bus,

pose too much of a risk of potential harm to the passengers to be

trusted with the job. Thus, our standard of “minimum

qualifications necessary for successful performance of the job
23

in question” is appropriate in test-score cases, but awkward here

because “successful performance of the job” in the usual sense

is not at issue. See Lanning I, 181 F.3d at 482. SEPTA could

argue that successful performance of the job includes not

attacking a passenger and, therefore, that the standard is still

appropriate. However, the standard is worded to address ability,

not risk. Yet, the issue before us is the risk that the employee

will harm a passenger, and the phrase “minimum qualification”

simply does not fit, as it is hard to articulate the minimum

qualification for posing a low risk of attacking someone.

The only reported appellate level case to address squarely

the issue of exclusions from eligibility on the basis of prior

convictions is Green v. Missouri Pac. R.R. Co., 523 F.2d 1290

(8th Cir. 1975). There the employer refused to hire anyone for

any position who had been convicted of any offense other than

a minor traffic violation. Id. at 1292. Green had applied for an

office job, and he was not considered because of a previous

conviction for refusing to answer the draft (after failing to

qualify as a conscientious objector). Id. at 1292–93. The Court

held that the employer’s policy was too broad to be justified by

business necessity. Id. at 1298–99. 

Green, however, presented materially different facts than

those before us in two respects. First, the job in Green was an

office job at a corporate headquarters; it did not require the

employee to be alone with and in close proximity to vulnerable

members of society. The public safety concern is of more
24

moment in our case. Second, the hiring policy in Green

prevented hiring a person with any criminal conviction, “no

matter how remote, insubstantial, or unrelated to [the]

applicant’s personal qualifications as an employee.” Id. at 1296

(quoting McDonnell Douglas, 411 U.S. at 806). Here, SEPTA’s

policy only prevents consideration of people with certain types

of convictions—those that it argues have the highest and most

unpredictable rates of recidivism and thus present the greatest

danger to its passengers. In this context, Green was an easier

case insofar as the Supreme Court has held firmly that an

employer with an extremely broad exclusionary policy that fails

to offer any empirical justification for it is unable to make out a

successful business necessity defense, Dothard, 433 U.S. at 334,

whereas SEPTA has a narrower policy for a position in which

criminal convictions are more job-related.

The EEOC has spoken to the issue in its Compliance

Manual, which states that an applicant may be disqualified from

a job on the basis of a previous conviction only if the employer

takes into account:

1. The nature and gravity of the offense or offenses;

2. The time that has passed since the conviction

and/or completion of the sentence; and

3. The nature of the job held or sought.
 Two district courts have published decisions on prior 11

conviction policies. In EEOC v. Carolina Freight Carriers Co.,

25

Equal Empl. Opp. Comm. Compliance Manual § 605 App. The

EEOC clarifies that “nature and gravity of the offense” means

for employers to consider the circumstances of that offense. Id.

The EEOC’s Guidelines, however, do not speak to whether an

employer can take these factors into account when crafting a

bright-line policy, nor do they speak to whether an employer

justifiably can decide that certain offenses are serious enough to

warrant a lifetime ban. SEPTA’s policy arguably takes into

account the sensitive nature of the job and sorts applicants by

type of offense. For some offenses, it considers the time since

the conviction; for others, it does not. 

In addition, it does not appear that the EEOC’s Guidelines

are entitled to great deference. While some early cases so held

in interpreting Title VII, Griggs, 404 U.S. at 434, more recent

cases have held that the EEOC is entitled only to Skidmore

deference. EEOC v. Arabian American Oil Co., 499 U.S. 244,

257 (1991) (citing Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134, 140

(1944)) (superseded by statute on unrelated grounds). Under

that standard, the EEOC gets deference in accordance with the

thoroughness of its research and the persuasiveness of its

reasoning. Id. Here, the EEOC’s policy was rewritten to bring

it in line with the Green case, but the policy document itself

does not substantively analyze the statute. See Equal Empl.

Opp. Comm. Compliance Manual § 605 App.11
723 F. Supp. 734 (S.D. Fla. 1989), the employer refused to hire

any applicant for a truck driver position who had been convicted

of any felony or misdemeanor related to theft. Id. at 737–38.

The employer stated that its drivers were in positions of trust

because the opportunity to steal cargo was so great and it could

not risk hiring anyone with a theft-related or other serious

criminal conviction. Id. at 738. The District Court for the

Southern District of Florida held that the employer demonstrated

the requisite business necessity, specifically criticizing the

holding in Green and asserting that making out a business

necessity defense does not require strict proof that a conviction

policy is effective. Id. at 752–53. Indeed, the employer seems

not to have submitted any recidivism statistics or any other

indicia of the effectiveness of its policy but for its own

statements that it considered the policy effective. Id. at 754. 

Besides this shortcoming, Carolina Freight was decided under

the Wards Cove definition of business necessity. 

Before Green, a District Court in Louisiana dealt with a

case in which an African American bellman was fired because

of a criminal record involving serious property-related crimes.

Richardson v. Hotel Corp. of America, 332 F. Supp. 519 (E.D.

La. 1971), aff’d per curiam at 468 F.2d 915 (5th Cir. 1972)

(affirming the District Court without opinion). Specifically, the

hotel refused to hire anyone as a bellman who had been

convicted of a serious crime (left undefined in the opinion). Id.

at 521. The District Court found that the policy was warranted

by business necessity because of the sensitive nature of a

bellman’s job, particularly a bellman’s easy access to guests’

rooms. Id. As the Richardson case was decided shortly after

26
Griggs, the District Court applied the Griggs “manifest

relationship” standard. Id. (quoting Griggs, 401 U.S. at 432).

As in Carolina Freight, the District Court required no

sophisticated showing that the policy was narrowly-tailored, and

the opinion does not cite recidivism statistics.

 As SEPTA discovered in the tragic case of paratransit 12

driver David deSouza, even applicants with clean criminal

records sometimes endanger passengers. At the time of his hire

by King, deSouza had no prior criminal convictions.

Nevertheless, he attacked and raped a passenger while serving

as a SEPTA driver.

27

Considering the dearth of authority directly on point, we

believe that our standards from Lanning I and II—namely that

discriminatory hiring policies accurately but not perfectly

distinguish between applicants’ ability to perform successfully

the job in question—can be adapted to fit the context of criminal

conviction policies. In a broad sense, hiring policies, such as the

one at issue here, ultimately concern the management of risk. In

Lanning I & II, we dealt with how employers manage the risk

that applicants will be unable to perform the job in question.

See Lanning II, 308 F.3d at 287–88; Lanning I, 181 F.3d at 482.

Here we deal with the risk that an applicant will endanger the

employer’s patrons. In both cases, it is impossible to measure

the risk perfectly, and in both cases Title VII does not ask the 12

impossible. It does, however, as in the case of performancerelated policies, require that the policy under review accurately
 It may seem odd to speak of an acceptable level of risk in 13

this context, given the horrors that drivers can inflict on disabled

passengers, but, as the deSouza case demonstrates, some level

of risk is inevitable, see supra note 12. SEPTA may minimize

that risk to the extent reasonably possible, but whatever criteria

it uses must distinguish with sufficient accuracy between those

who pose that minimal level of risk and those who pose a higher

level.

 In this case, we have no occasion to hold that bright-line 14

policies in the criminal conviction context are per se invalid.

Indeed, we have upheld policiesin other Title VII contexts that

effectively bar an applicant from employment on the basis of a

single, bright-line test result, but whatever criteria it uses must

distinguish with sufficient accuracy between those who pose

28

distinguish between applicants that pose an unacceptable level

of risk and those that do not. 

13

El urges us to go further and hold that Title VII prohibits

any bright-line policy with regard to criminal convictions; he

argues, rather, that Title VII requires that each applicant’s

circumstances be considered individually without reference to

any bright-line rules. We decline to go so far. If a bright-line

policy can distinguish between individual applicants that do and

do not pose an unacceptable level of risk, then such a policy is

consistent with business necessity. Whether a policy can do so

is most often a question of fact that the district courts—and

juries—must resolve in specific cases. 

14
that minimal level of risk and those who do not. Lanning II,

308 F.3d at 291–92 (affirming SEPTA’s use of a bright-line

aerobic capacity test to bar applicants from employment as

transit police officers). 

29

3. Could a Reasonable Juror Find that SEPTA’s

Policy Is Not Consistent with Business Necessity?

In arguing that its policy is consistent with business

necessity, SEPTA claims that it has presented evidence such that

a reasonable juror must find that: (1) the job of a paratransit

driver requires that the driver be in very close contact with

passengers, (2) the job requires that the driver often be alone

with passengers, (3) paratransit passengers are vulnerable

because they typically have physical and/or mental disabilities,

(4) disabled people are disproportionately targeted by sexual and

violent criminals, (5) violent criminals recidivate at a high rate,

(6) it is impossible to predict with a reasonable degree of

accuracy which criminals will recidivate, (7) someone with a

conviction for a violent crime is more likely than someone

without one to commit a future violent crime irrespective of how

remote in time the conviction is, and (8) SEPTA’s policy is the

most accurate way to screen out applicants who present an

unacceptable risk. 

As an initial matter, we agree with SEPTA that these facts,

if proved, would be sufficient to show that its policy is

consistent with business necessity, at least as it applies to a
 It is worth noting that SEPTA also perpetually bans from 15

paratransit employment people with convictions for crimes of

moral turpitude. Because the evidence submitted has focused on

violent convictions like El’s, we have no occasion to determine

whether SEPTA’s policy may be justified as to those convicted

of non-violent crimes of moral turpitude.

 SEPTA too heavily emphasizes the sixth alleged fact: that 16

it is impossible to predict which criminal will recidivate. This

fact, if proved, is of little use because it is also impossible to

predict which non-criminal will commit a crime. What matters

is the risk that the individual presents, taking into account

whatever aspects of the person’s criminal history are relevant.

Thus, if screening out applicants with very old violent criminal

convictions accurately distinguishes between those who present

an unacceptable risk, then reliance on this factor is appropriate;

if the criterion is inaccurate or overbroad in the case of very old

convictions, then it is inappropriate for Title VII purposes.

30

person with a violent criminal conviction like El. If someone 15

with a violent conviction presents a materially higher risk than

someone without one, no matter which other factors an

employer considers, then SEPTA is justified in not considering

people with those convictions. For example, SEPTA may be 16

able to show that a policy excluding all violent offenders is

justified by business necessity because other factors—such as

age at conviction, the number of violent convictions, and/or the

remoteness of that conviction—are unreliable or otherwise fail

to reduce the risk to an acceptable level.
 El withdrew all objections to the experts’ qualifications for 17

purposes of SEPTA’s motion for summary judgment, so we, like

the District Court, assume that the experts are duly qualified to

offer admissible evidence.

 SEPTA’s report from Dr. David Griffin, a statistician who 18

principally testified on whether its policy has a disparate

impact, relies entirely on these statistics. Moreover, Dr. Griffin

claimed no particular expertise in criminology or any relevant

discipline other than statistics. As we already address the

limitations of these statistics in discussing the other two experts,

we do not address further Dr. Griffin’s statements.

31

In support of its summary judgment motion, SEPTA

submitted the reports of three experts. All three rely heavily 17

on data from the Department of Justice that tracked recidivism

of prisoners within three years of their release from prison.

Indeed, those data show relatively high rates of recidivism in

those first three years. But what about someone who has been

released from prison and violence-free for 40 years? The DOJ

statistics do not demonstrate that someone in this position—or

anything like it—is likely to recidivate. 

18

One of SEPTA’s experts was Dr. Alfred Blumstein, a

noted authority on recidivism. He stated:

It is also the case that an individual’s

propensity to commit a future violent

crime decreases as that individual’s
32

crime-free duration increases. That is, an

individual with a prior violent conviction

who has been crime-free in the

community for twenty years is less likely

to commit a future crime than one who

has been crime-free in the community for

only ten years. But neither of these

individuals can be judged to be less or

equally likely to commit a future violent

act than comparable individuals who have

no prior violent history. It is possible that

those differences might be small, but

making such predictions of comparable

low-probability events is extremely

difficult, and the criminological discipline

provides no good basis for making such

predictions with any assurance that they

will be correct.

App. at 953 (citation to DOJ statistics omitted) (emphasis

added). 

This statement bridges, as best it can, the gap between the

three-year statistics and El’s 40 year-old conviction. Because

Dr. Blumstein is a duly qualified professional criminologist and

because nothing in the record rebuts his statement, we must take

him at his word that former violent criminals who have been

crime free for many years are at least somewhat more likely than
33

members of the general population to commit a future violent

act. He notes that the difference between the probability that

someone with a remote conviction and someone with no

conviction will commit a future violent crime “might be small,”

but given the marked sensitivity of the paratransit position at

issue, a small but extant difference is sufficient. It is also

noteworthy that Dr. Blumstein reports that the criminological

discipline is incapable of distinguishing accurately between

violent criminals who are and are not likely to commit future

violent crimes. In other words, he believes that SEPTA’s policy

distinguishes as accurately as the criminological discipline

allows. Again, because we see nothing in the record rebutting

this statement, we must take Dr. Blumstein at his word. 

SEPTA also submitted the report of Dr. Dick Sobsey, an

education psychologist. Dr. Sobsey reported that disabled

people are proportionately more likely than others to be the

victims of violent or sexual crimes. He further reported that

employees of transportation providers commit a disproportionate

share of those crimes against disabled people. Like Dr.

Blumstein, Dr. Sobsey claims that the strength of violent

criminal activity as a predictor of future criminal activity

“moderates over time but remains regardless of how much time

passes.” App. at 920. Dr. Sobsey’s report, therefore, provides

evidence for SEPTA’s argument that paratransit positions are

extraordinarily sensitive, and that screening out individuals with

violent convictions—no matter how remote—is appropriate.
34

Thus, on this record, we have little choice but to conclude

that a reasonable juror would necessarily find that SEPTA’s

policy is consistent with business necessity. This is not to say

that we are convinced that SEPTA’s expert reports are ironclad

in the abstract. But El chose neither to hire an expert to rebut

SEPTA’s experts on the issue of business necessity nor even to

depose SEPTA’s experts. These choices are fatal to his claim,

for a party opposing summary judgment “cannot rest solely on

assertions made in the pleadings, legal memoranda, or oral

argument.” Berckeley Inv. Group, Ltd., 455 F.3d at 201. Here,

there is nothing in the record that raises any reasonable

credibility question about SEPTA’s expert evidence, rebuttable

as it may be. Thus, we must conclude that the reasonable juror

would believe those experts.

Had El produced evidence rebutting SEPTA’s experts, this

would be a different case. Had he, for example, hired an expert

who testified that there is time at which a former criminal is no

longer any more likely to recidivate than the average person,

then there would be a factual question for the jury to resolve.

Similarly, had El deposed SEPTA’s experts and thereby

produced legitimate reasons to doubt their credibility, there

would be a factual question for the jury to resolve. Here,

however, he did neither, and he suffers pre-trial judgment for it.

Despite not deposing SEPTA’s experts or hiring experts of

his own, El did produce evidence in the form of testimony from

SEPTA personnel through which he attempts to “rebut the
35

motion with facts in the record,” as Berckeley requires. Id. All

he brought out, however, was evidence that raises questions

about SEPTA’s care in formulating its hiring policy. In

response to El’s interrogatories, SEPTA named 11 employees

and former employees that could speak to the business necessity

of SEPTA’s policy. Of those 11, El deposed eight of them.

(The other three, El claims, had moved away and could not be

found. SEPTA does not dispute this characterization, nor does

it assert that these three would have provided materially

different testimony.) Reading through those depositions, it is

striking that not one of the witnesses that SEPTA named was

able to explain—beyond a general concern for passenger

safety—why this particular policy was chosen from among

myriad possibilities. See Dothard, 433 U.S. at 331. Even

Vincent Walsh, the drafter of the policy, could provide little

insight into how the policy was written, on what research or

information it was based, or why it was structured as it was. 

This inability is particularly striking given that the policy

SEPTA claims it applied makes distinctions among crimes,

setting apart some crimes for a lifetime ban from SEPTA

employment and applying a seven-year ban to others. If the

policy were developed with anything approaching the level of

care that Griggs, Albemarle, and Dothard seem to contemplate,

then we would expect that someone at SEPTA would be able to

explain how it decided which crimes to place into each category,

how the seven-year number was selected, and why SEPTA

thought a lifetime ban was appropriate for a crime like simple
36

assault. Almost all of El’s relevant questions about the policy

were met with silence from SEPTA personnel, suggesting the

reasonable inference that SEPTA has no real basis for asserting

that its policy accurately distinguishes between applicants that

do and do not present an unacceptable level of risk. 

Title VII, however, does not measure care in formulating

hiring policies; rather, it requires that an employer be able to

show that its policy is consistent with business necessity when

challenged. Granted, the two will typically go hand-in-hand.

Here, however, for all of SEPTA’s apparent loose manner in

formulating and defending its policy, it produced credible expert

testimony that its policy accurately screened out applicants too

likely to commit acts of violence against paratransit passengers.

El’s evidence (that SEPTA took little care in formulating its

hiring policy), through troubling, does not directly answer

SEPTA’s (that the policy, however little care went into

formulating it, is accurate because those who have committed a

violent crime, no matter how long ago, are more likely than the

members of the general population to commit a future violent

act). Therefore, El does not defeat summary judgment.

 El also submits the EEOC’s conclusion that SEPTA was

unable to establish the suitability of its policy, and that El’s

youth at the time of his conviction and the length of time since

that conviction, indicate that he would not pose a threat to
 EEOC determinations are relevant substantive evidence in 19

Title VII cases. Like all relevant evidence, they are excludable

under Federal Rule of Evidence 403 if substantially more

prejudicial than probative. Coleman v. Home Depot, Inc., 306

F.3d 1333, 1344–45 (3d Cir. 2002). The District Judge did not

rule on the admissibility of the determination in this case.

37

SEPTA’s passengers. Admissibility questions aside, the 19

EEOC determination is terse and simply asserts the relevance of

El’s youth and the remoteness of his conviction without

explanation, analysis, or authority. It provides nothing of

substance on which the jury could rely, and so its rebuttal of

SEPTA’s experts can create no more than a “scintilla” of

support for El’s position. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 252. Thus, it

is insufficient to create an issue of material fact.

Taking all of the record evidence into account, there is no

substantive evidence on which a reasonable juror could find that

SEPTA’s policy is inconsistent with business necessity.

Summary judgment in SEPTA’s favor was, therefore,

appropriate.

B. The Alternative Policy Issue

Also on appeal is the District Court’s grant of summary

judgment in favor of SEPTA on the alternative policy issue.

Under the Civil Rights Act, a Title VII plaintiff can prevail

despite an employer’s successful assertion of business necessity
38

if the plaintiff points out an “alternative employment practice”

that (1) serves the employer’s legitimate goals as effectively as

the challenged practice, and (2) results in less of a disparate

impact. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(k)(1)(A)(ii) (codifying the preWards Cove standard for showing the propriety of an alternative

employment practice); Albemarle, 422 U.S. at 425 (requiring

that the alternative practice be as effective as the challenged

practice and not have “a similarly undesirable racial effect.”);

see also Watson v. Fort Worth Bank, 487 U.S. 977, 997–78

(1988) (O’Connor, J.) (plurality) (stating that the alternative

practice must be as effective as the challenged practice). El

bears the burdens of proof and persuasion here. 42 U.S.C.

§ 2000e-2(k)(1)(A)(ii). As the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals

has held, to prevail on this issue a Title VII plaintiff must come

forward with evidence that his proposed policy would have less

of a disparate impact. Allen v. City of Chicago, 351 F.3d 306,

315 (7th Cir. 2003). 

The District Court found no evidence in the record

indicating that any alternative policy would have less of a

disparate impact. Having reviewed the record, we agree.

SEPTA is thus entitled to summary judgment on this issue.

IV. Conclusion

Because no reasonable juror on this record could find that

SEPTA’s hiring policy is inconsistent with business necessity,

we affirm the District Court’s grant of summary judgment on
39

that issue. We also affirm the Court’s grant of summary

judgment on the alternative policy issue.