Opinion ID: 2994930
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Specifically, Title VII prohibits

Text: employment practices that are facially neutral in their treatment of different groups but that in fact fall more harshly on one group than another and cannot be justified by business necessity. Beard v. Whitley County REMC, 840 F.2d 405, 408-09 (7th Cir. 1988) (quoting International Broth. of Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324, 335 n. 15 (1977)). Therefore, pursuant to Title VII, O’Regan can at least assert that the employment agreement had a disparate impact on women (regardless of age). Contrary to O’Regan’s position, AF’s decision to require managers to sign the employment agreement did not have a disparate impact on women. Rather, the policy had the same impact on male and female professionals. If they did not sign the Agreement, they would be terminated, whether they were men or women. Other than the fact that O’Regan and three other women did not sign, O’Regan does not present any evidence to show that the employment agreement fell more harshly on women. While the parties do not point to any record evidence that shows how many women signed the Agreement, the record implies that a significant number did./4 The fact that four women did not accept the terms of the Agreement is not disparate impact. 3. Motions to strike. O’Regan’s next argument on appeal is that the district court erroneously granted in part AF’s motion to strike statements made in affidavits by O’Regan and Trussel that purport to characterize Weaver’s general hiring, employment and termination practices as discriminatory. We review a trial judge’s decision to strike parts of an affidavit in opposition to a motion for summary judgment for abuse of discretion, Adusumilli v. City of Chicago, 164 F.3d 353, 359 (7th Cir. 1998), which means that decisions that are reasonable, i.e., not arbitrary, will not be questioned. Id. (quoting Whitted v. General Motors Corp., 58 F.3d 1200, 1203 (7th Cir. 1995)). And even if the district court parsed the affidavits too aggressively, Abioye v. Sundstrand Corp., 164 F.3d 364, 368 (7th Cir. 1998), that error is harmless if the stricken evidence was insufficient to support a genuine issue of material fact for trial. See id. Affidavits must be based on personal knowledge, Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(e), and [s]tatements by a non-decision-maker that amount to mere speculation as to the thoughts of the decision- maker are irrelevant to an inquiry of discrimination. Chiaramonte v. Fashion Bed Group, Inc., 129 F.3d 391, 397 (7th Cir. 1997). In this case, the district court struck Trussel’s speculations regarding Weaver’s thoughts and O’Regan’s citations to her complaint to the extent they are not supported by independent, substantiated facts. These decisions are based on accurate statements of the law. And while the district court would have aided our review by specifically identifying the stricken statements, that omission was harmless because O’Regan has not presented any facts in the affidavits that would have supported her claim that AF used the employment agreement as a pretext for discrimination. See Abioye, 164 F.3d at 368. O’Regan also argues that the district court erroneously denied her motion to strike AF’s Local Rule 12(M)/5 reply to O’Regan’s Local Rule 12(N)/6 statement of additional facts opposing AF’s motion for summary judgment. The Local Rules of the Northern District of Illinois impose certain requirements for supporting and opposing motions for summary judgment. Bordelon v. Chicago School Reform Bd. of Trustees, 233 F.3d 524, 527 (7th Cir. 2000). These provisions of Rule 12 instruct the parties to support their summary judgment motions (and their responses to those motions) with statements of material facts and specific references to affidavits and parts of the record that support the statements. We review the district court’s rulings on Rule 12(N) statements for an abuse of discretion. Borderlon, 233 F.3d at 528. And the district court has the discretion to enforce 12(N) strictly or somewhat leniently. Schulz v. Serfilco, Ltd., 965 F.2d 516, 519 (7th Cir. 1992). In this effort to comply with the local rules, the parties were not lost for words. AF filed a summary judgment motion along with a 67-paragraph statement of material facts under 12(M). O’Regan also moved for summary judgment along with a 193- paragraph 12(M) statement. But she also responded to AF’s summary judgment motion with a 12(N) response that contained an additional 220 paragraphs of facts. In its answer to O’Regan’s 12(N) statement, AF objected to many of O’Regan’s additional 220 paragraphs. O’Regan then moved to strike AF’s reply, alleging that AF did not comply with the rules because its reply lacked specific references to the record. The district court denied O’Regan’s motion to strike. We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion because Rules 12(M) and (N) apply to statements of material facts, and O’Regan has not identified for this court any specific facts contained in her 220-paragraph response that are material to her case. By not identifying any material facts to this court that would have required the denial of summary judgment, any claimed error in the denial of the motion to strike is harmless. And we certainly have no obligation to double-check this failure by scouring the record to unearth material factual disputes. Carter v. American Oil Co., 139 F.3d 1158, 1163 (7th Cir. 1998). B. Disqualification Claims O’Regan’s next argument on appeal is that Judge Leinenweber was required to recuse himself from this case based on 28 U.S.C. sec.sec. 455(b)(4), 455(b)(1), 455(a), and 144. Because appellate review of a Section 455(a) claim is only possible by a pretrial mandamus petition, we cannot review that claim. United States v. Boyd, 208 F.3d 638, 645 (7th Cir. 2000). We review de novo the district court’s decision to deny the other disqualification claims under Sections 455(b)(4), 455(b)(1), and 144. Hook v. McDade, 89 F.3d 350, 353-54 (7th Cir. 1996). O’Regan first contends that Judge Leinenweber had a financial interest in the lawsuit and should have recused himself pursuant to 28 U.S.C. sec. 455(b)(4). Section 455(b)(4) requires a federal judge to disqualify himself from a case if [h]e knows that he . . . or his spouse . . . has a financial interest in the subject matter in controversy or in a party to the proceeding, or any other interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding. 28 U.S.C. sec. 455(b)(4). O’Regan’s perceptions of a financial or other interest are attenuated to say the least. She claims that Judge Leinenweber issued favorable rulings for AF in order to repay Keck, Mahin & Cate (KMC) (the law firm that represented AF before the firm went bankrupt in September 1997) for recommending his wife, Lynn Martin, to Mitsubishi (another KMC client) so that Martin could secure lucrative consulting contracts with Mitsubishi from 1996 through 1998. Thus, according to O’Regan, Section 455(b)(4) mandated Judge Leinenweber’s recusal because he had a financial interest in the case: his wife’s consulting contract with Mitsubishi. This claim has no foundation in law or in fact. O’Regan provides no evidence that Judge Leinenweber or Lynn Martin had a financial interest in her case against AF. Martin had a financial interest in Mitsubishi, not in KMC, and Mitsubishi was not a party to this case. Additionally, O’Regan has provided no evidence that KMC recommended Martin to Mitsubishi, or that Martin, as the former Secretary of Labor, needed KMC’s recommendation to convince Mitsubishi to hire her to review the company’s policies governing workplace discrimination after Mitsubishi became embroiled in well-publicized