Opinion ID: 2995336
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Retaliation for Survey Response

Text: Bilow also argued that the firm fired her in retaliation for her statement on the firm survey to the effect that there is a ruling class at the firm and a ruled class and all the women in the firm are in the ruled class. This survey was returned on March 20, 1998, and she was discharged a little over two months later. Her theory appears to be that her statement was a protected accusation of sex discrimination against the firm. Bilow contends that this two-month period between the receipt of the survey and her discharge establishes a causal connection between the two events. We question whether a time lag of more than two months is suspicious on the facts presented here for the purpose of establishing retaliation, assuming for now that the statement was the kind of protected complaint to which the retaliation statute applies. See McClendon v. Ind. Sugars, Inc., 108 F.3d 789, 797 & nn. 5-6 (7th Cir. 1997) (citing cases in which causal connection was shown when time lag was a day or a week). Furthermore, Bilow needs more than a coincidence of timing to create a reasonable inference of retaliation: The mere fact that one event preceded another does nothing to prove that the first event caused the second. Sauzek v. Exxon Coal USA, Inc., 202 F.3d 913, 918 (7th Cir. 2000) (three month gap alone could not establish causal connection). Rather, other circumstances must also be present which reasonably suggest that the two events are somehow related to one another. Id. Bilow has not presented any evidence from which a trier of fact could determine that there was a causal connection between her survey response and her termination. Even if Bilow had established the required causal connection, the firm has once again submitted legitimate nondiscriminatory reasons for the discharge--Bilow’s inflexibility and the lack of work in her department--and Bilow has failed to give us any evidence that would show these reasons to be pretextual.