Opinion ID: 202423
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Vázquez-Valentín and the district court's decision

Text: 91 In concluding that Plaintiffs had not made the requisite showings to get to the jury on their political discrimination claims, the district court relied on our Vázquez-Valentín decision. In Vázquez-Valentín, the plaintiff attempted to challenge her demotion in the wake of a change in political administration by relying on some of the typical indicia of political discrimination. See generally 385 F.3d at 23. The defendants in that case reassigned several hundred employees, including [the plaintiff]. Id. at 35. The plaintiff asserted that her reassignment to a lower position was based on improper political discrimination rather than the defendants' claim of a systematic reclassification of existing positions. Id. at 28-29. To demonstrate that the defendants had knowledge of her political affiliation, the plaintiff referred to a single encounter during routine campaign canvassing, and testimony about her prior activities and positions under a previous administration. Id. at 37-38. As to political animus, the plaintiff offered two comments made by the defendants, id. at 36, 38. The plaintiff also presented evidence about her qualifications for the job at issue, and the gradual erosion of her responsibilities when the new administration took charge. 92 In concluding that Vázquez-Valentín presented insufficient evidence to get to the jury on her political discrimination claim, we specified the following deficiencies: (1) she had not presented evidence creating a reasonable inference that the defendants were even aware of her political affiliation when her personnel file was reviewed and she was reassigned to another position; (2) her evidence fell short of proving that she had been treated in a discriminatory manner because of undisputed testimony that she did not meet the statutory procedural requirements for her present position; (3) one of the statements she relied on—the mayor's comment about cleaning house—was not a direct statement about NPP employees; (4) her supervisor's statement of political animus was a stray comment that could not be attributed to the defendant city officials; (5) the actions of her supervisor in failing to provide her with adequate work for five months similarly could not be attributed to the defendants; and (6) importantly, the plaintiff offered no evidence that PDP members were hired to replace the reassigned NPP members. Vázquez-Valentín, 385 F.3d at 37-40. 93 Apparently focusing on these deficiencies, the district court saw Vázquez-Valentín as a baseline for the amount of evidence a political discrimination plaintiff must present in order to reach the jury: 94 If this case—if the case of Vázquez-Valentín did not meet the standard of proof for jury submission . . . then this case, that we are trying now . . . doesn't meet it either. . . . The truth of the matter is that the case of Vázquez . . . contained a lot more evidence of potential discriminatory motives and of a circumstantial nature than the one that we are trying. 95 The district court's statement is a fair observation as far as it goes. As already noted, there is no evidence in this case of politically discriminatory remarks. There is no evidence of large scale demotions or firings of the members of one political party. But the court's focus on some of the more familiar indicia of political discrimination described in Vázquez-Valentín may have prevented the district court from recognizing that the evidence of political discrimination presented by Plaintiffs had produced a political discrimination case very different from Vázquez-Valentín.