Opinion ID: 773427
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Use of Statistics to Show Discriminatory Effect

Text: 74 The Supreme Court has long noted the importance of statistical analysis in cases in which the existence of discrimination is a disputed issue. Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324, 339, 97 S. Ct. 1843, 52 L. Ed. 2d 396 (1977). 8 While few opinions directly acknowledge that statistics may be used to prove discriminatory effect, the Court has repeatedly relied on statistics to do just that. See, e.g., Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 374, 6 S. Ct. 1064, 30 L. Ed. 220 (1886) (finding that a San Francisco ordinance banning the operation of laundries in wooden buildings was discriminatorily applied to Chinese launderers where the city denied the petitions of some two hundred Chinese applicants who applied for exemption from the ordinance, but granted all but one of the eighty petitions of the non-Chinese launderers who applied); Hunter v. Underwood, 471 U.S. 222, 227, 105 S. Ct. 1916, 85 L. Ed. 2d 222 (1985) (finding that the fact that a section of the Alabama Constitution made disenfranchisement of blacks at least 1.7 times more likely than disenfranchisement of whites was indisputable evidence that the state law had a discriminatory effect on blacks as compared to similarly situated whites). 9 Of course, parties may not prove discrimination merely by providing the court with statistical analyses. The statistics proffered must address the crucial question of whether one class is being treated differently from another class that is otherwise similarly situated. See, e.g., Schweiker v. Wilson, 450 U.S. 221, 233, 101 S. Ct. 1074, 67 L. Ed. 2d 186 (1981) (noting that the plaintiffs did not offer any statistical support for a contention that the mentally ill as a class are burdened dis proportionately to any other class). Further, statistics are not irrefutable; they come in infinite variety and, like any other kind of evidence, they may be rebutted. In short, their usefulness depends on all of the surrounding facts and circumstances. Teamsters, 431 U.S. at 340. 75 The Supreme Court's decision in Armstrong did not depart from this precedent. Armstrong settled a dispute among the circuits by holding that criminal defendants bringing selective prosecution claims must show that similarly situated individuals were not prosecuted, in order to obtain discovery in support of their claim. Armstrong, 517 U.S. at 468-69. The decision reversed a Ninth Circuit opinion which held that a defendant did not have to demonstrate that the government had failed to prosecute others who were similarly situated; indeed, this was in contrast to the holdings of numerous other courts of appeals, including this one, that require[d] the defendant to produce some evidence that similarly situated defendants of other races could have been prosecuted, but were not. Id. at 469 (citing, inter alia, United States v. Mitchell, 778 F.2d 1271, 1277 (7th Cir. 1985)). The Supreme Court made clear that the similarly situated requirement could not be discarded, reaffirming that the requirement of showing discriminatory effect is a long established requirement in our jurisprudence. Id. at 455. The district court in this case correctly determined that the Supreme Court rejected the statistics proffered by the plaintiffs in Armstrong. See Chavez v. Ill. State Police, 27 F. Supp. 2d 1053, at 1066-67 (N.D. Ill. 1998). The statistics were rejected, however, not because plaintiffs can never use statistics to prove discriminatory effect, but because the particular statistics presented to the Court did not address the relevant issue. The criminal defendants in Armstrong introduced an affidavit claiming that in every one of the twenty-four cases handled by the public defender's office in 1991 for violations of 21 U.S.C. sec.sec. 841 and 846, the defendant was African-American. See Armstrong, 517 U.S. at 459. The Court explained: The study failed to identify individuals who were not black and could have been prosecuted for the offenses for which respondents were charged, but were not so prosecuted. Id. at 470. Presumably, then, if the study had demonstrated that whites were arrested and could have been prosecuted but were not, the Court would have found the study more useful. The Court pointed out that respondents could have investigated whether similarly situated persons of other races were prosecuted by the State of California and were known to federal law enforcement officers, but were not prosecuted in federal court. Id. In light of Armstrong, statistics demonstrating that whites stopped for traffic violations were not detained and searched, even those who displayed indicators of drug trafficking, while similarly situated African-American or Hispanics drivers were detained and searched, would be sufficient to show discriminatory effect. 76 The district court noted that at least three appellate court decisions have rejected statistical evidence that failed to identify similarly situated individuals of races other than that of the equal protection plaintiffs. Chavez v. Ill. State Police, No. 94 CV 5307, at 18 (N.D. Ill. July 10, 1997) (citing United States v. Turner, 104 F.3d 1180 (9th Cir. 1997); United States v. Berger, 103 F.3d 67 (9th Cir. 1996); United States v. Olvis, 97 F.3d 739 (4th Cir. 1996)). While the courts in these cases rejected the statistics presented, they did not reject, as a matter of law, the use of statistical evidence. In two of the cases the statistics were simply held to be insufficient, just like in Armstrong. See Turner, 104 F.3d at 1184- 85 (finding that the defendants-- who relied, in part, upon the same data found to be inadequate in Armstrong--had not shown that similarly-situated defendants of other races had been left unprosecuted); Olvis, 97 F.3d at 745 (finding that defendant's study provided no statistical evidence on the number of blacks who were actually committing crack cocaine offenses or whether a greater percentage of whites could have been prosecuted for such crimes). The defendant in the third case did not even attempt to provide credible evidence that similarly situated persons of other races could have been prosecuted but were not. Berger, 103 F.3d at 72. Additionally, it is worth noting that all three were criminal cases in which the defendants were seeking discovery in support of a selective prosecution claim. 77 Even if Armstrong is read to require a criminal defendant in a selective prosecution case to provide the precise name of a similarly situated defendant who was not prosecuted (a possible but unnecessary reading), the rationale behind such a requirement does not apply with equal force in the context of a civil racial profiling claim. While the district court determined that Chavez and Lee's allegations of racial profiling were analogous to selective prosecution claims, we find that numerous differences between the two types of claims make the former distinguishable. 78 First, the Armstrong court noted that [t]he similarly situated requirement does not make a selective-prosecution claim impossible to prove. Armstrong, 517 U.S. at 466. In a civil racial profiling case, however, the similarly situated requirement might be impossible to prove. In a meritorious selective prosecution claim, a criminal defendant would be able to name others arrested for the same offense who were not prosecuted by the arresting law enforcement agency; conversely, plaintiffs who allege that they were stopped due to racial profiling would not, barring some type of test operation, be able to provide the names of other similarly situated motorists who were not stopped. 79 A second distinction between this case and Armstrong is the factual context. The opinion in Armstrong allotted much of its analysis to discussing the nature of selective prosecution claims and the considerations inherent in such claims. The analysis is narrowly focused on the constitutional implications of interfering with the prosecutorial function, a factor at the heart of a criminal defendant's claim of selective prosecution, but not directly at issue in a plaintiff's civil claim of racial profiling. The Court described in detail the constraints imposed upon courts considering claims of selective prosecution: 80 A selective-prosecution claim asks a court to exercise judicial power over a special province of the Executive. The Attorney General and the United States Attorneys retain broad discretion to enforce the Nation's criminal laws. They have this latitude because they are designated by statute as the President's delegates to help him discharge his constitutional responsibility to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed. As a result, the presumption of regularity supports their prosecutorial decisions and, in the absence of clear evidence to the contrary, courts presume that they have properly discharged their official duties. In the ordinary case, so long as the prosecutor has probable cause to believe that the accused committed an offense defined by statute, the decision whether or not to prosecute, and what charge to file or bring before a grand jury, generally rests entirely in his discretion. 81 . . . . 82 In order to dispel the presumption that a prosecutor has not violated equal protection, a criminal defendant must present clear evidence to the contrary. . . . Judicial deference to the decisions of these executive officers rests in part on an assessment of the relative competence of prosecutors and courts. . . . It also stems from a concern not to unnecessarily impair the performance of a core executive constitutional function. 83 Armstrong, 517 U.S. at 464-65 (citations omitted). 84 In short, Armstrong emphasized both the discretion accorded to prosecutors and the fact that it would not be impossible to name a similarly situated individual treated differently in the context of a selective prosecution claim. We find that, although Armstrong is reasonably read to require criminal defendants to name an individual who was not prosecuted, the instant case involves police conduct, not prosecutorial discretion, and is in a civil, not criminal, context. This case is thus not like Armstrong. Therefore, plaintiffs do not have to provide the court with the name of an individual who was not stopped; instead they may attempt to use statistics to show that the ISP treated them differently than other motorists who were similarly situated. While it is true that statistics alone rarely state a violation of equal protection--indeed, only in the Title VII or jury venire context is this possible, as discussed infra--they can be sufficient to establish discriminatory effect. 85