Opinion ID: 2470930
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Necessity and Make-Whole Relief

Text: Next, the district court must determine whether the City Defendants had a strong basis in evidence that their race- and gender-conscious actions were necessary to avoid disparate impact liability. See Ricci, 129 S.Ct. at 2677; supra Part V.A.2. As we have explained, that means the City Defendants must have had, at the time they took their race- and gender-conscious actions, a strong basis in evidence that each Offeree was an actual victim of discrimination who received no more than make-whole relief, i.e., a strong basis in evidence that, in such a disparate impact suit, he or she would have been entitled to receive, by a court order pursuant to § 706(g) of Title VII, the race- or sex-conscious relief that he or she received from the City Defendants through the voluntary settlement agreement. The district court's decision as to job-relatedness and less discriminatory alternatives will affect this step in several important ways. First, if there was no strong basis in evidence that any of the challenged testing and recruiting practices were either not job-related or that there was a less discriminatory alternative to them, then the district court need not make any determinations as to particular Offerees. [64] The Brennan Plaintiffs would then have successfully shown that implementation of the settlement agreement as a whole made the City Defendants liable for reverse discrimination, under § 703(a) of Title VII. That is so because an employer cannot have a strong basis in evidence that anyone is a victim of discrimination if there is no strong basis in evidence that discrimination has occurred. Second, and for the same reason, if the City Defendants can show a strong basis in evidence of non-job-relatedness or of a less discriminatory alternative as to one or more of the challenged employment practices, but not as to others, then the City Defendants have violated § 703(a) to the extent they have given relief to Offerees for whom there was no strong basis in evidence that such Offerees were victims of the practice or practices for which there was a strong basis in evidence of non-job-relatedness or of a less discriminatory alternative. For example, if the City Defendants had a strong basis in evidence that their tests were not job-related, but they lacked a strong basis in evidence that their recruiting practices were neither job-related nor that there existed a less discriminatory alternative to these recruiting practices (or could not make out a prima facie/ strong-basis-in-evidence of a prima facie showing of recruiting discrimination), then the City Defendants would, for each Offeree, have to show a strong basis in evidence that that Offeree was a victim of testing discrimination. Essentially, the City Defendants would be required to show a strong basis in evidence that the Offeree took the test, or that the Offeree could successfully have undertake[n] [his or her] difficult task of proving that [he or she] should be treated as [an] applicant[ ] and therefore [is] presumptively entitled to relief accordingly under § 706(g). See Teamsters, 431 U.S. at 364, 97 S.Ct. 1843. [65] Third, if the district court does find a strong basis in evidence of disparate-impact liability, the appropriate extent of relief the City Defendants could have given each Offeree without violating § 703(a) turns on which theorynon-job-relatedness or a less discriminatory alternative supports the district court's determination. If the Government successfully shows on remand, as it hopes to, that there was a strong basis in evidence that the provisional hiring process was a less discriminatory alternative to a particular hiring practice, then it follows that any Offeree, as to whom there is a strong basis in evidence that the Offeree was a victim of that particular discriminatory practice, properly received retroactive seniority to his or her provisional hiring date. For if an Offeree was hired under the provisional hiring process and that process was a less discriminatory alternative, then there is a strong basis in evidence that that Offeree would have received a permanent appointment if the City Defendants had used the less discriminatory alternative instead. Alternatively, if there was a strong basis in evidence that an employment practice that had a disparate impact discriminated only because it was not job-related, it becomes much more difficult for the district court to determine how much retroactive seniority the City Defendants could properly give each Offeree without violating § 703(a). Suppose, for example, that the challenged tests were discriminatory; it is nigh-impossible to tell exactly when (if at all) an Offeree would have been hired if the test had not been discriminatory. In that hypothetical world, some Offerees might have passed with flying colors and would then have been the first to be hired from the eligibility lists; others might have found themselves in the middle of the eligibility lists; and still others might still have failed, or might have passed with such a low score that they would have been placed near the bottom of the eligibility lists, where they probably would never have been hired. And, those who passed a test might have been rejected at the interview stage (which is not here being challenged as discriminatory), once or twice, thus having their employment delayed; or three times, resulting in removal from the eligibility list. Finally, they might have failed the experience papers stage, and then they might or might not have succeeded in having that decision overturned on administrative appeal. To say the least, [t]he task remaining for the District Court on remand will not be a simple one. Teamsters, 431 U.S. at 371, 97 S.Ct. 1843. Th[e] process of recreating the past will necessarily involve a degree of approximation and imprecision. Id. at 372, 97 S.Ct. 1843. Recreating the past is difficult in the § 706(g) context addressed in Teamsters. It is even more difficult when an employer undertakes voluntary remedial action that is challenged under Ricci and § 703(a). In the § 706(g) context, a court necessarily has already found an actual violation of Title VII. See id. at 361-62, 97 S.Ct. 1843. All the court has then to do is to determine who is an actual victim of that discrimination, and `recreate the conditions and relationships that would have been had there been no' unlawful discrimination, id. at 372, 97 S.Ct. 1843 (quoting Franks, 424 U.S. at 769, 96 S.Ct. 1251). That process is not easy, because there may be more victims of discrimination than there are vacancies that were discriminatorily refused to them, and their interests must be balanced against the legitimate expectations of other employees innocent of any wrongdoing. Id. But when an employer undertakes voluntary action to remedy an unintentional disparate impact, the employer has not proven, and does not need to prove, that it has actually violated Title VII. Ricci, 129 S.Ct. at 2674. Instead, the employer must have a strong basis in evidence that it would be liable in a disparate-impact suit unless it took the race- or gender-conscious action. See id. at 2675-76. Once an employer has a strong basis in evidence that it faces disparate-impact liability, the employer must also undertake a recreation of the past that is supported by a strong basis in evidence. Where, as here, incumbent employees subsequently bring a § 703(a) challenge to the employer's race- or gender-conscious action, the court must determine whether there really was a strong basis in evidence to support the employer's recreation of the past. [66] That is a very difficult project indeed. It is one that only a district court can undertake, and whose difficulty should serve to caution any appellate court attempting to review the district court's conclusions.