Opinion ID: 613990
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Plaintiff's Disparate Impact Claim

Text: Plaintiff's disparate impact claim also fails. He argues that the one-strike rule disparately affects recovering drug addicts by eliminating anyone who previously tested positive for drug use. But he offers only the bald assertion that this result must be so. We disagree because, as we have noted, the rule does not necessarily screen out recovering drug addicts disproportionately. A. Initially, we observe that Plaintiff has litigated his disparate impact claim from start to finish on the familiar theory taken from discrimination claims brought under Title VII, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e to 2000e-4. In Plaintiff's opposition to Defendant's motion for summary judgment, for example, he told the district court that, [i]n order to state a prima facie case of disparate impact discrimination, the Plaintiff must show that employment practices that are facially neutral fall more harshly on one group than another and cannot be justified by business necessity. He cited two Title VII cases, Watson v. Fort Worth Bank & Trust, 487 U.S. 977, 108 S.Ct. 2777, 101 L.Ed.2d 827 (1988), and Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424, 91 S.Ct. 849, 28 L.Ed.2d 158 (1971). His opening brief to us restated the same principle, again citing Watson as controlling precedent. The district court concluded from that argument that Plaintiff intended to prove his disparate impact claim through the usual method of proving disparate impact as set out in Title VII cases. We did, too. In a petition for rehearing filed after our original opinion issued, however, Plaintiff changed his theory. With support from several amici curiae, [2] Plaintiff now argues that we erred by using Title VII cases to guide our analysis, because disparate impact claims under the ADA require a different approach. Specifically, § 12112(b)(6) of the ADA makes unlawful any selection criteria that screen out or tend to screen out an individual with a disability or a class of individuals with disabilities unless ... consistent with business necessity. Applying § 12112(b)(6) here, Plaintiff argues, he need not make a formal statistical showing of a disparate impact because the one-strike rule tends to screen out recovered drug addicts, whether it does so in fact or not. Plaintiff plainly waived his new theory, and we therefore do not address it on the merits. [3] To allow Plaintiff to make this argument now, after the case has been litigated, appealed, briefed, submitted, and decided, would deprive us of the assistance of our colleague below and would deprive Defendant of the opportunity to meet Plaintiff's new argument in the proper course. For those reasons, we adhere to the twin requirements that a litigant must argue clearly all of his theories of relief, both in the district court and in his opening brief, to preserve those theories on appeal. Alameda Books, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles, 631 F.3d 1031, 1044 (9th Cir. 2011); United States v. City of Arcata, 629 F.3d 986, 992 (9th Cir.2010). Because Plaintiff failed to raise this new argument in either of those places, he has waived it. We emphasize that we express no view on what application, if any, § 12112(b)(6) would have to the facts of this case. That question is not before us. B. To create a genuine issue of fact under the theory that Plaintiff chose to pursue, Plaintiff must have produced evidence from which a fact-finder reasonably could conclude that the one-strike rule results in fewer recovered drug addicts in Defendant's employ, as compared to the number of qualified recovered drug addicts in the relevant labor market. See Hazelwood Sch. Dist. v. United States, 433 U.S. 299, 308, 97 S.Ct. 2736, 53 L.Ed.2d 768 (1977) (comparing the racial composition of the employer's work force to the racial composition of the qualified work force in the relevant labor market). The record contains neither statistical nor anecdotal evidence to that effect. Plaintiff did present to the district court an affidavit from a forensic economist. The economist concluded that Plaintiff had a viable disparate impact claim [4] because, after [c]omparing the selection rate of the whole population [of longshore worker applicants] (48%) versus the population of the `protected group' (0%), she found it evident that [the one-strike rule] is in violation of the 80% Rule. See 29 C.F.R. § 1607.4(D) (A selection rate for any race, sex, or ethnic group which is less than [80%] of the rate for the group with the highest rate will generally be regarded by the Federal enforcement agencies as evidence of adverse impact, while a greater than [80%] rate will generally not be regarded by Federal enforcement agencies as evidence of adverse impact.). Although the economist did not define the protected group, she appears to have made the same mistake as Plaintiff. The correctly defined protected group for purposes of the ADA and the FEHA is recovered drug addicts. It does not matter whether such individuals applied to Defendant previously. If the number of recovered addicts in Defendant's workforce roughly reflects the number of recovered addicts in the relevant labor market, then Defendant has not broken the law under Plaintiff's theory. By defining the protected group as the number of recovered drug addicts who previously applied to Defendant and were rejected because they failed a drug test, Plaintiff and his expert assume their own conclusion. Although Defendant will never hire those people and thus their selection rate always will be zero, we still do not know how many recovered drug addicts Defendant hires versus how many recovered drug addicts it turns away, nor do we know how many of those turned away are not drug addicts, recovering or otherwise. Plaintiff complains that our standard places an unfair burden on him because he has no way to know how many recovering or recovered drug addicts Defendant has disqualified. Neither can he determine the proportion of recovering or recovered drug addicts in the relevant labor market because, he argues, state law prevents him from inquiring into a person's history of drug abuse. We recognize the challenge involved in bringing a disparate impact claim of this kind, but both logic and precedent require him to produce some evidence that tends to show that the one-strike rule excludes recovering or recovered drug addicts disproportionately. Plaintiff introduced no such evidence. At the summary judgment stage, a party no longer can rely on allegations alone, however plausible they may be. Berger v. City of Seattle, 569 F.3d 1029, 1077-78 (9th Cir.2009) (en banc). Because the record contains no evidence supporting an essential element of Plaintiff's disparate impact claim, we must affirm the summary judgment on that claim.