Opinion ID: 3010074
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The second analytical difficulty concerns the

Text: ability of a plaintiff to survive summary judgment or judgment as a matter of law by combining the evidence that necessarily remains after the McDonnell Douglas presumption has burst and sufficient evidence of pretext has been offered (the facts underlying the prima facie case and the inferences that logically flow from the rejection of the employer's explanation) with any other direct and circumstantial evidence of discrimination that the plaintiff may be able to find. Under Fuentes, a plaintiff may defeat summary judgment or judgment as a matter of law by either (i) discrediting the proffered reasons, either circumstantially or directly, or (ii) adducing evidence, whether circumstantial or direct, that discrimination was more likely than not a motivating or determinative cause of the adverse employment action. Fuentes, 32 F.3d at 764 (emphasis in original). Why can't a plaintiff potentially satisfy his or her burden by combining some evidence from each of these categories? For example, if a plaintiff can almost, but not quite, show enough weaknesses, implausibilities, inconsistencies, incoherencies, or contradictions in the employer's proffered legitimate reasons to come within the first part of this test, id. at 765, why can't the plaintiff make it over the hump by adding a bit of evidence from the second part, i.e., other direct or circumstantial evidence of discrimination? Fuentes doesn't explain, and I don't think that any good explanation is possible. In sum, I submit that the majority's test is both wrong and unwieldy and that the correct test is simply whether a rational trier of fact could find, based on the record, that discrimination on the ground alleged was a determinative cause of the challenged employment action.