Opinion ID: 726710
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Direct Bias Theory

Text: 43 With respect to the claim of direct bias in the permanent hiring process, there are two questions we must answer: 1) Is there an issue of material fact whether Blessing was hired for the permanent position directly because of his political affiliation? 2) Is summary judgment warranted, in any event, because the defendants have demonstrated that Tarpley would not have been awarded the position even in the absence of political considerations? 44 Tarpley argues that there is sufficient evidence of bias in the interview process for the permanent job to raise a triable question whether Blessing was intentionally selected because of his political affiliation. As we have already described, the evidence of the difference in interview scores between Tarpley and Blessing is certainly sufficient to raise a plausible inference of bias. The difficulty for Tarpley is that he has presented no direct evidence that this bias was politically motivated, rather than being motivated by favoritism of some other sort. 45 Indeed, the interviewers, Pigg and Schroyer, have presented affidavits affirming that they did not take political affiliation into account in their decisionmaking process. Contrary to these assertions, however, is the fact that there was an announced state policy of appointing temporary workers through political channels. It may be a reasonable inference that, as supervisors, Pigg and Schroyer at the very least knew that Blessing was not originally chosen through any merit-based selection process. These points raise sufficient doubt as to the credibility of Pigg's and Schroyer's attestations of ignorance concerning Blessing's political credentials that we could not uphold summary judgment on the question of motivating factor. 46 Be that as it may, however, Tarpley has failed to rebut the defendants' evidence that other applicants, besides Blessing, were more qualified than he. Even if the interview process was biased in Blessing's favor, four other applicants for the position received higher scores than Tarpley's and, thus, would presumably have been preferred to Tarpley, even if Blessing had not been in the running for the position. 4 Tarpley has provided us with no information about these candidates which could support a jury finding that their scores were unjustified by their qualifications or that they were favored over Tarpley for political reasons. 5 47 Having seen the apparently tenuous relationship between Tarpley's and Blessing's interview scores and their responses to the interview questions, one might speculate that some of the other applicants' scores were not meaningful. Unfortunately for Tarpley, however, speculation does not provide grounds for reversing a grant of summary judgment. Tarpley has produced no evidence whatsoever to rebut the defendants' argument that, even if Blessing's scores were artificially raised, the superior scores of the other candidates demonstrate that Tarpley would not have been selected. Summary judgment was thus properly granted on this claim.