Court Opinion

ID: 9497250
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:46:50.335492+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:05.120663
License: Public Domain

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I join the judgment of the court and the majority opinion with the exception of the dicta in the last paragraph that suggests, quite gratuitously, that a tension exists between this court’s opinion in Hilton v. City of Wheeling, 209 F.3d 1005 (7th Cir.2000), and its opinions in Nevel v. Village of Schaumburg, 297 F.3d 673 (7th Cir.2002), and Albiero v. City of Kankakee, 246 F.3d 927 (7th Cir.2001).
The majority opinion implies that Hilton, requiring proof of animus toward the plaintiff (rather than simple proof that the defendant intentionally treated the plaintiff differently from others similarly situated without rational basis for doing so), is the stronger “class of one” analysis. However, in Village of Willowbrook v. Olech, 528 U.S. 562, 120 S.Ct. 1073, 145 L.Ed.2d 1060 (2000) (per curiam), the Supreme Court stated: “Our cases have recognized successful equal protection claims brought by a ‘class of one,’ where the plaintiff alleges that she has been intentionally treated differently from others similarly situated and that there is no rational basis for the difference in treatment.” Id. at 564, 120 S.Ct. 1073 (citing cases). Nevel and Albiero track explicitly the Supreme Court’s holding and are wholly consistent with its rationale. Notably, the Supreme Court explicitly declined to address the “alternative theory of ‘subjective ill will’ ” that the majority now implies is the correct rule. Id. at 565, 120 S.Ct. 1073.
By incorporating the language of Village of Willowbrook, Nevel and Albiero provide a sound framework that is entirely faithful to the controlling precedent of the Supreme Court. Moreover, in Albiero, the court, citing cases older than Hilton, further acknowledged that our circuit has permitted a cause of action to stand when the plaintiff alleges that ill will caused the unequal treatment of individuals who are prima facie identical. See Albiero, 246 F.3d at 932. This approach, characterized as an alternate theory by the Supreme Court in Village of Willowbrook, has yet to receive the Supreme Court’s blessing.1 *714Indeed, in the final analysis, this latter formulation may be simply a salutary method of establishing proof of discriminatory intent, an established prerequisite of an equal protection violation. See McDonald v. Village of Winnetka, 371 F.3d 992, 1002 n. 3 (7th Cir.2004). Thus, the suggestion of “tension,” along with the suggestion that Nevel and Albiero deviate from established national law, is unnecessary and inaccurate.
In all other respects, I am pleased to join the judgment and opinion of the court.

. "These allegations, quite apart from the Village’s subjective motivation, are sufficient to state a claim for relief under traditional equal protection analysis. We therefore affirm the *714judgment of the Court of Appeals, but do not reach the alternative theory of 'subjective ill will’ relied on by that court.” Village of Willowbrook v. Olech, 528 U.S. 562, 565, 120 S.Ct. 1073, 145 L.Ed.2d 1060 (2000); see Bell v. Duperrault, 367 F.3d 703, 711 (7th Cir. 2004) (Posner, J., concurring) (acknowledging that, given the Supreme Court’s holding in Village of Willowbrook, insistence on subjective ill will as the free-standing test "may be fighting a doomed rearguard action").