Court Opinion

ID: 9474736
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:07:22.997681+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:18.361252
License: Public Domain

WALD, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the panel’s judgment and opinion with the exception of its discussion of plaintiffs’ prima facie case. See Maj.Op. at 786-88. Defendants have not questioned the adequacy of plaintiffs’ prima facie case on appeal, and an appellate court normally does not concern itself with whether a prima facie case has been made once a Title VII case has gone through a trial on the merits. The McDonnell Douglas-Burdine presumptions drop out of the case once defendants have failed to prevail on a motion to dismiss at the close of plaintiff’s case and have presented their reasons for the allegedly discriminatory action. United States Postal Service Board of Governors v. Aikens, 460 U.S. 711, 714-15, 103 S.Ct. 1478, 1481-82, 75 L.Ed.2d 403 (1983).1 Even if this were one of the rare instances where post-trial consideration of the prima facie case was necessary, see Cuddy v. Carmen, 762 F.2d 119,124 & n. 6 (D.C.Cir.1985), I believe the majority errs when it admonishes the District Court for “unwarranted difficulty” in finding a prima facie case. Maj.Op. at 787.
Nonminority Title VII plaintiffs, such as the ones here, must make the additional showing in their prima facie case that “ ‘background circumstances support the suspicion that the defendant is the unusual employer who discriminates against the majority’.” Lanphear v. Prokop, 703 F.2d 1311, 1315 (D.C.Cir.1983) (footnote omitted). The majority finds that such a showing was made because the Fire Chief and Mayor were black, an affirmative action plan was being drafted and there was some additional evidence of political pressure to promote Lewis because of his race. The first factor alone cannot support a finding of sufficient background circumstances, as the majority concedes. Maj.Op. at 787; Plummer v. Bolger, 559 F.Supp. 324, 329 (D.D.C.), aff'd without opinion, 721 F.2d 1424 (D.C.Cir.1983). I question as well the weight of the other two grounds on which the majority primarily relies for its conclusion that plaintiffs presented a “strong af*791firmative” prima facie case of discrimination. Maj.Op. at 786.
This court has squarely stated that “a lawful affirmative action program [cannot] in itself constitute suspicious circumstances sufficient to justify an inference of discriminatory intent under McDonnell Douglas.” Parker v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 652 F.2d 1012, 1017 n. 9 (D.C.Cir.1981). We have, however, on occasion permitted consideration of a proposed plan as evidence of political pressure to discriminate. Lan-phear, 703 F.2d at 1315. Like the race of the hiring official, however, a proposed plan should not be viewed as strong evidence of discrimination. Cf. Maj.Op. at 787. Indeed, it is counter-intuitive to do so. Routinely treating proposed affirmative action plans as evidence of discrimination poses a real risk of discouraging the consideration or adoption of lawful affirmative action programs. As the Seventh Circuit explained in adopting this court’s reasoning in Parker, “[n]ational policy permits the use of voluntary affirmative action programs to remedy the legacy of discrimination. For the courts to discourage the use of such programs by treating them as evidence in themselves of the very discrimination they are designed to eradicate would be improper.” Christensen v. Equitable Life Assurance Society, 767 F.2d 340, 343 (7th Cir.1985), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 106 S.Ct. 885, 88 L.Ed.2d 920 (1986). At best, therefore, the affirmative action plan under consideration at the fire department should be viewed as the weakest sort of evidence of political pressure to discriminate.
I further disagree with the majority about the strength of the additional evidence of political pressure in the form of testimony by plaintiff Breen that Chief, Johnson had told him that he, Johnson, was under pressure to promote Lewis because of his race. Maj.Op. at 787-88. The District Court rejected Breen’s testimony for several reasons. Only one — that Chief Johnson flatly denied making the statement — was clearly erroneous. I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that the District Court declined to credit Breen’s testimony primarily because of that erroneous finding. The District Court actually cited three other reasons for failing to credit Breen’s testimony of political pressure: (1) it was uncorroborated; (2) it was made for the first time at trial, with no explanation of why it was not mentioned to the EEOC; and (3) it was inconsistent with his statement that he first learned of the Lewis promotion through the newspapers. Bishopp v. District of Columbia, 602 F.Supp. 1401, 1408-09 (D.D.C.1985). As the majority acknowledges, Maj.Op. at 787, a district court may legitimately refuse to credit uncorroborated testimony by an interested witness, Guzman v. Pichirilo, 369 U.S. 698, 702, 82 S.Ct. 1095, 1097, 8 L.Ed.2d 205 (1962), and the Supreme Court has recently cautioned that a district court’s credibility determination “can virtually never be clear error,” Anderson v. City of Bessemer City, North Carolina, — U.S.-, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 1513, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985). Given the deference due to district court credibility determinations under Anderson, I find it appropriate to read the District Court’s opinion as rejecting Breen’s testimony even in the absence of countervailing testimony by Chief Johnson.
Thus, the only evidence of “background circumstances” is the fact that the Mayor and the Fire Chief were black and that a draft affirmative action plan was in the works, both of which are weak evidence and neither of which could alone support a finding of suspicious background circumstances. In finding that a prima facie case had been made out, the District Court relied heavily on the defendants’ concession that plaintiffs were qualified and belonged to a protected group. 602 F.Supp. at 1406; see Transcript at 368. Although defendants briefly argued the lack of “background circumstances” in their motion to dismiss, Transcript at 370-72, they never challenged the use of the affirmative action plan as evidence in that motion, their post-trial filings, or before this court. Thus, I agree with the District Court that the defendants’ concession that background circumstances existed is really all that raises *792plaintiffs’ relatively weak evidence of discrimination to the level of a prima facie case. I therefore decline to concur in the majority’s dicta about the strength of plaintiffs’ prima facie case.
I concur in the judgment, however, because I agree that the pretextual nature of the defendants’ “nondiscriminatory” justification is clear and that the overall record supports a verdict for the plaintiffs. I feel it necessary, however, to point out my doubts about the alleged “strength” of prima facie case based in large part on an affirmative action proposal and the race of the hiring officials because of my concern that, in future cases where these issues are raised, prima facie showings of a similarly weak nature will be upheld or, worse still, characterized as strong.

. The majority correctly notes that evidence introduced as part of the prima facie case can be considered after the presumptions drop out in order to assess whether discrimination has been shown on the record as a whole. Texas Dep’t of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 255 n. 10, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 1095 n. 10, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981). But there is nothing in Burdine to suggest that, at the end of the case, that evidence needs to be reassessed to see whether a prima facie case was made out. Burdine says quite the contrary. The only function I see in the majority's evaluation of the evidence in terms of prima facie standards is to lay down guidelines for future plaintiffs in reverse discrimination Title VII suits, a function I consider to be inappropriate and unnecessary in this appeal.