Court Opinion

ID: 9635627
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:56:59.833606+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:31.166085
License: Public Domain

COLLOTON, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the judgment.
I would affirm the judgment for the reasons stated by the district court in its thorough 53-page opinion. Qamhiyah v. Iowa State University, No. 4:06-cv-00187, R. Doc. 50, Ruling on Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment (June 27, 2008). I therefore find it unnecessary to “assum[e] that discrimination existed at lower-levels of [Qamhiyah’s] review,” ante, at 745, and to address what would be difficult issues of causation raised by that assumption on this record. See J.A. 304 (letter of Provost Allen, accepting reasons for decision given by Dr. Vance and Dean Kushner), Appellant’s Br. 18-19 (alleging direct evidence of discriminatory motive of Dr. Vance); J.A. 229 (memorandum from Dean Kushner giving as a “main reason” for denial of tenure that a “compelling justification” should be required to reverse the recommendations of the department chair and lower-level review committees). Cf. Okruhlik v. Univ. of Arkansas, 395 F.3d 872, 880 (8th Cir.2005) (stating in dicta that a jury in a tenure case “may reasonably conclude that an evaluation at any level, if based on discrimination, influenced the decisionmaking process and thus allowed discrimination to infect the ultimate decision”) (internal quotation omitted).