Court Opinion

ID: 9492988
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:54:49.767399+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:35.160703
License: Public Domain

LAY, Circuit Judge,
Dissenting.
I respectfully submit that the majority’s affirmance of the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (“Secretary”) is egregiously wrong. It is in direct opposition to the law announced by the Supreme Court of the United States.
This court cautioned in 1979 that the IPA forbids the “blind transference of general Civil Service principles” to Indian hiring. Oglala Sioux Tribe of Indians v. Andrus, 603 F.2d 707, 716 (8th Cir.1979). Only five years later, the Ninth Circuit stated that the IPA “requires the Secretary to adopt separate and independent standards for evaluating the qualifications of Indians for employment in the Indian Health Services .... ” Preston v. Heckler, 734 F.2d 1359, 1371 (9th Cir.1984). Additionally, the Preston court emphasized that “positions in the Indian Health Service are exempt from the civil service standards.” Id. at 1372. In 1986, responding to Preston, the Secretary promulgated the Indian Health Service’s Qualification Standards for Excepted Service (“1986 standards”). These standards expressly establish separate criteria for the employment of Indians in certain excepted service positions, including that of public health/community health nurse. Further, the 1986 standards preempt the general civil service qualification standards, known as the X-118 standards. At the time of Marilyn Dionne’s application for the public health nurse position, the 1986 standards were in effect and her application should have been evaluated under these standards, as well as the IPA.
Notwithstanding these legal precedents and the Secretary’s own 1986 standards, the Secretary unlawfully and deliberately applied the general civil service standards to Dionne’s application. In so doing, the Secretary determined that Dionne was only qualified for a GS-7 position because, under the general civil service standards, she lacked the required year of specialized service in public health nursing. Thus, in order to transfer into the new position and further her work within her tribal community, Dionne was required to accept a pay scale demotion.10
Today’s majority opinion compounds the Secretary’s unlawful action. The majority *711acknowledges that the Secretary’s use of the general civil service standards was unlawful; nevertheless, it accepts inadvertence as an excuse for such action and concludes that the Secretary’s conduct was “an honest mistake” rather than a subterfuge for discrimination. The majority’s reasoning is flawed.
A. Legitimate, Nondiscriminatory Reason
In Title VII cases, after a plaintiff establishes a prima facie case of discrimination,11 the burden of production shifts to the employer to articulate a “legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason” for the employment action. McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973) (emphasis added). Under this analysis, once a prima facie case is established, a presumption arises that the employer unlawfully discriminated against the employee. See Texas Dept. of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 254, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981). If the employer fails to rebut the presumption by meeting its burden, the plaintiff is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See St. Mary’s Honor Ctr. v. Hicks, 509 U.S. 502, 509, 113 S.Ct. 2742, 125 L.Ed.2d 407 (1993).
In Burdine, the Supreme Court stated, “the employee’s prima facie case of discrimination will be rebutted if the employer articulates lawful reasons for the action ....” Burdine, 450 U.S. at 257, 101 S.Ct. 1089 (emphasis added). Additionally, Black’s Law Dictionary defines the adjective “legitimate” as “[cjomplying with the law; lawful.” BLACK’S LAW DICTIONARY 912 (7th ed.1999). Thus, by usage and definition, an unlawful or illegal ground cannot serve to satisfy an employer’s burden of articulating a “legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason.”12 In this matter, after Dionne established her prima facie case, the Secretary’s proffered “legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason” for its action rested solely on the conclusion that she was not qualified for a higher grade under the general civil service qualification standards. The majority now concedes that the Secretary acted unlawfully in applying these standards; yet it allows such illegality to stand. Such a conclusion belies logic.
Additionally, the majority’s opinion overlooks what is perhaps the best known legal maxim — “ignorance of the law is no excuse.” While this maxim is one of general applicability, it must be applied more acutely to those who are presumed to know the law and are trusted to apply it. See Screws v. United States, 325 U.S. 91, 129, 65 S.Ct. 1031, 89 L.Ed. 1495 (1945) (Rutledge, J. concurring) (“[Ignorance of the law] is less an excuse for [individuals] whose special duty is to apply it, and therefore to know and observe it.”). In this case, the Secretary was charged by Congress to promulgate specific employment standards for Indians, which it did. The Secretary then failed to apply its own standards in the present case. If the time-tested maxim is to retain any vitality, it minimally must mean that knowledge of the IPA and of one’s own promulgated standards is to be imputed to the Secretary. Once such knowledge is properly *712attributed, it necessarily follows that the Secretary deliberately chose to ignore the law and applied unlawful criteria to Dionne’s application. Professing ignorance does not transform such a choice into inadvertence or an innocent mistake, and to allow such is to invert the legal maxim.
On the record before us, the Secretary failed to articulate a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for the employment decision; thus, Dionne’s prima facie case and its corresponding presumption remain un-rebutted. Consequently, the district court should have granted judgment as a matter of law in favor of Dionne. In failing to do so, the district court, and now this court, permit a governmental agency to escape liability under Title VII by pleading ignorance of its own rules, legislation, and of anti-discrimination laws. The IPA and the 1986 standards were designed to overcome the historically recognized negative effects of non-Indian control of Indian affairs and to facilitate the return of control to Indians. Title VII was designed, in part, to remedy race and national origin discrimination in employment. Today’s holding undermines each of these objectives by simultaneously acknowledging the applicability of the laws and standards while excusing their violation because of alleged ignorance. Such strained analysis surely must fail.
B. Pretext
Notwithstanding the above discussion, the majority accepts the Secretary’s assertion of Dionne’s lack of qualification as a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason and proceeds to analyze whether Dionne proved pretext under the third prong of McDonnell Douglas. Although I disagree for the reasons previously stated, for purposes of discussion I will assume that an unlawful, nondiscriminatory reason can suffice to carry the employer’s burden in a pretext case.
Here, the Secretary’s asserted nondiscriminatory reason was lack of qualification; it is undisputed, however, that the Secretary used unlawful standards in determining Dionne’s qualifications. Consequently, the alleged nondiscriminatory reason serves as evidence of pretext because the reason given was false and could not be the true reason for her lack of promotion.
As the Supreme Court observed in Hicks:
(1) the plaintiff must show “both that the reason was false, and that discrimination was the real reason,” and (2) “it is not enough ... to dis believe the employer.” Even though (as we say here) rejection of the defendant’s proffered reasons is enough at law to sustain a finding of discrimination, there must be a finding of discrimination.
Hicks, 509 U.S. at 511 n. 4, 113 S.Ct. 2742 (emphasis in original) (internal citations omitted).
The majority concedes in the closing lines of its opinion: “it is possible that a failure to apply the Indian preference standards could be motivated by discriminatory animus.” This being so, the Secretary’s motivation or intent is a question for the jury to decide. As it stands, two reasonable inferences can be drawn from the evidence: (1) the Secretary’s misapplication of the law was inadvertent or a mistake; or (2) the Secretary’s misapplication was motivated by discriminatory animus.
At the very least, the plaintiff has demonstrated, and this court now agrees, that the employer’s articulated reason was not the true reason and the trier of fact should then determine whether a mistake or discriminatory animus motivated the Secretary’s action. This is the typical pretext case. It seems highly plausible that plaintiffs counsel, through effective cross-examination of the Secretary, could expose the incredulity of a high ranking government official’s claim that he or she was not aware of the applicable laws or standards, and that failure to apply them was merely a good faith mistake. As the Burdine *713Court noted, “there may be some cases where the plaintiffs initial evidence, combined with effective cross-examination of the defendant, will suffice to discredit the defendant’s explanation.” Burdine, 450 U.S. at 255 n. 10, 101 S.Ct. 1089.
Under these circumstances, even if one assumes this is a pretext case, the inferences to be drawn from the Secretary’s claim should be drawn by a trier of fact and not the court. In all of the precedents of this court as well as those of the United States Supreme Court, where the employer’s articulated reason is shown to not be the true reason, then pretext is deemed to have been shown and the trier of fact must be given the opportunity to infer whether the given reason hides intentional discrimination. Therefore, I conclude, even under a pretext analysis, this case should not have been dismissed at the summary judgment stage.

. The Secretary’s grading decision was made despite Dionne's extensive nursing background. At the time of her transfer, Dionne was licensed as a registered nurse by the State of North Dakota, had years of experience in specialized services working as a clinical nurse at Belcourt Hospital, and had been promoted from a GS-7 to a GS-9 in that position. Significantly, her prior work consisted of extensive and diverse experience within her tribal community.

. The district court held, and the majority accepts, that Dionne established a prima facie case.

. This discussion of the inherent failure of unlawful reasons should not be taken out of context. In Hazen Paper Co. v. Biggins, 507 U.S. 604, 612, 113 S.Ct. 1701, 123 L.Ed.2d 338 (1993), the Supreme Court stated "it cannot be true that an employer who fires an older black worker because the worker is black thereby violates the ADEA. The employee's race is an improper reason, but it is improper under Title VII, not the ADEA.” Thus, the Court has noted that articulation of an illegal but true reason, unrelated to the claim at issue, may satisfy an employer’s burden. However, the discussion in Hazen stands in contrast to the instant facts. Here the articulated reason was lack of qualification under the X-118 standards. The very application of such standards directly violates laws designed to give preferential treatment to Native Americans in employment. Such illegality is intricately related to the Title VII claim at stake.