Employment — race discrimination

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Employment — race discrimination

Employees who made mistakes and were not fired, but did not engage in intentional rule violations, are not similarly situated employees.

“Harris has identified several white deputies who had performance problems but were not terminated. But none of them violated standard operating procedures, disobeyed direct orders, or showed a lack of commitment to the job during their probationary periods. So they cannot be considered similarly situated to Harris. In other cases in which a minority plaintiff had some shortcomings in common with a better-treated nonminority employee but was terminated for additional, distinct performance problems, we have found the comparator employee not similarly situated. See, e.g., Burks v. Wis. Dep’t of Transp., 464 F.3d 744, 751 (7th Cir. 2006). Moreover, there are material distinctions between Harris’s misconduct and the performance problems exhibited by the white deputies. Cf. Humphries, 474 F.3d at 406 (where the comparator left a company safe unlocked during the day and plaintiff left it unlocked at night, the distinction between the two is merely ‘formalistic’). Harris was fired for insubordination and a lack of commitment, not just subpar performance; the other deputies made errors but did not disobey direct orders or manifest a cavalier attitude toward the job.”

Affirmed.

10-3706 Harris v. Warrick County Sheriff’s Department

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Young, J., Sykes, J.