07-2052 Lewis v. City of Chicago

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Employment
Disparate impact

Where a city hired firefighters on numerous occasions from randomly selected applicants from the “well-qualified” pool, each round of hiring creates the same disparate impact.

“If the City had hired in rank order, as many civil-service employers do, things would have been different. Suppose applicants who got 100 had been hired in May 1996, those who got 99 four months later, those with scores of 98 four months after that, and so on. Then it would have been essential for plaintiffs and the district court to evaluate each use of the list separately. For it is possible that some of these uses would not have produced a disparate impact—and, if any given band of scores had an adverse effect on minority applicants, it might have been easier for the employer to justify the practice. Perhaps it would have been ‘consistent with business necessity’ to hire those who scored 100 ahead of those who scored 85, even if it was not necessary to hire those who scored 90 ahead of those who scored 88. But Chicago did not hire new firefighters in rank order. Everyone who scored 89 and up was treated alike; everyone who scored 65 to 88 was treated alike. The City conceded that this difference created a disparate impact. The district judge found that the cutoff at 89 was not justified, and the City did not appeal that conclusion. The City’s concession plus the district court’s uncontested findings establish all that is required for the plaintiffs to prevail on the merits.”

Affirmed.

07-2052 Lewis v. City of Chicago

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Gottschall, J., Easterbrook, J.

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