On Friday, the Seventh Circuit issued a decision that may affect how employment discrimination cases are argued, and will affect how District Courts within the Circuit analyze claims. In Ortiz v. Werner Enterprises, Inc., Judge Easterbrook, with Posner and Hamilton, informed us (and the District Courts) on the following points:
(1) Because it feels that district courts (and even some of its own panels) have misunderstood what "convincing mosaic" means, it is jettisoning the term. The court overruled all of its prior decisions to the extent they use "convincing mosaic" as a legal test and is directing all district courts to no longer use it as a test. Any district court that does is subject to summary reversal.
(2) It is attempting to jettison the direct vs indirect distinction and is ordering district courts to no longer separate the two as if they were different legal standards. Key language:
"Accordingly, we hold that district courts must stop separating 'direct' from 'indirect' evidence and proceeding as if they were subject to different legal standards. Once again, this court must accept its share of the responsibility . . . We need to bring harmony to circuit law, and the way to do that is to overrule [a bunch of cases] to the extent that these opinions insist on the use of the direct-and-indirect framework." You can find these comments and more, some interesting and important reading, at:
http://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/rssExec.pl?Submit=Display&Path=Y2016/D08-19/C:15-2574:J:Easterbrook:aut:T:fnOp:N:1814179:S:0