Lopez v. Massachusetts

Decision Date03 December 2009
Docket NumberNo. 09-1664.,09-1664.
Citation588 F.3d 69
PartiesPedro LOPEZ, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. Commonwealth of MASSACHUSETTS, et al., Defendants, Appellants.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Sookyoung Shin, Assistant Attorney General, and Robert L. Quinan, Jr., Assistant Attorney General, with whom Martha Coakley, Attorney General of Massachusetts, was on brief for appellants.

Harold Lichten, with whom Leah Berrault and Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C. were on brief for appellees.

Before LYNCH, Chief Judge, TORRUELLA and HOWARD, Circuit Judges.

LYNCH, Chief Judge.

Plaintiffs, minority police officers, have brought a disparate impact race claim under Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(k)(1)(A)(i), against a state agency that prepares and administers promotional examinations for local police officers under the state civil service system. The Title VII claim depends on the state being the "employer" of the officers.

Plaintiffs have also sued their direct employers, various cities and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), as the appointing authorities who make the police promotions decisions. Plaintiffs make the same claim against the state agency and the appointing authorities: that the state promotions examinations have an impermissible disparate impact on minority candidates. They seek the same relief against both sets of defendants. Massachusetts and its agency, the Human Resources Division (HRD), deny they are an "employer" as that term is used in Title VII. They say that the Eleventh Amendment therefore immunizes them from suit because Congress has not clearly expressed any intention to abrogate Eleventh Amendment immunity when the state functions as it did here.

This case comes before us as an interlocutory appeal from the district court's denial of Eleventh Amendment immunity for the state defendants, the state of Massachusetts and Paul Dietl, who was sued in his official capacity as the Chief Human Resources Officer of HRD. The city defendants and the MBTA are not parties to the present appeal.

We have jurisdiction over this interlocutory appeal, and we hold that the state defendants do not qualify as "employers" as that term is used in Title VII. Because the state defendants are not "employers" under Title VII, we need not reach the constitutional questions that would arise if the Title VII term "employer" encompassed the state's activities here.

Our holding that the state defendants are not plaintiffs' "employers" for purposes of Title VII means that we dismiss plaintiffs' suit only against these defendants. Plaintiffs' claims against the city defendants and the MBTA will still proceed. Our holding in no way evaluates the merits of these defendants' conduct towards the plaintiffs.

We also wish to be clear there is no claim made that either the state defendants or the city defendants and the MBTA have engaged in any form of intentional discrimination in violation of the Equal Protection Clause. If that were the case, such conduct could be reached by suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

I. Procedural History

This appeal is one small piece of much broader litigation. Plaintiffs are African-American and Hispanic police officers employed by the cities of Boston, Lawrence, Lowell, Methuen, Springfield, and Worcester, or by the MBTA, who did not achieve the promotions to police sergeant they sought. In 2007, they brought suit under Title VII against two classes of defendants: the state defendants, which included Massachusetts and Dietl, and the MBTA and the cities for whom the plaintiffs work.

Plaintiffs sued the state defendants on the theory that the 2005, 2006, and 2007 promotional exams for police sergeant administered by HRD, a state agency, had a disparate impact on the promotion of minorities by the MBTA and the city defendants and had no job-related purpose. HRD, on plaintiffs' theory, violated Title VII and was responsible for the dearth of minority promotions in the MBTA and the cities specified in the complaint.1 Plaintiffs sought identical remedies against their direct employers and the state: declaratory and injunctive relief to remedy the effects of past discrimination resulting from these examinations. They also claimed compensatory damages, including back pay, along with attorney's fees, against both sets of defendants.

After extensive discovery, on January 26, 2009, the state defendants filed a motion to dismiss, or for summary judgment in the alternative, on the grounds that they were immune from suit on all claims under the Eleventh Amendment. They argued that Title VII abrogates states' Eleventh Amendment immunity only when states function as "employers" as that term is used in Title VII. Because, they asserted, HRD is not plaintiffs' Title VII "employer" on the facts here, they remain immune from suit. They further argued that HRD's relationship to the plaintiffs cannot be construed as an employment relationship because such an interpretation of Title VII would flout congressional intent. The individual state official also contended the Eleventh Amendment protects him from suits for damages in his official capacity. The state defendants added that plaintiffs cannot use the doctrine of Ex Parte Young to obtain an injunction against the official for an ongoing violation of federal law because the state is not an employer for purposes of Title VII.

In a one-line order issued on April 6, 2009, the district court denied the state defendants' motion to dismiss and for summary judgment. Lopez v. City of Lawrence, No. 07-11693-JLT, at 1 (D.Mass. Apr. 6, 2009). On May 4, 2009, the state defendants filed an interlocutory appeal of the district court's denial of Eleventh Amendment immunity. On May 13, 2009, the district court ordered proceedings before it stayed until this court resolves the appeal. Lopez v. City of Lawrence, No. 07-11693-JLT, at 1 (D.Mass. May 13, 2009).

II. Factual Background

We describe the material facts, as to which there is no dispute. Indeed, the material facts are established by state civil service law and related administrative regulations, and by the parties' stipulations.

Whether the state, acting in the capacity alleged, acts as an "employer" within the meaning of Title VII turns upon HRD's role in the promotion of municipal police officers and its role in other aspects of plaintiffs' employment by the municipal defendants.

HRD's relationship with municipalities in the areas of police hiring and promotions have been discussed in many civil rights cases brought under various theories.2 None of these cases raised or resolved the issue of whether the state was an "employer" of municipal police officers within the meaning of Title VII.

A. The Relationship between HRD and Cities, Towns, and the MBTA under Massachusetts Civil Service Law

Under Massachusetts law, plaintiffs' positions as city and MBTA police officers are subject to the state civil service law.3 See Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 31, § 48 (applying the civil service law to positions in the MBTA); id. § 51 (applying the civil service law to civil service offices in cities).

The state civil service law states that the purpose of its requirements is to ensure that employees in civil service positions are recruited, chosen, and promoted based on principles of merit, not on political affiliation, race, age, gender, religion, national origin, or other factors unrelated to individual ability. Id. § 1. "[T]he fundamental purposes of the civil service system [are] to guard against political considerations, favoritism, and bias in governmental employment decisions ... and to protect efficient public employees from political control." Cambridge v. Civil Serv. Comm'n, 43 Mass.App.Ct. 300, 682 N.E.2d 923 (1997).

This law also defines the relationship between the state agencies which administer the civil service system and cities, towns, and entities like the MBTA. The defendant cities function as "appointing authorit[ies]" under this law: they have "power to appoint or employ personnel in civil service positions." Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 31, § 1. The state civil service law governs all positions in all cities, including positions on a city police force.4 As "appointing authorities," cities enjoy considerable discretion under the law to choose the system they will use to evaluate candidates for police promotions, to determine the criteria for selection, and to make the ultimate selection for a vacant position, as we discuss below.

State entities, of course, can also be "appointing authorities" for state employees. However, the state civil service law uses different language to describe the personnel these state entities appoint or employ. These personnel are within the "official service" of the Commonwealth or its "labor service," a distinction that turns upon whether the position is selected through registration or competitive examination. Id. § 1. Examples of positions in the service of the Commonwealth include positions in the state's department of highways, the department of revenue, the department of environmental management, and in the department of public welfare. Id. § 48. The law explicitly distinguishes these personnel from city police, who are not in the service of the Commonwealth. Instead, by statute, city police occupy "[o]ffices and positions in the service of cities and towns," id., and they are subject to the state civil service law based on separate, significantly different sections of the law, id.; see also id. §§ 51-53.

HRD, in comparison, is a state agency with statutorily prescribed duties with respect to the administration of the state civil service system, including the preparation and administration of certain competitive promotions examinations. The civil service law identifies HRD as the "[a]dministrator," meaning "the personnel administrator of the human resources division," as distinct from an "appointing authority" with the "power to...

To continue reading

Request your trial
57 cases
  • Burnett v. Ocean Props., Ltd.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of Maine
    • September 30, 2019
    ...15 or more workers." 794 F. Supp. 2d 329, 334 (D.P.R. 2011) (comparing 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(b) with § 12111(5)(A)); Lopez v. Massachusetts , 588 F.3d 69, 84 (1st Cir. 2009) ("employer" under Title I of the ADA has the same meaning as "employer" under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act); see als......
  • U.S. v. Hersom
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit
    • December 3, 2009
  • Centro De Periodismo Investigativo, Inc. v. Fin. Oversight & Mgmt. Bd. for P.R.
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit
    • May 17, 2022
    ...of immunity, and [when] review of the pendent issue ‘was necessary to ensure meaningful review’ of immunity." Lopez v. Massachusetts, 588 F.3d 69, 81-82 (1st Cir. 2009) (quoting Swint v. Chambers Cnty. Comm'n, 514 U.S. 35, 51, 115 S.Ct. 1203, 131 L.Ed.2d 60 (1995), and citing Suboh v. Dist.......
  • Lopez v. Commonwealth
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
    • November 9, 2012
    ...of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e–2(k)(1)(A)(i) (2006) (Title VII). 3Lopez v. State, 588 F.3d 69, 72–73 (1st Cir.2009)( Lopez ). The State defendants moved to dismiss on the ground of immunity from suit, arguing that Title VII abrogates immunity und......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT