Segar v. Ashcroft

• Decision Date: 09 March 2006
• Docket Number: No. CIV.A.77-0081(EGS).,CIV.A.77-0081(EGS).
• Citation: 422 F.Supp.2d 117
• Parties: Henry W. SEGAR, et al. Plaintiffs, v. John ASHCROFT, et al. Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

422 F.Supp.2d 117

Henry W. SEGAR, et al. Plaintiffs, v. John ASHCROFT, et al. Defendants.

No. CIV.A.77-0081(EGS).

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

March 9, 2006.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Eacata Desiree Gregory, Erin Mary Kelly, David Samuel Cohen, Rebecca J.K. Gelfond, Sarah Gill, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP, Washington, DC, Nancy L. Manzer, Steven F. Cherry, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP, Tysons Corner, VA, for Plaintiffs.

Peter Blumberg, United States Attorney's Office, Civil Division, Washington, DC, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

SULLIVAN, District Judge.

Pending before the Court is plaintiffs' Motion for an Injunction enjoining the defendants Drug Enforcement Agency ("DEA" or "Agency") from promoting DEA Special Agents to the Senior Executive Service ("SES") unless the Agent has applied and been rated and ranked as a qualified applicant pursuant to the SES promotion procedures stipulated to by the parties and approved by this Court on March 12, 2002. Upon consideration of the numerous, substantial, and often exceptional briefs filed by the parties, oral arguments held on March 17 and 25, 2004, a ten-day non-jury trial during which the Court heard from more than a dozen witnesses, the relevant case history and case law, and the entire record, including hundreds of exhibits, the Court concludes for the reasons discussed herein that plaintiffs' Motion for an Injunction must be DENIED. As a result of this conclusion, the Court further finds that no stipulation as to the procedures for promoting DEA Agents to the SES is in effect. Therefore, as explained below, consistent with this Court's Orders of February 6, 1981 and February 17, 1982, and in order to comply with the Opinion issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Segar v. Smith, 738 F.2d 1249 (D.C.Cir.1984), this Court will craft a remedy to address DEA's past discrimination against black agents. To that end, and barring any appeal, the Court schedules a status conference with the parties on May 2, 2006, at 11:00 a.m. to address further proceedings.¹

I. Background

A. The Court's Initial Finding that DEA had Discriminated Against Black Agents

This lawsuit against DEA was filed on January 14, 1977, by a putative class consisting of African—American Special Agents, pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-17 ("Title VII"). The complaint alleged that DEA discriminated against class members in "all aspects of the employment process," including initial grade assignments, types of appointment, type of work performed, training, discipline, supervisory evaluations, awards and promotions, and salary. See Segar v. Civiletti, 508 F.Supp. 690, 692 (D.D.C.1981). In 1979, Judge Aubrey Robinson, Jr. of this Court held a bifurcated trial on the liability issues alleged in plaintiffs' Complaint. Id. at 693.

In a well-reasoned opinion issued after the trial, the Court made a number of findings related to DEA's employment practices; especially relevant for the present purposes are the Court's findings with respect to promotions. The Court found that at the DEA, promotions at the lower grades, GS-7 to GS-12, were non-competitive. Id. at 695. In order to be promoted at the higher grades, however, agents had to compete on a regional or agency-wide basis, satisfy time-in-grade requirements, be rated and ranked by a review board and placed on the best qualified list, and ultimately be selected by the appropriate official. Id. While the rating and ranking was based on a numerical system that assigned values for an agent's length of experience, breadth of experience, performance evaluation, and education and training, the Court found that the rating and ranking boards were given no guidance as to how to assign points for each category and, thus, points were allotted on the basis of the board members' judgment. Id.

Upon consideration of expert statistical evidence and individual testimony presented by both sides, Judge Robinson ultimately concluded that DEA had discriminated against black agents, in violation of Title VII, with respect to salary, grade at entry, work assignments, the supervisory evaluation process, discipline, and promotions. Id. at 712-715. Regarding promotions, the Court found

Plaintiffs' statistical evidence did not establish a prima facie case regarding positions filled through the Career Board process. The statistics did establish, however, that a significant disparity exists in promotions from GS-11 to GS-12. The statistics involving promotions to GS-13 through GS-18 levels are insignificant, primarily due to the necessarily small number of agents considered in the regression analyses. Thus, the statistics alone did not establish a prima facie case of discrimination in promotions, with the exception of promotions from GS-11 to GS-12.

The non-statistical evidence firmly established discrimination in promotions, however. Work assignments, supervisory evaluations, and disciplinary actions all significantly affect an agent's promotional ability. In all of these areas, defendants discriminated against black agents. Thus, the Court concludes that plaintiffs proved a prima facie case of discrimination in promotions.

Defendants failed to rebut plaintiffs' showing of discrimination. They have validated neither the Career Board scoring system nor the non-competitive promotion procedures .. . Thus, the Court concludes that defendants discriminated against black agents in promotions.

Id. at 714-15.

In accordance with its opinion, the Court ordered the DEA to cease its discriminatory practices and "immediately commence validity studies in order to implement effective, non-discriminatory supervisory evaluation, discipline, and promotion systems[,]... [and] to insure that said systems have neither a disparate impact on black agents nor effectuate disparate treatment of black agents[.]" Id. at 715. The Court further ordered the parties to address how to remedy the discrimination in salary, grade at entry, and promotion. Id.

B. The Court's Remedial Order

Following his determination that the defendants had violated Title VII, and after considering the parties' proposals for further relief, Judge Robinson issued an Order on February 17, 1982, granting plaintiffs' specific relief. Segar v. Smith, 1982 WL 214 (D.D.C.1982). The Court ordered the defendants to pay backpay to remedy the salary discrimination, based on the regression analyses introduced at trial and according to guidelines established by the Court. Id. at *4-5. The Court further ordered the DEA to promote one black agent for every two non-black agents to grades GS-14 through 18, "until members of the plaintiff class constitute ten percent (10%) of the agents at that grade level, or until five years after the date of this Order, whichever is sooner." Id. at *6. The Court provided that if, in any year or after the five-year period ended, plaintiff class members did not make up ten percent of any grade level, plaintiffs could request additional relief from the Court. Id. The Court also ordered frontpay. Id. at *6-8.

The Court's remedial Order also established reporting requirements for DEA's Equal Employment Opportunity ("EEO") office, and established a monitoring committee, known as the Equal Employment Opportunity Monitoring Committee ("EEOMC" or "Committee"), made up of eight members of the plaintiff class. The Committee was responsible for monitoring the DEA's compliance with the Court's order. Id. at *8. According to the Court's order, the EEOMC members were permitted to work up to twenty hours per month on Committee business, DEA was to appoint one person each from the offices of personnel, general counsel, and the EEO to act as liaisons with the EEOMC, the Committee was to be given the results of the EEO's studies and reports and any other employment information requested by the Committee, and had the authority to investigate complaints by special agents concerning DEA's compliance with the Court's Order. Id. at *8-9.

The Court further provided that any plaintiff class member could elect to assert an individual claim for backpay while a GS-7 or GS-9, or for reinstatement with backpay. Id. at *9. Finally, the Court determined that the various obligations it was imposing on DEA were ordered pursuant to the Court's equitable powers under Title VII, and the Court retained jurisdiction over the case to ensure compliance with its Order until "such time as the Court concludes that the rights of plaintiffs have been accorded and satisfied by defendants." Id.

C. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Upholds the District Court's Liability Determination but Vacates Promotion Mandates

The DEA appealed both the District court's liability determination and its remedial scheme to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Segar v. Smith, 738 F.2d at 1259. The Court of appeals explicitly recognized that the trial court had based its findings of discrimination at the higher grades "on inferences from proven discrimination at the immediately preceding levels and .. . in the factors that bear most directly on promotions[,]" and the Court soundly rejected DEA's challenge to the District court's liability determination. Id. at 1264.

On balance, we find no reversible error in the District Court's overall assessment of the evidence. The court properly attributed probative weight to plaintiffs' statistical analyses, and properly rejected the three aspects of DEA's case on rebuttal-the need for gross disparities, the insufficiency of the statistical studies, and the purported failure to account for prior law enforcement experience. In light of these findings, the court appropriately held that DEA had engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination against black special agents . . . and properly held that DEA's initial grade assignments, supervisory...