Harrius Johnsonv.Miami Dade County
Harrius Johnson, a Black former Miami-Dade police officer, sued the county alleging that his termination for insubordination and related policy violations was actually race discrimination and retaliation for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints. The district court granted summary judgment to the county. The Eleventh Circuit held that the district court had to reevaluate Johnson’s comparator evidence under the en banc standard announced in Lewis v. City of Union City, which addressed how similarly situated comparators are assessed at summary judgment. The court also remanded related issues concerning the retaliation and employment-discrimination claims. A separate opinion argued that the circuit should not use Title VII’s McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework to analyze constitutional Section 1983 claims, even when the claims arise from the same conduct.
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