Coleman v. Donahoe, No. 10-3694 (7th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseThe Postal Service terminated plaintiff's 32 years of employment as a clerk, claiming that it fired her because she told her psychiatrist she was having thoughts of killing her supervisor, and it believed she posed a danger to fellow employees. Plaintiff is an African-American woman and claimed discrimination and retaliatory discharge. In support of her disparate treatment claims she presented evidence that two white male employees at the same facility had recently threatened another employee at knife-point, yet received only one-week suspensions from the same manager who fired her. The district court granted the Postal Service summary judgment. The Seventh Circuit reversed, stating that the similarly-situated inquiry is flexible, common-sense, and factual. A reasonable jury could infer, in light of all the circumstances, that an impermissible animus motivated the firing. Plaintiff's evidence could also demonstrate pretext.
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