50
Opinion of the Court
to respondent's prima facie case of discrimination, there were genuine issues of material fact regarding whether respondent was qualified for the position for which he sought to be rehired, and whether the reason for petitioner's refusal to rehire him was his past record of drug addiction.4 298 F. 3d, at 1034-1035. The Court of Appeals thus held that with respect to respondent's prima facie case of discrimination, respondent had proffered sufficient evidence to preclude a grant of summary judgment. Id., at 1035. Because petitioner does not challenge this aspect of the Ninth Circuit's decision, we do not address it here.
The Court of Appeals then moved to the next step of Mc-Donnell Douglas, where the burden shifts to the defendant to provide a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for its employment action. 411 U. S., at 802. Here, petitioner contends that Bockmiller applied the neutral policy against rehiring employees previously terminated for violating workplace conduct rules and that this neutral company policy constituted a legitimate and nondiscriminatory reason
offering evidence demonstrating that the employer's explanation is pretextual. See Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc., 530 U. S. 133, 143 (2000). The Courts of Appeals have consistently utilized this burden-shifting approach when reviewing motions for summary judgment in disparate-treatment cases. See, e. g., Pugh v. Attica, 259 F. 3d 619, 626 (CA7 2001) (applying burden-shifting approach to an ADA disparate-treatment claim).
4 The Court of Appeals noted that "it is possible that a drug user may not be 'disabled' under the ADA if his drug use does not rise to the level of an addiction which substantially limits one or more of his major life activities." 298 F. 3d, at 1033-1034, n. 9. The parties do not dispute that respondent was "disabled" at the time he quit in lieu of discharge and thus a record of the disability exists. We therefore need not decide in this case whether respondent's employment record constitutes a "record of addiction," which triggers the protections of the ADA.
The parties are also not disputing in this Court whether respondent was qualified for the position for which he applied.
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