Raytheon Co. v. Hernandez, 540 U.S. 44, 11 (2003)

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54

RAYTHEON CO. v. HERNANDEZ

Opinion of the Court

a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason sufficient to defeat a prima facie case of discrimination.6 The Court of Appeals did not even attempt, in the remainder of its opinion, to treat this claim as one involving only disparate treatment. Instead, the Court of Appeals observed that petitioner's policy "screens out persons with a record of addiction," and further noted that the company had not raised a business necessity defense, 298 F. 3d, at 1036-1037, and n. 19, factors that pertain to disparate-impact claims but not disparate-treatment claims. See, e. g., Grano v. Department of Development of Columbus, 637 F. 2d 1073, 1081 (CA6 1980) ("In a disparate impact situation . . . the issue is whether a neutral selection device . . . screens out disproportionate numbers of [the protected class]").7 By improperly focusing on these factors, the Court of Appeals ignored the fact that petitioner's norehire policy is a quintessential legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for refusing to rehire an employee who was

6 The Court of Appeals characterized respondent's workplace misconduct as merely "testing positive because of [his] addiction." 298 F. 3d, at 1036. To the extent that the court suggested that, because respondent's workplace misconduct is related to his disability, petitioner's refusal to rehire respondent on account of that workplace misconduct violated the ADA, we point out that we have rejected a similar argument in the context of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. See Hazen Paper Co. v. Biggins, 507 U. S. 604, 611 (1993).

7 Indeed, despite the fact that the Nation's antidiscrimination laws are undoubtedly aimed at "the problem of inaccurate and stigmatizing stereotypes," ibid., the Court of Appeals held that the unfortunate result of petitioner's application of its neutral policy was that Bockmiller may have made the employment decision in this case "remaining unaware of [respondent's] 'disability.' " 298 F. 3d, at 1036. The Court of Appeals did not explain, however, how it could be said that Bockmiller was motivated to reject respondent's application because of his disability if Bockmiller was entirely unaware that such a disability existed. If Bockmiller were truly unaware that such a disability existed, it would be impossible for her hiring decision to have been based, even in part, on respondent's disability. And, if no part of the hiring decision turned on respondent's status as disabled, he cannot, ipso facto, have been subject to disparate treatment.

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