Rodriguez v. The Procter & Gamble Company

District Court, S.D. Florida·Decided November 6, 2020·No. 1:17-cv-22652·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA Case No. 1:17-cv-22652-KMW

DAVID M. RODRIGUEZ

Plaintiff,

v.

THE PROCTER & GAMBLE COMPANY

Defendant. ____________________________/

ORDER

THIS MATTER is before the Court on Defendant’s motion to certify the Court’s June 10, 2020 summary judgment order for interlocutory appeal. (DE 143.) Plaintiff filed a response in opposition (DE 147) and Defendant filed a reply (DE 148). On August 26, 2020, the Court heard oral arguments on the motion. For the reasons discussed below, the motion is DENIED. I. RELEVANT BACKGROUND

Plaintiff, David M. Rodriguez (“Rodriguez”), is a DACA recipient with legal work authorization. In 2013, he applied for a twelve-week finance and accounting internship at Procter and Gamble (“P&G”). This action arises out of P&G’s rejection of his application due to its hiring policy for non-citizens. In 2013, through an online screening questionnaire, P&G automatically rejected at the first step of the application process all non-citizen applicants except for legal permanent residents, asylees, and refugees. Plaintiff initiated a putative class action on behalf of DACA recipients and other work- authorized non-citizens claiming that the policy is facially discriminatory on the basis of alienage in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (“Section 1981”). On May 10, 2019, P&G filed a motion for summary judgment. (DE 106.) Among other arguments, P&G asserted that: (1) Plaintiff does not belong to a class protected under Section 1981 because he is a DACA recipient and (2) P&G’s policy classified on the basis of immigration status, not alienage. P&G’s briefing for the first argument consisted of two and half pages. (See id. at 7-10.) Relying exclusively on three cases1,

P&G argued that Section 1981’s protections do not extend to immigrants who are not lawfully present in the United States. (See id. at 7-8.) Citing Estrada v. Becker, 917 F.3d 1298 (11th Cir. 2019), P&G then argued that as a DACA recipient, Plaintiff is not a lawfully present immigrant and, therefore, is not entitled to Section 1981’s protections. (See id. at 8-9.) While this argument depends on statutory interpretation, P&G cited to no statutory text, legislative history, or provisions in Title VII or IRCA to support its position. P&G briefed its second argument in a similarly terse fashion. (See id. at 10-13.) In three and a half pages, and relying solely on non-binding cases, Defendant claimed that classification based on immigration status does not constitute unlawful alienage

discrimination under Section 1981.2 (Id. at 10.) P&G argued that its policy classified solely on the basis of immigration status because only certain non-citizens were automatically rejected and P&G had routinely hired permanent residents, asylees, and refugees.

1 Takahashi v. Fish and Bone Commission, 334 U.S. 410 (1948), Anderson v. Conboy, 156 F.3d 167 (2d Cir. 1998), and Juarez v. Nw. Mut. Life Ins. Co., Inc., 2014 WL 12772237 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 30, 2014).

2 See Talwar v. Staten Island Univ. Hosp., 2014 WL 5784626 (E.D.N.Y. Mar. 31, 2014); Vaughn v. City of New York, 2010 WL 2076926 (E.D.N.Y. May 24, 2010); Camara v. Schwan’s Food Manufacturing, Inc., 2005 WL 1950142 (E.D. Ky. Aug. 15, 2005). The Court rejected both arguments in its June 10, 2020 order denying Defendant’s motion for summary judgment (“Order”). (DE 142.) First, the Order explained that Section 1981’s statutory text and legislative history indicate that “the statute’s protection against employer alienage discrimination applies to all work-authorized immigrants” and

“Congress did not express a clear intent to exclude subclasses of immigrants from its protection.” (DE 142 at 16.) Accordingly, the Court concluded that Section 1981’s protections extends to DACA recipients because, notwithstanding their undocumented status, they are legally work-authorized. (Id.) The Court further noted that the decisions in Takahashi, Anderson, and Juarez did not preclude this conclusion, as those courts had no occasion to decide whether a work-authorized immigrant is excluded from Section 1981’s protection if he or she was not lawfully present in the country. (Id. at 21-24.) Second, the Court held that the policy was facially discriminatory on the basis of alienage. (Id. at 24-31.) The policy asked applicants “[a]re you currently a U.S. citizen OR national,” and automatically rejected those who could not answer “YES” and did not

fall within one of three exceptions. The Court found that by using lack of U.S. citizenship as a criterion for exclusion, P&G had explicitly singled out non-citizens and subjected them to less favorable treatment. (Id. at 26.) The Order explained that P&G’s cited cases—Vaughn, Talwar, and Camara—failed to persuade that the policy classified only on the basis of immigration status, as those cases did not involve a similar policy that categorically denied employment to large swaths of work-authorized non-citizens. (Id. at 28-29.) On July 2, 2020, Defendant filed the instant motion seeking to certify the Order for interlocutory appeal. (DE 143.) Specifically, P&G seeks appellate review of two questions it contends were resolved by the Court: (1) “[w]hether the implied cause of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 extends to aliens who are not lawfully present in the United States?” and (2) “[w]hether a facial classification based on immigration status necessarily constitutes prohibited alienage discrimination under § 1981?” (Id. at 2.) In an effort to

demonstrate that a substantial ground for difference of opinion exists as to these issues, P&G devoted the majority of its motion presenting entirely new arguments not previously raised in its motion for summary judgment and, consequently, not addressed by the Plaintiff or considered by the Court. For the reasons discussed below, P&G’s motion is DENIED. II. DISCUSSION

A. Legal Framework

The Court’s summary judgment Order is non-final and must be certified for interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b) before Defendant can pursue immediate appeal. Three factors are relevant in deciding whether an order merits interlocutory appeal under Section 1292(b): “(1) whether the case presents a ‘controlling question of law’; (2) whether there is a ‘substantial ground for difference of opinion’; and (3) whether the appeal will ‘materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation.’” Simpson v. Carolina Builders Corp., 222 F. App'x 924, 925 (11th Cir. 2007). The burden is on P&G, the moving party, to establish these elements. In the Eleventh Circuit, “the great bulk of [appellate] review must be conducted after final judgment, with § 1292(b) interlocutory review being a rare exception.” McFarlin v. Conseco Servs., 381 F. 3d 1251, 1257-50 (11th Cir. 2004). Accordingly, there is a “strong presumption against interlocutory appeals.” United States v. One Parcel of Real Prop. With Bldgs., Appurtenances & Improvements, 767 F.2d 1495, 1498 (11th Cir. 1985); see also Reyes v. BCA Fin. Servs., Inc., 2018 WL 2849768, at *3 (S.D. Fla. June 8, 2018) (“Certification is not an appropriate vehicle for early appellate review of hard cases and should be denied except in rare circumstances.”) (citation omitted). Even when

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