Alaska Employment Law

Nada Raad has prosecuted several Title 18 and Title VII claims against the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.  A federal jury rejected her Title VII claims of discrimination in hiring arising in 1993, and the 9th Circuit affirmed.  Raad v. FNSBSD, 323 F.3d 1185 (9th Cir. 2003).

Raad continued to apply for teacher jobs, and claimed that, post-1993, the District continued to discriminate against her on the bases of national origin (Lebanese) and religion (Muslim), and also retaliated against her because of the earlier claims.  She pursued this second generation of claims before the state Human Rights Commission.  The Commission held against her, but the Alaska Supreme Court reversed in part, and remanded.  Raad v. ASCHR, 86 P.3d 899 (Alaska 2004).  The Commission has now finished the remand, and held that Raad failed to prove pretext.  Raad argued, in part, that she was “substantially more qualified” than the successful applicants. 

The Commission rejected that argument, on the basis of of Raad’s earlier Supreme Court case:

Raad cannot prove pretext simply by showing that she was better qualified than the individual who received the position she wanted.  Disparities in qualifications are not enough, by themselves, to demonstrate discriminatory intent unless Raad’s qualifications are “clearly superior” to those of the successful applicant.

Haley v. FNSBSD, OAH No. 05-0919-HRC (Oct. 10, 2008)(footnotes omitted).

Chris Kennedy was the ALJ.  ASCHR Human Rights Advocate Rachel Plumlee represented Raad; Peter Partnow represented the School District.