Source: cases/42usc2000e-2/f3d-928-84-mayorga-v-merdon.case
Case source: https://www.neochart.com/catalog/cases/f3d/volume_928/0084_01/index.html
Mayorga may, therefore, rebut the AOC's claim that Williams and Coulter were more qualified by proffering evidence that the selecting officials knowingly understated Mayorga's qualifications, making their decision pretextual.
A jury may reasonably find that Bieber and Wallace fabricated Mayorga's alleged statements in order to bolster their pretextual explanation that Mayorga was not as qualified as the other applicants.
Viewed in this light, a reasonable jury could be "quite suspicious" about the sincerity of the reasons given for Mayorga's not having been selected.
Finally, we reject the AOC's argument that mockery about Mayorga's name and accent does not permit a jury to infer discrimination because Mayorga has not explained how the remarks relate to the decision at issue.
We conclude Mayorga has proffered evidence from which a jury could infer the AOC discriminated against him.
casedsl 1.2
# author: Flash2 (gemini-3.8-flash-high)
# triaged-by: Fable (2026-11-10)
case /f3d/928/0084-01
name Mayorga v. Merdon
cite 928 F.3d 84 (2019)
# IR court field says: Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia
court United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
date 2019-06-28
url catalog/cases/f3d/volume_928/0084_01/index.html
source ir/caselaw/f3d_928.jsonl sha1=a1b4fdcad25fbfddaedcaf6d7a2f8c97e3d067d6 chars=31081
opinion maj : majority by Ginsburg @0..31081 controlling
law 42usc2000e-2 (a)
role applied
posture civil; Title VII race and national origin discrimination (failure to promote), single-motive theory; summary judgment for employer vacated by CADC and remanded for trial
result remanded
element employer : satisfied [conceded]
route public-employer
pattern federal-legislative-branch-architect-of-capitol
fact @1495..1730 [supports] | Since 2007 Mayorga has been employed at the AOC, a federal agency that operates and maintains certain buildings and historic monuments in the District of Columbia, such as the Capitol, the Capitol Visitor Center, and the Supreme Court.
gloss Title VII reaches the legislative-branch employer through the Congressional Accountability Act (2 U.S.C. §§ 1311, 1317), which the opinion cites without discussion.
element protected-class : satisfied [conceded]
route national-origin
pattern hispanic-nicaraguan-immigrant
fact @1003..1181 [supports] | Mayorga emigrated to the United States from Nicaragua in 1990 and, after almost ten years working in electronics, earned a degree in Network Management from Stratford University.
gloss The claim is pleaded as race and national origin; the opinion does not distinguish the two. Conceded: "the AOC does not dispute that Mayorga has established a prima facie case".
element adverse-action : satisfied [conceded]
route failure-to-hire-or-promote
pattern not-selected-for-electronics-technician-openings
fact @3124..3168 [supports] | Either job would be a promotion for Mayorga.
fact @6360..6489 [supports] | The AOC ultimately chose Ed Williams and John Coulter, two white males it claimed were most qualified, to fill the two positions.
element employer-reason : satisfied [conceded]
route relative-qualifications
pattern claimed-lack-of-network-experience-and-poor-interview
fact @5734..5902 [supports] | instead, the panelists ranked Mayorga last of the six, in part they said because he failed during the interview to give detailed answers about his experience or skills.
fact @6003..6289 [supports] | Furthermore, Bieber asserted Mayorga did not have experience with the BASnet because "[i]t wasn't stated on his resume or it never came out in the interview"; he also said Mayorga had "very little" experience with ethernet and fiber-optic cables, and no experience with Cisco equipment.
fact @5903..6002 [supports] | Bieber also claimed Mayorga seemed confused during the interview about what job he had applied for.
? basis: a burden of production the court notes was met ("it has offered a nondiscriminatory explanation"), not contested as to its sufficiency; no basis value says "produced". [proved] (Flash) was wrong: the court holds a jury could find the reasons fabricated
element pretext : satisfied [triable]
route falsity-of-reason
pattern selecting-official-understated-applicant-experience-and-attributed-statements-he-denies
rule @13211..13436 | Mayorga may, therefore, rebut the AOC's claim that Williams and Coulter were more qualified by proffering evidence that the selecting officials knowingly understated Mayorga's qualifications, making their decision pretextual.
fact @17038..17258 [supports] | Bieber claims only his "shop" (presumably the EMCS Branch) works on the "actual BAS net network" - yet Bieber said he hired Coulter for his network qualifications and Coulter, like Mayorga, did not work in Bieber's shop.
fact @17704..17918 [supports] | More important, Wallace, "the BAS Net Manager" of the EMCS, has represented that Mayorga is "an operator" on "the BAS Net system," casting further doubt upon Bieber's statement that Mayorga lacks BASnet experience:
fact @20327..20583 [supports] | These accounts are in some tension with Mayorga's resume, which states his objective was to "achieve meaningful employment with the Office of Planning and Project Management as an Electronic[s] Technician," the job title listed in the vacancy announcement.
fact @19124..19411 [cuts-against] | Although Mayorga did not provide much detail about how he helped the EMCS team troubleshoot problems arising from the BASnet, we think a jury could nonetheless credit Mayorga's testimony that he worked with Bieber's team and infer Bieber knew Mayorga had the requisite BASnet experience.
held @21410..21608 | A jury may reasonably find that Bieber and Wallace fabricated Mayorga's alleged statements in order to bolster their pretextual explanation that Mayorga was not as qualified as the other applicants.
held @29014..29162 | Viewed in this light, a reasonable jury could be "quite suspicious" about the sincerity of the reasons given for Mayorga's not having been selected.
? polarity: the "Although ... did not provide much detail" sentence states the weakness in its first clause and the court's answer to it in the second; tagged by the weakness
element because-of : satisfied [triable]
route decision-maker-remark
pattern mockery-of-hispanic-name-and-accent-by-selection-panelists
rule @27473..27701 [quoted] | disparaging comments of the sort Mayorga describes are "nonetheless probative evidence of a supervisor's discriminatory attitude, at least when it is targeted directly at the plaintiff or is one of a pattern of similar remarks."
fact @4556..4752 [supports] | Mayorga claims that Bieber and Wallace made fun of his Hispanic first name, regularly calling him "Caviar" instead of Javier, and that Bieber mocks Mayorga's accent and interrupts him in meetings.
fact @26624..26794 [supports] | Furthermore, Mayorga clearly testified that Wallace has previously called him "Caviar" - a particularly significant accusation because Wallace was on the selection panel.
fact @4753..4858 [cuts-against] | Bieber and Wallace dispute this account of their behavior; Bieber denies ever having worked with Mayorga.
fact @27292..27443 [cuts-against absent] | To be sure, Mayorga's argument would be stronger if he had drawn a direct connection between the discriminatory name-calling and the selection decision
held @26795..27007 | Finally, we reject the AOC's argument that mockery about Mayorga's name and accent does not permit a jury to infer discrimination because Mayorga has not explained how the remarks relate to the decision at issue.
held @29427..29534 | We conclude Mayorga has proffered evidence from which a jury could infer the AOC discriminated against him.
gloss Single-motive claim only: any mixed-motive (§ 2000e-2(m)) theory was forfeited at oral argument, so on remand the plaintiff must prove but-for causation.
misfit The court treats the remark evidence and the pretext evidence as one cumulative showing ("any combination of" evidence under Holcomb); splitting it into a pretext block and a because-of block is the notation's doing, not the court's.