Darell Burton v. Will County Sheriff's Merit Commission

── Darell Burton v. Will County Sheriff's Merit Commission ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Date: May 22, 2026 Category: General In the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 23-1802 DARELL D. BURTON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. WILL COUNTY SHERIFF’S MERIT COMMISSION, WILL COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE, and WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS, Defendants-Appellees. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 19-CV-03875 — John J. Tharp, Jr., Judge. ____________________ ARGUED JANUARY 10, 2024 — DECIDED MAY 22, 2026 ____________________ Before SYKES, HAMILTON, and LEE, Circuit Judges. SYKES, Circuit Judge. The Will County Sheriff’s Office uses a merit-selection process to hire new deputy sheriffs in ac- cordance with Illinois and local law. Applicants must be cer- tified by the Will County Sheriff’s Merit Commission before the sheriff may consider them for appointment. The applica- tion process is rigorous and includes a background check. 2 No. 23-1802 Darell Burton applied for deputy sheriff but did not pass the background check. His then-employer told the Merit Commission that he was not a dependable employee, did not work well with others, would not be rehired in his current position as a railroad signalman, and was not recommended for hire as a deputy sheriff. Based on this negative employ- ment reference, the Commission removed him from the certi- fication process. Burton, who is black, sued the Merit Commission, the Sheriff’s Office, and Will County under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He alleged that he was removed from the certification process because of his race. But he did not pro- duce evidentiary support for this claim, so the district judge entered summary judgment for the defendants. We affirm. No evidence suggests that Burton’s race played any role in the Merit Commission’s decision. And nothing in the record could support an inference that the Commission’s reason for removing Burton from the certification process— his negative professional reference—was a pretext for racial discrimination. I. Background The Will County Sheriff’s Merit Commission is a five- member body appointed by the sheriff to oversee the merit- selection process for appointment of new deputy sheriffs. Established in accordance with the Illinois Counties Code, the Commission receives and screens applications for deputy sheriff and certifies candidates for inclusion on a list of appli- cants who may be considered when positions become availa- ble. See generally 55 ILL. COMP. STAT. 5/3–8001, et seq. No. 23-1802 3 Applicants must be certified by the Merit Commission before the sheriff may hire them as deputies. As expected for a job in law enforcement, the certification process is lengthy and rigorous. It includes successive steps: a short-form application, a written exam, a physical agility test, a long-form application, a psychological evaluation, a polygraph test, a formal background investigation, and ulti- mately, an interview with the Merit Commission. The formal background investigation is the step at issue here. The Merit Commission has only two full-time employ- ees and relies on investigators in the Sheriff’s Office to carry out background investigations. At the beginning of this step in the process, the Commission’s staff solicits information from an applicant’s current employers, former employers, and personal references by mailing out reference forms. When these so-called “mail out” inquiries are returned, the applicant’s file is assigned to an investigator in the Sheriff’s Office, who then conducts a thorough background investiga-