Janet Stout Juliana Nedd Sheila Wright Lee Harrison v. John E. Potter, Postmaster General

Janet Stout, Juliana Nedd, Sheila Wright and Lee Harrison (collectively, the “postal inspectors”) appeal the district court’s summary judgment in favor of the Postmaster General in their employment discrimination action alleging denial of promotion on the basis of sex. We have jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

I

Appellants are female postal inspector team leaders in the Postal Inspection Service (“the Service”), the law enforcement branch of the United States Postal Service. They, along with 34 other postal inspectors, applied for promotion to Assistant Inspector in Charge (“AIC”), the highest non-executive managerial level in the Service. There were five open AIC positions, one each in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Milwaukee and Washington, D.C. Six of the 38 applicants who vied for these positions were women.

A review panel initially screened all applicants on the strength of their supervisor evaluations and applications. The panel identified the most qualified candidates and forwarded their names as potential interviewees to a separate selection committee that made the final hiring decisions. From the original pool of 38, the screening panel identified…