The record showed that defendants had conducted a background check of plaintiff, which revealed that she had: (1) recently filed for bankruptcy and (2) a long-term relationship with a person who belonged to biker gang that had been associated with criminal activity. However, the plaintiff claimed that the defendant did not conduct such checks with male applicants. Further, the prior male individual in the job had also experienced financial difficulties and had associated with criminal associates, and was fired because he had stolen from defendants.
Seventh Circuit held that employers are entitled to learn from their prior hiring errors when considering current applicants, and record showed that relevant decision-maker conducted similar background checks on male applicants. However, remand was required with respect to plaintiff's claim that she lost money during time that defendants took to conduct the background check to extent that defendants would have temporarily promoted plaintiff to position during that time, where defendants conceded that it had immediately promoted male applicants pending results of their background checks.