A white male DePaul Law School student has lobbed a lawsuit against the Chicago Bears, seeking to sack a "diversity" jobs program he says violates federal anti-discrimination laws by limiting successful applicants only to law school students who "are a 'person of color" or female.
Plaintiff Jonathan Bresser Jr., identified as a first year law school student at DePaul University in Chicago, filed suit in Chicago federal court on March 11.
In addition to the Chicago Bears organization, the lawsuit also names as defendants Bears Chairman George McCaskey; Bears vice president of human resources Elizabeth Geist; Bears senior vice president and general counsel Cliff Stein; Bears senior vice president of diversity equity and inclusion Tanesha Wade; and others within the Bears organization who either work within the human resources department or serve on the organization's "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council."
According to the lawsuit, Bresser sought to respond to a job listing posted by the Bears in November 2023, seeking applicants from Chicago law schools for its "Legal Diversity Fellow" position.
According to the lawsuit, the Bears specifically listed in the job posting that applicants must be "a person of colar and/or female law student." The job ad also listed other qualifications for the position, including "a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale;" "demonstrated ability to maintain confidentiality;" "excellent research and writing skills;" "proficient in Microsoft Office ... and Adobe Acrobat;" and "demonstrated ability to effectively manage and prioritize multiple projects ..., deadlines and initiatives with minimal supervision."
According to the lawsuit, Bresser completed the application, and submitted it with his resume and a cover letter to the Bears on Nov. 15.
According to the complaint, a month later on Dec. 15, Bresser was notified by LinkedIn that a representative of the Chicago Bears had viewed his LinkedIn profile, which included a photograph of him, which he said "by its very nature displays his race, Caucasian, and his sex, male."
According to the complaint, on Jan. 5, Bresser received an email from the Bears denying his application for the "Diversity Fellow" post, saying the Bears "[had] chosen to pursue other applicants whose experience and qualifications more closely match [their] needs."
According to the complaint, Bresser received his final grades from DePaul for the previous semester, which Bresser said amounted to a GPA greater than 3.0.
Further, Bresser said he has worked for two and a half years as a litigation paralegal, helping to manage about 125 cases "of varying types and complexity and at varying stages of litigation," including "personal injury actions, civil rights and discrimination actions ... defamation and privacy actions, and commercial litigation files, amongst others."
"The only listed qualification in the Bears' job posting not plausibly met by Plaintiff (Bresser) is the requirement that an applicant be a 'person of color and/or female law student,'" Bresser said in his complaint.
According to the complaint, Bresser believes the Bears selected someone who was not a white male, like himself, for the post.
He said "the Bears' denial of (his) job application was pretextual and a result of a self-describing discriminatory hiring practice utilized by the Bears."
According to the complaint, Bresser filed a charge of discrimination against the Bears with the Illinois Department of Human Rights and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Feb. 1. He received a "right-to-sue" letter from the EEOC on Feb. 28.
According to the complaint, Bresser claims the Bears then contacted him on March 1, allegedly after they received a copy of his right to sue letter from the EEOC, the Bears allegedly contacted Bresser and invited him to "submit his transcript for his fall grades."
Bresser said the email from the Bears amounted to an attempt by the organization "to cover up the intentional discrimination against Plaintiff (Bresser) by sending an e-mail attempting to claw back the rejection of Plaintiff's application..."
The lawsuit accuses the Bears of violating federal and state civil rights laws by discriminating against him on the basis of race and sex. He further accused the Bears of creating disparate impact race and sex discrimination, also in violation of Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act.
"The Bears decision to seek out job applicants exclusively of races other than Plaintiff's is neither required for the job in question ... nor consistent with business necessity," Bresser said. "Moreover, the Bears refused the less-restrictive and feasible option of considering applicants without respect to the race of a particular applicant."
The complaint further accused the Bears and the individual defendants within the organization of conspiring to deprive him of his rights and opportunities.
The organization's "conspiracy was part of a broader discriminatory pattern of implementing employment policies intentionally discriminatory against Plaintiff's protected classes and said policies permeated the ranks of the organization's employees, from the executive drafting and approval of the policies to the implementation by individuals in reviewing applications for employment," Bresser wrote in his complaint.
"The conspiracy permeated amongst multiple levels of authority and throughout multiple distinct departments within the organization inclusive of, without limitation, the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Department, the Human Resources Department, the Legal Department, and others."
Bresser is seeking a court order declaring the Bears violated federal and state civil rights laws and ordering the Bears to end hiring practices based on race or sex.
Bresser further is asking the court to order the Bears and the individual defendants to pay him damages, including unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, plus attorney fees.
Bresser is represented by attorneys Marc P. Trent and Daniel Nikolic, of the Trent Law Firm, of Oakbrook Terrace.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Bresser works at the Trent Law Firm.