Federal Courts are hard on employment cases
It is common knowledge among plaintiff's employment lawyers the employment discrimination cases filed in federal courts have a short shelf life. It seems as though there isn't a federal judge who doesn't like a defendant's summary judgment motion. Most employment discrimination cases depend on inferences from the facts. That is, rarely do defendants come right out and say they are discriminating agains someone. Therefore, you have to resort to circumstantial evidence from which a trier of fact could infer that discrimination was taking place. Federal judges seem loathe to draw any inferences from the facts and therefor usually find that the plaintiff is wanting in her evidence. I have heard that the judges are "inference challenged." To see how long it takes to succesfully overcome this bias see the post here.
