Question: Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority [SEPTA] is a regional mass transit authority in the Philadelphia area. SEPTA sought to upgrade the fitness level of its transit police by adopting a requirement that, in order to be hired as transit police, job applicants must be able to run 1.5 miles in twelve minutes or less. The requirement was developed by a consultant to SEPTA, Dr. Paul Davis, after he studied the job of transit officer for several days. He felt that completion of the 1.5 mile run within the required time would ensure that the applicant possessed sufficient aerobic capacity to perform the job. SEPTA also tested transit officers hired prior to the adoption of the 1.5-mile run requirement, and discovered that a significant percentage of the incumbents could not complete the run within the required time limit. Some of the incumbent employees who failed the run requirement had been awarded special recognition and commendations for their job performance.
One female employee, hired by mistake after she had failed the requirement, was nominated for Officer of the Year awards because of her job performance. After the adoption of the 1.5-mile run requirement, only 12 percent of the female applicants successfully passed it, while 56 percent of the male applicants passed it; SEPTA employed 234 transit police officers, but only sixteen of the officers were female. A group of female applicants who failed the 1.5-mile run requirement filed suit against SEPTA under Title VII, alleging that the 1.5-mile run requirement had a disparate impact on women. SEPTA argued that the more physically fit officers are, the better they are able to perform their job. Will the plaintiffs be successful in their suit, or can SEPTA establish that the 1.5-mile run requirement is job related? Explain your answer. See Lanning v. Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority [181 F.3d 478 (3d Cir. 1999), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 1131 (Mem.) (2000)].