( December 18, 2025, 8:35 AM EST) -- ATLANTA — An 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that a federal judge in Georgia “improperly conflated” the pretext analysis of McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green “and the ‘convincing mosaic’ standard” when granting summary judgment to a group of county sheriff’s office employees who were sued by a fired employee for retaliation following complaints of harassment, reversing and remanding the case with instructions to apply the convincing mosaic standard as the standard of review....