“When superintendent Pope informed the school board that an individual needs to be hired because a local organization “expressed concern about a lack of black workers the court held that “discriminatory animus of a manager can be imputed to the ultimate decisionmaker if the decisionmaker acted as a rubber stamp, or the cat’s paw, for the subordinate employee’s prejudice.” Laxton v. GAP Inc., 333 F.3d 572, 584 (5th Cir.2003) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).  The relevant inquiry is whether Pope “had influence or leverage over” the LPSB’s decisionmaking.  See id. The jury could have inferred that Pope had influence or leverage over the LPSB based on Pope’s status as Superintendent and Pope’s acts of calling board members to press his recommendation.”

Pace v. Livingston Parish Sch. Bd., 13-30919, 2014 WL 3973059, at *5 (5th Cir. Aug. 15, 2014) (Higginbotham, Clement, and Higginson, JJ.).