Does a failure to hire an applicant who failed to show that he was qualified for the job defeat his claim for race discrimination at the prima facie stage?

Horne's inability to show that he was qualified for the job does not necessarily defeat his claim for race discrimination at the prima facie stage because Horne can still establish an inference that the council's intent was discriminatory since the council was unaware of his disqualification when his application was rejected. (See Teamsters v. United States (1977) 431 U.S. 324, 358, fn. 44, 97 S.Ct. 1843, 52 L.Ed.2d 396 [to establish prima facie case when bringing failure-to-hire claim, a plaintiff must "demonstrate at least that his rejection did not result from the two most common legitimate reasons on which an employer might rely to reject a job applicant: an absolute or relative lack of qualifications or the absence of a vacancy in the job sought"].)