My understanding is that the Rooney Rule only applies to interviewing quotas and not HIRING quotas. If they interviewed two outside minority candidates, then wouldn't one argue they satisfied the Rooney Rule requirement? I think the question becomes is it ILLEGAL (or against the Rooney Rule) to extend an offer (verbal or written) to someone then continue to interview other candidates? My understanding is that you can extend an offer to someone and still continue to interview other candidates until the offer is accepted at which point the job req is considered closed. Many times, a favorite candidate may reject an offer. I've seen offers extended and interviews continue all the time in case an offer is rejected, so an open position can be filled timely. It happens in nursing in small nursing facilities all the time because of the importance with time to hire and staffing shortage issues. For example, you interview 4 candidates, extend a verbal offer to candidate 3, candidate 3 states they would like a week to think about the offer, you continue to interview other candidates incase candidate 3 rejects the offer, then candidate 3 accepts the offer and you close out the job req. Nothing illegal about it, because a job is not officially closed until an offer is accepted/contract signed. Even if the other candidates had little chance because there was a preferred candidate, I don't see how that's illegal either. It may be bad HR practice at best (ranking candidates based off their resume alone or word of mouth vs also considering interview performance and reference checks).
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