Wendy Thomas v. County of Riverside Sheriff's

Plaintiffs Wendy Thomas and her labor union appeal the grant of summary judgment on their First Amendment retaliation claims, and defendants cross-appeal a later order denying them attorneys’ fees. We review the grant of summary judgment de novo, Crane v. Conoco, Inc., 41 F.3d 547, 549 (9th Cir.1994), and the denial of attorneys’ fees for abuse of discretion, Tutor-Saliba Corp. v. City of Hailey, 452 F.3d 1055, 1059 (9th Cir.2006).

On summary judgment in a First Amendment retaliation case, a plaintiff must provide evidence of materially adverse employment actions that are “reasonably likely to deter” protected speech. Coszalter v. City of Salem, 320 F.3d 968, 976 (9th Cir.2003). Thomas adduced evidence of more than 30 adverse employment actions, but the district court dismissed all of them, analyzing nine in some detail and collectively dismissing the rest as “petty workplace gripes ... [that] do not rise to the level of retaliatory adverse employment actions.”

Adverse employment actions that are so trivial as to be legally insufficient “include only minor acts, such as ‘badmouthing,’ that cannot reasonably be expected to deter protected speech.” Coszalter, 320 F.3d at…