Calvin Phillips v. Ray Mabus

MEMORANDUM

Calvin Phillips appeals the district court’s grant of summaiy judgment in favor of Ray Mabus, sued in his official capacity as Secretary of the Navy and referred to herein as “the Navy,” on Phillips’s claims for race, sex, age, and disability discrimination, and unlawful retaliation, brought under Title VII, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e-2, 2000e-3, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. § 623 , and the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 791 . We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , we review the grant of summary judgment de novo, Coons v. Sec’y of the U.S. Dep’t of the Treasury, 383 F.3d 879, 884 (9th Cir.2004), and we affirm.

1. Phillips has failed to make out a prima facie case for unlawful retaliation. See Brooks v. City of San Mateo, 229 F.3d 917, 928 (9th Cir.2000). Although the Navy chose to hire Felicia Williams instead of Phillips “on the heels” of his January 21, 2011 email complaining of mistreatment in his interview, Villiarimo v. Aloha Island Air, Inc., 281 F.3d 1054, 1065 (9th Cir.2002), the email was not a protected activity. Phillips admitted in the district court that he had no reasonable basis to believe that he had been subjected to age, race,…