Phillips

1. Introduction

Plaintiff Frederick Phillips filed a wrongful termination action against defendant St. Mary Regional Medical Center, a nonprofit religious corporation, alleging that defendant retaliated against him for filing a complaint for race and sex discrimination with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Plaintiff claimed that defendant violated the public policy set forth in the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), 1 article I, section 8 of the California Constitution (Section 8), and title YU of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII). 2 In response to a demurrer filed by defendant, the trial court found, as a matter of law, that plaintiff failed to state a cause of action for wrongful termination because the cited authorities were inadequate to overcome the religious-entity exemption under the preamended version of FEHA.

In challenging the court’s decision sustaining defendant’s demurrer, plaintiff argues that all three sources of public policy were adequate to support his claims for wrongful termination. Although we reject plaintiff’s reliance on FEHA, which at the time of plaintiff’s…