Stewart Handte v. Storey County
Opinion
Opinion
MEMORANDUM
Stewart Handte, formerly a deputy sheriff with the Storey County Sheriffs Office, appeals the district court’s dismissal of his amended complaint for failure to state a claim. Although he ultimately resigned from his position as a deputy sheriff, Handte alleged that he was reprimanded, suspended, and then constructively discharged for speaking out on matters of public concern. Handte limits his appeal to the dismissal of his First Amendment retaliation and state law tortious discharge claims. Because the factual and procedural background is familiar to the parties, we do hot recount it here. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.
In Eng v. Cooley, 552 F.3d 1062 (9th Cir.2009), this court explained that, in a First Amendment retaliation case, a court must employ a sequential five-step test, considering:
Id. at 1070 . Because these are sequential steps, a plaintiffs failure to satisfy any one of the steps ends the inquiry. Johnson v. Poway Unified Sch. Dist., 658 F.3d 954, 961-62 (9th Cir.2011). Here, the district court correctly determined that Handte failed at Eng’s first step, the public concern step.