Aiello

*868 MEMORANDUM *

Plaintiff-Appellant Leonard Aiello (“Aiello”), an Italian American employed by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, filed a complaint alleging that he had been discriminated against under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in connection with his numerous promotion and transfer attempts. After trial, Aiello was awarded compensatory damages by the jury, which found that his supervisors had given him artificially low Officer Corps Rating System (“OCORS”) evaluations in retaliation for his having filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”). The court thereafter, however, granted defendant’s motion for judgment as a matter of law (the “JMOL Order”). We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we vacate and remand.

In order to make out a prima facie case of retaliation under Title VII, a plaintiff must show that: (1) he engaged in protected activity; (2) his employer subjected him to an adverse employment action; and (3) a causal link exists between the protected activity and the adverse action. Steiner v. Showboat Operating Co., 25 F.3d 1459, 1464 (9th Cir.1994). Once a prima facie case has been…