Dougherty

MEMORANDUM **

Linda Dougherty and Jennifer Lindwall (“appellants”) bring this interlocutory appeal challenging the district court’s denial of their motion for summary judgment of qualified immunity on Ho-Chuan Chen’s and Hossein Barahimi’s (“appellees”) claims of First Amendment employment retaliation. We dismiss in part, affirm in part and remand.

In this type of interlocutory appeal, we may review only “abstract issues of law” and lack jurisdiction to decide challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence proffered at summary judgment, including “the existence, or nonexistence, of a triable issue of fact,” and “whether or not the pretrial record sets forth a ‘genuine’ issue of fact for trial.” See Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 316-17, 320 , 115 S.Ct. 2151 , 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995); see also Behrens v. Pelletier, 516 U.S. 299, 313 , 116 S.Ct. 834 , 133 L.Ed.2d 773 (1996). Because this appeal is concerned primarily with challenges to evidentiary sufficiency, we dismiss it in part. We discuss here only those matters raised on appeal that properly fall within our interlocutory jurisdiction.

After the district court denied summary judgment, the Supreme Court decided Garcetti v.…