16-2532 Warburton v. Hoffman

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT



### SUMMARY ORDER

RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007 IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CI TING TO A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL.
At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seco nd Circuit, held at 1 the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthou se, 40 Foley Square, in the City of New York, 2 on the 13 th day of Febraury, two thousand seventeen. 3 4 PRESENT: 5 P IERRE N. L EVAL , 6 G UIDO C ALABRESI , 7 S USAN L. C ARNEY , 8 Circuit Judges

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_____________ _______________ _____________ 10 11 C HRISTOPHER W ARBURTON , 12 13 Plaintiff-Appellant
, 14 15 v. No. 16-2532 16 17 J OAN H OFFMAN , J AY H AMILTON , J EREMY T RAVIS , 18 19 Defendants-Appellees
, 20 21 J OHN J AY C OLLEGE OF C RIMINAL J USTICE , 22 23 Defendant. 24 25

_____________ _______________ _____________ 26 27 FOR APPELLANT: D ANIEL J. K AISER , Kaiser Saurborn & 28 Mair, P.C., New York, NY. 292 FOR APPELLEES: D AVID L AWRENCE III, Assistant Solicitor 1 General (Barbara D. Underwood, Solicitor 2 General, Steven C. Wu, Deputy Solicitor 3 General, on the brief), for Eric T. 4 Schneiderman, Attorney General of the 5 State of New York. 6 7 Appeal from judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District 8 of New York (Oetken, J. ). 9
UPON DUE CONSIDERATION WHEREOF, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, 10 ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the July 8, 2016 judgment of the District Court is 11
AFFIRMED

. 12 Plaintiff-Appellant Christopher Warburton is an African-American former assistant 13 professor in the economics department at J ohn Jay College of Criminal Justice. In his 14 complaint, Warburton alleges that Defendants discriminated and retaliated against him on 15 the basis of his race in their decision denying him reappointment and tenure. He pleads 16 claims under the United States and New Yo rk State Constitutions. The District Court 17 dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim. On appeal, Warburton challenges only 18 the District Court’s dismissal of his discrimi nation claim under the Fourteenth Amendment. 19 We assume the parties’ familiarity with the underlying facts and the procedural history of this 20 case, to which we refer only as necessary to explain our decision to affirm. 21

On de novo review, we conclude that the Dist rict Court properly dismissed the 22 complaint for failure to state a claim. Warburt on contends that the District Court incorrectly 23 employed a heightened pleading standard when it dismissed his discrimination claim. We 24 disagree. The District Court properly applied the standards recently articulated by this Court 25
in Littlejohn v. City of New York , 795 F.3d 297 (2d Cir. 2015), and Vega v. Hempstead Union Free 26
School District , 801 F.3d 72 (2d Cir. 2015). In those opinions, this Co urt clarified the pleading 27 standards governing employment discriminati on claims in view of the Supreme Court’s 28 landmark decisions in Ashcroft v. Iqbal , 556 U.S. 662 (2009), and Bell Atlantic Corporation v. 29 Twombly , 550 U.S. 544 (2007). See Vega , 801 F.3d at 87; Littlejohn , 795 F.3d at 311. We see no 30
error in the District Court’s articulati on or application of these standards. 313 To the extent Warburton also argues that , even under these standards, his complaint 1 pleads sufficient facts to support a claim of disc rimination, we conclude, for substantially the 2 reasons stated by the District Court, that the complaint does not do so. 3

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We have considered all of Warburton’s arguments on appeal and find them to be 5 without merit. The judgment of the District Court is AFFIRMED

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FOR THE COURT: 7 Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, Clerk of Court 8