Opinion ID: 1359876
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Patterson's Religious-, Racial-, and Age-discrimination Claims

Text: Patterson claims his dismissal from the Star was motivated by discrimination based on his religion, race, and age. Like Coffey, Patterson has established the first and third elements of his prima facie case. He is a member of three protected classes for purposes of these claims: He is African-American, he was 51-years old when fired, and he describes himself as a traditional Christian who is opposed to homosexual conduct as a matter of his religious belief. And Patterson suffered an adverse employment action when the Star fired him. The basic problem with all of Patterson's discrimination claims is that he cannot show he was meeting the Star 's legitimate performance expectations. The undisputed evidence establishes that Patterson had a long history of performance problems ranging from reporting errors to writing deficiencies. Patterson's poor performance continued after the Star placed him on a Performance Improvement Plan. We need not belabor this point; it goes without saying that factual accuracy, adequate reporting, and clean writing are legitimate performance expectations at a newspaper. Patterson claims that Swarens worked him harder than the other editorial writers and that other writers made more errors than he did, but there is no evidentiary support for these contentions. Patterson's retaliation claim suffers from the same fundamental deficiency. Title VII prohibits employers from retaliating against employees for exercising their rights under the antidiscrim ination statutes. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3(a). As with his discrimination claims, Patterson proceeds on his retaliation claim under the indirect method of proof, which requires a showing that he (1) engaged in statutorily protected activity; (2) met the Star 's legitimate performance expectations; (3) suffered an adverse employment action; and (4) was treated less favorably than similarly situated employees. Moser v. Ind. Dep't of Corr., 406 F.3d 895, 903 (7th Cir. 2005). Because the undisputed evidence establishes that Patterson was not meeting the Star 's legitimate performance expectations, he cannot establish a prima facie case of retaliation. Patterson's Title VII claims were properly dismissed.