Opinion ID: 1435290
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Chilling

Text: The district court examined several occasions on which Brodheim claims his exercise of the right to file grievances was chilled, as well as the number of grievances that Brodheim filed after the incident, and concluded that Brodheim failed to produce sufficient evidence of such chilling. However, this focus on whether or not the record showed Cry was actually chilled was incorrect. In Rhodes, we explicitly held that an objective standard governs the chilling inquiry; a plaintiff does not have to show that his speech was actually inhibited or suppressed, but rather that the adverse action at issue would chill or silence a person of ordinary firmness from future First Amendment activities. 408 F.3d at 568-69, quoting Mendocino Enviro. Center v. Mendocino Cty., 192 F.3d 1283, 1300 (9th Cir.1999) (emphasis in original). To hold otherwise would be unjust as it would allow a defendant to escape liability for a First Amendment violation merely because an unusually determined plaintiff persists in his protected activity. Id. at 569. We cannot say that, as a matter of law based upon the record before us, Brodheim has failed to meet this objective standard. A reasonable person may have been chilled by Cry's warning. We therefore reverse the finding of the district court as to chilling.