Court Opinion

ID: 9475521
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:29:58.64647+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:45.893090
License: Public Domain

NIES, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I respectfully concur. I agree thoroughly that the Hagmeyer decision on the four requirements for reprisal requires clarification with respect to the meaning of “retaliation.” I also agree that petitioner’s interpretation eliminates part (4) of the Hagmeyer test. However, as I understand the majority’s interpretation, the majority separates “nexus” into two parts, an inference under (3) and a conclusion under (4).
In my view, part (3) means, as stated in Frazier, that, subsequent to engaging in protected activity, the employee was treated in an adverse fashion by the employer. In other words, part (3) relates simply to the time of the adverse action. This also appears to me to be the idea in Hagmeyer in using the word “retaliation,” which connotes an action in response to a prior action. In setting out a required sequence of events, part (3) has meaning apart from the fact that an adverse action is before the board. The adverse action must have occurred after the protected activity. Similarly, I would read “retaliation” in part (4) of the Hagmeyer test to mean than an adverse action occurred subsequently.