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Comment by andrewstuart2 | Hacker News Reader

Regardless of whether or not I think Google should have fired him, I'm not sure he really has a case here (but I'm not a lawyer).

He's alleging that Google fired him due to the fact that he had previously made a complaint to the NLRB. I think it's going to be really hard to prove that he is being fired as retaliation because of his complaint, since the memo he sent out seems much more likely to be the cause.

NLRB complaints don't give you immunity from firing for all circumstances. They prevent employers from firing you because you complained.

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"Nonetheless, many states do have laws that forbid employers from restricting some employee speech and political activity. And according to a 2012 paper by noted free speech scholar Eugene Volokh, California has such a law—and it's among the nation's strongest. The paper gives examples of how "political activities or affiliations" described in the law are broadly defined, and cites an influential court ruling from 1979:

“[P]olitical activities,” the California Supreme Court has stated, “cannot be narrowly confined to partisan activity,” but instead cover any activities involving the “espousal of a candidate or a cause,” including participating in broad social movements such as the gay rights movement."

http://fortune.com/2017/08/08/google-memo-legal/

California's protections are his best chance.

Link to Volokh paper: http://www2.law.ucla.edu/volokh/empspeech.pdf

His lawyers will have a hard time convincing anyone insulting thousands of colleagues is protected speech or political activity. What social movement is he participating in?

> Regardless of whether or not I think Google should have fired him, I'm not sure he really has a case here (but I'm not a lawyer).

I am and one thing you learn quickly in Law school is that you win cases not on the law but on facts, or rather your characterization of the facts. A good lawyer presenting facts in a way that they get through to a carefully selected jury can win almost any case that's based on a legally plausible claim.

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