Anthony Kiel v. Sheriff Anthony Lowery, in his official capacity as Sheriff of Baldwin County

Summary

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama considers Sheriff Anthony Lowery’s motion for summary judgment in Anthony Kiel’s action concerning employment-related discipline or adverse treatment arising from Kiel’s social-media posts and expressed religious, gender-related, and sexual-orientation views. The opinion discusses the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office’s speech, conduct, and anti-discrimination policies, the workplace effects of Kiel’s posts, and the parties’ summary-judgment evidence. The court grants the motion for summary judgment.

Holdings

1. The failure to obtain a separate right-to-sue notice from the Attorney General did not require dismissal because Defendant conceded that equitable modification of the requirement was appropriate where Kiel relied on the EEOC right-to-sue letter.
2. Kiel did not present direct evidence of religious discrimination because his supervisor's derogatory comments were not shown to be tied to the decision to initiate disciplinary proceedings and the supervisor was not a decisionmaker in that process.
3. Kiel failed to present a convincing mosaic of circumstantial evidence from which a jury could infer intentional religious discrimination by the decisionmaker.
4. Kiel failed to establish causation for his retaliation claim because the employer had begun considering disciplinary action based on his social-media post before he complained to human resources about his supervisor's comments.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Defendant was entitled to summary judgment on Kiel's Title VII religious-discrimination claim because the evidence did not establish direct evidence or a convincing mosaic of circumstantial evidence of discriminatory intent.
2. Whether Defendant was entitled to summary judgment on Kiel's Title VII retaliation claim because the employer had contemplated disciplinary action before Kiel engaged in protected activity and therefore temporal proximity did not establish causation.
3. Whether Kiel's failure to obtain a separate right-to-sue notice from the Attorney General required dismissal of his Title VII claims.

Disposition

dismissed