Peterson v. Hewlett-Packard Co.

• Decision Date: 06 January 2004
• Docket Number: No. 01-35795.,01-35795.
• Citation: 358 F.3d 599
• Parties: Richard D. PETERSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HEWLETT-PACKARD CO., a corporation, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

358 F.3d 599

Richard D. PETERSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HEWLETT-PACKARD CO., a corporation, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 01-35795.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted March 4, 2003 — Seattle, Washington.

Filed January 6, 2004.

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Christ T. Troupis, Troupis & Summer Law Office, Meridian, ID; and Kenneth D. Nyman, Anderson, Julian & Hull, LLP, Boise, ID, for the plaintiff-appellant.

William L. Mauk and Grant T. Burgoyne, Mauk & Burgoyne, Boise, ID, for the defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Idaho; Larry M. Boyle, Magistrate Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-00-00068-LMB.

Before: REINHARDT, W. FLETCHER, and GOULD, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Reinhardt.

OPINION

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge:

In this religious discrimination action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. and Idaho law, Richard Peterson claims that his former employer, the Hewlett-Packard Company, engaged in disparate treatment by terminating him on account of his religious views and that it failed to accommodate his religious beliefs. The district court granted Hewlett-Packard's motion for summary judgment on the grounds that: 1) Peterson failed to raise an inference of disparate treatment and 2) accommodating Peterson's beliefs would inflict undue hardship upon Hewlett-Packard. We affirm.

I. Background

Peterson was employed in the Boise, Idaho office of Hewlett-Packard for almost 21 years prior to his termination. The parties do not dispute that Peterson's job performance was satisfactory. The conflict between Peterson and Hewlett-Packard arose when the company began displaying "diversity posters" in its Boise office as one component of its workplace diversity campaign. The first series consisted of five posters, each showing a photograph of a Hewlett-Packard employee above the caption "Black," "Blonde," "Old," "Gay," or "Hispanic." Posters in the second series included photographs of the same five employees and a description of the featured employee's personal interests, as well as the slogan "Diversity is Our Strength."

Peterson describes himself as a "devout Christian," who believes that homosexual activities violate the commandments contained in the Bible and that he has a duty "to expose evil when confronted with sin." In response to the posters that read "Gay," Peterson posted two Biblical scriptures on an overhead bin in his work cubicle. The scriptures were printed in a typeface large enough to be visible to co-workers, customers, and others who passed through an adjacent corridor. One of Peterson's postings was taken from II Corinthians 10:12. The other featured the following passage from Isaiah:

The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! For they have rewarded evil unto themselves. Isaiah 3:9

Subsequently, Peterson posted a third scriptural passage. This time he chose the well-known and highly controversial passage from Leviticus:

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be put upon them. Leviticus 20:13

Peterson's direct supervisor removed the scriptural passages after consulting her supervisor and determining that they could be offensive to certain employees, and that the posting of the verses violated Hewlett-Packard's policy prohibiting harassment. Throughout the relevant period, Hewlett-Packard's harassment policy stated as follows:

Any comments or conduct relating to a person's race, gender, religion, disability, age, sexual orientation, or ethnic background that fail to respect the dignity and feeling [sic] of the individual are unacceptable.

Over the course of several days after Peterson posted the Biblical materials, he attended a series of meetings with Hewlett-Packard managers, during which he and they tried to explain to each other their respective positions. Peterson explained that he meant the passages to communicate a message condemning "gay behavior." The scriptural passages, he said, were "intended to be hurtful. And the reason [they were] intended to be hurtful is you cannot have correction unless people are faced with truth." Peterson hoped that his gay and lesbian co-workers would read the passages, repent, and be saved.

In these meetings, Peterson also asserted that Hewlett-Packard's workplace diversity campaign was an initiative to "target" heterosexual and fundamentalist Christian employees at Hewlett-Packard, in general, and him in particular. Ultimately, Peterson and the managers were unable to agree on how to resolve the conflict. Peterson proposed that he would remove the offending scriptural passages if Hewlett-Packard removed the "Gay" posters; if, however, Hewlett-Packard would not remove the posters, he would not remove the passages. When the managers rejected both options, Peterson responded: "I don't see any way that I can compromise what I am doing that would satisfy both [Hewlett-Packard] and my own conscience." He further remonstrated: "as long as [Hewlett-Packard] is condoning [homosexuality] I'm going to oppose it...."

Peterson was given time off with pay to reconsider his position. When he returned to work, he again posted the scriptural passages and refused to remove them. After further meetings with Hewlett-Packard managers, Peterson was terminated for insubordination.

Following receipt of a right to sue notice from the EEOC, Peterson filed a complaint alleging religious discrimination in violation of Title VII and the Idaho Human Rights Act; wrongful discharge in violation of public policy; and other state law claims that he later dropped. Both parties moved for summary judgment. The district court granted Hewlett-Packard's motion and denied Peterson's.

II. Analysis

We review the district court's order granting summary judgment de novo. Balint v. Carson City, 180 F.3d 1047, 1050 (9th Cir.1999) (en banc).

Title VII makes it unlawful for an employer "to discharge any individual ... because of such individual's ... religion[.]" 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1). "The term `religion' includes all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as belief, unless an employer demonstrates that he is unable to reasonably accommodate to an employee's ... religious observance or practice without undue hardship on the conduct of the employer's business." 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(j); see also Lawson v. Washington, 296 F.3d 799, 804 (9th Cir. 2002); Tiano v. Dillard Dep't Stores, Inc., 139 F.3d 679, 681 (9th Cir.1998). Our analysis of Peterson's religious discrimination claims under the Idaho Human Rights Act is the same as under Title VII. See Sengupta v. Morrison-Knudsen Co., 804 F.2d 1072, 1077 (9th Cir.1986) (citing Bowles v. Keating, 100 Idaho 808, 812, 606 P.2d 458 (1979)). Therefore, our analysis of the Title VII claims also disposes of the Idaho state claims.

A claim for religious discrimination under Title VII can be asserted under several different theories, including disparate treatment and failure to accommodate. See Chalmers v. Tulon Co. of Richmond, 101 F.3d 1012, 1017-18 (4th Cir.1996); Mann v. Frank, 7 F.3d 1365, 1368-70 (8th Cir.1993). In arguing that Hewlett-Packard discriminated against him on account of his religious beliefs, Peterson relies on both these theories.

A. Disparate Treatment

To survive summary judgment on his disparate treatment claim, Peterson must establish that his job performance was satisfactory and provide evidence, either direct or circumstantial, to support a reasonable inference that his termination was discriminatory. Chalmers, 101 F.3d at 1017. The amount of evidence that Peterson must produce is "very little," Chuang v. Univ. of Cal. Davis, 225 F.3d 1115, 1124 (9th Cir.2000), so long as it is more than "purely conclusory allegations of alleged discrimination, with no concrete, relevant particulars." Forsberg v. Pac. Northwest Bell Tel. Co., 840 F.2d 1409, 1419 (9th Cir.1988).

We analyze the evidence that Peterson presents in support of his disparate treatment claim under the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework which he invokes. McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). Under this approach, Peterson has the burden of establishing a prima facie case by showing that (1) he is a member of a protected class; (2) he was qualified for his position; (3) he experienced an adverse employment action; and (4) similarly situated individuals outside his protected class were treated more favorably, or other circumstances surrounding the adverse employment action give rise to an inference of discrimination. Chuang, 225 F.3d at 1123; Lyons v. England, 307 F.3d 1092, 1112-14 (9th Cir.2002); Mandell v. County of Suffolk, 316 F.3d 368, 377-78 (2d Cir.2003). It is with respect to the fourth requirement that Peterson's case fails.

Initially, we address Peterson's argument that Hewlett-Packard's workplace diversity campaign was "a crusade to convert fundamentalist Christians to its values," including the promotion of "the homosexual lifestyle." The undisputed evidence shows that Hewlett-Packard carefully developed its campaign during a three-day diversity conference at its Boise facility in 1997 and subsequent planning meetings in which numerous employees participated. The campaign's stated goal — and no evidence suggests that it was pretextual — was to increase tolerance of diversity. Peterson may be correct that the campaign devoted special attention to combating prejudice against homosexuality, but such an emphasis is in no manner unlawful. To the contrary, Hewlett-Packard's efforts to eradicate discrimination against homosexuals in its workplace were entirely consistent with the goals and objectives of our civil rights statutes generally. See, e.g., Nichols v. Azteca...