McNellis v. Douglas County School District

Oral argument

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Source: CourtListener oral-argument corpus (CC0).

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that the plaintiff’s termination constitutes a materially adverse action
• holding that a teacher’s speech was unprotected at the 12(b)(6) stage even though he also self-identified as a concerned parent when he spoke because “the substance and context of his speech in the totality” showed that he spoke as a school employee
• finding that Plaintiff stated a religious discrimination claim where Plaintiff alleged “[Plaintiff] is a Christian man” and his belief was that “[a]s a [C]hristian . . . the love that Jesus can provide will help the play”
• holding a plaintiff did not succeed in alleging other individuals were similarly situated to him when the plaintiff “alleged no facts that would allow [the court] to conclude [other employees] shared a supervisor, evaluation and performance standards, or comparable behavior”
• explaining we “routinely have declined to consider arguments that are not raised . . . in an appellant’s opening brief” (internal quotation marks omitted)
• discussing how elements of prima facie case in discrimination cases vary depending on context but that this is the general formulation

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Cited by

2 cases in this archive cite this case.

• Dawn Lui v. Louis Dejoy
  Ninth Circuit· 2025-02-26· cited 29×
• Jenny v. L3Harris Technologies, Inc.
  Tenth Circuit· 2025-07-21

Cites

42 cases in this archive are cited by this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

• Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly
  Supreme Court· 2007-05-21· cited 146,720×
• McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green
  Supreme Court· 1973-05-14· cited 38,518×
• Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N. A.
  Supreme Court· 2002-02-26· cited 8,748×
• Pickering v. Board of Ed. of Township High School Dist. 205, Will Cty.
  Supreme Court· 1968-06-03· cited 6,021×
• Robbins Ex Rel. Robbins v. Oklahoma Ex Rel. Department of Human Services
  Tenth Circuit· 2008-03-21· cited 3,738×
• Garcetti v. Ceballos
  Supreme Court· 2006-05-30· cited 2,871×
• Furnco Construction Corp. v. Waters
  Supreme Court· 1978-06-29· cited 2,372×
• Khalik v. United Air Lines
  Tenth Circuit· 2012-02-06· cited 1,594×
• Desert Palace, Inc. v. Costa
  Supreme Court· 2003-06-09· cited 1,575×
• Gee v. Pacheco
  Tenth Circuit· 2010-10-26· cited 1,070×
• Kendrick v. Penske Transportation Services, Inc.
  Tenth Circuit· 2000-08-08· cited 795×
• Bronson v. Swensen
  Tenth Circuit· 2007-08-29· cited 757×
• Anderson v. Coors Brewing Co.
  Tenth Circuit· 1999-06-30· cited 528×
• Johnson v. Weld County, Colo.
  Tenth Circuit· 2010-02-24· cited 396×
• Burnett v. Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.
  Tenth Circuit· 2013-02-01· cited 378×
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. PVNF, L.L.C.
  Tenth Circuit· 2007-05-14· cited 344×
• Plotke v. White
  Tenth Circuit· 2005-04-28· cited 319×
• Morris v. City of Colorado Springs
  Tenth Circuit· 2012-01-18· cited 267×
• RUIZ v. McDONNELL
  Tenth Circuit· 2002-08-08· cited 244×
• Bekkem v. Wilkie
  Tenth Circuit· 2019-02-12· cited 215×