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Employment – ARRA — retaliation

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//May 19, 2014//

Employment – ARRA — retaliation

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//May 19, 2014//

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U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit

Civil

Employment – ARRA — retaliation

Where an employer received no funds under the ARRA, its termination of an employee did not violate the whistleblower protection law.

“Fuqua first claims that he, SVOX, and Nuance have each received covered funds by licensing government-sponsored data from NIST competitions that were sponsored with money provided under the ARRA. Fuqua vaguely asserts that both SVOX and Nuance received covered funds by participating in the competitions, but fails to identify any money that would qualify under the definition provided in the ARRA section 1553(g)(2). In his complaint, Fuqua does not allege that SVOX or Nuance received ‘funds … appropriated or otherwise made available by [the ARRA].’ § 1553(g)(2). Fuqua’s complaint ‘must actually suggest that [he] has a right to relief, by providing allegations that raise a right to relief above the speculative level.’ Windy City Metal Fabricators & Supply, Inc. v. CIT Tech. Fin. Servs., 536 F.3d 663, 668 (7th Cir. 2008) (quotation omitted). Simply reciting the elements of a cause of action is insufficient to state a claim for relief. Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 679. Fuqua has failed to plead how any of the NIST licensing data received by SVOX or Nuance constituted covered funds as defined by the ARRA. The fact that a party licensed data from a third party, i.e. NIST, that received covered funds does not qualify as receiving a ‘contract, grant, or other payment’ from the federal government. ARRA § 1553(g)(2).”

Affirmed.

12-1870 Fuqua v. SVOX AG

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Guzmán, J., Kanne, J.

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