[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT FILED
____________________ U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
No. 09-11365 JULY 8, 2009
Non-Argument Calendar THOMAS K. KAHN
____________________ CLERK
D. C. Docket No. 05-00186-CV-1
ANA M. ABREU-VELEZ,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
versus
BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF GA,
MEDICAL COLLEGE OF GEORGIA,
DENNIS MARCUS,
M.D.,
Defendants-Appellees.
_____________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Georgia
_____________________
(July 8, 2009)
Before TJOFLAT, BIRCH and HULL, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
The district court granted appellees summary judgment on appellant’s
claims, brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, that (1) her employment was terminated
at the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) in retaliation for her exercise of
speech—specifically, for voicing concerns about appellee Marcus’s clinical
trials—and (2) MCG refused to employ her for any number of the 130 jobs she
applied for, and was qualified, in retaliation for the complaints she had made
following her termination. After granting appellees summary judgment, the
district court declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over appellant’s
whistleblower claim under state law and accordingly dismissed it without
prejudice.
Appellant now appeals, contending that the district court erred in several
respects in granting summary judgment. She also contends that the court should
have recused. We agree with the district court, for the reasons stated in its
February 12, 2009 order granting summary judgment, that appellant’s § 1983
claims of retaliation are meritless. As for appellant’s recusal argument, we note
that appellant did not move the district court to recuse while the case was pending
before the court. She therefore asks, in effect, that we conclude that the court’s
refusal to recuse sua sponte amounted to plain error. We decline her request.
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The judgment of the district court is
AFFIRMED.
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