California labor law and the courts will decide this. He has a case, and although I might have fired him as well, I have to agree that -- under California law -- he didn't even have to be right, to be protected from termination, under Google's own system that promotes these types of debates.
That said ...
You did see this, correct?
"Over half of Google employees polled say the web giant shouldn't have fired the engineer behind the controversial memo"
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http://www.businessinsider.com/many...nk-james-damore-should-have-been-fired-2017-8
One executive really f'd up, catering to a subset of women who really didn't want any such discussion at all -- which alone might be merit for his lawsuit (discrimination that his ideas cannot be heard) -- and that's not just my viewpoint. There are a lot of Google employees who -- like me -- might disagree with him, but don't believe he did anything that was against policy.
If anything, he utterly followed policy ... to the letter, and wanted to start a real debate about Google's horrendous statistics on women and minorities in general. I can actually see that, as much as I disagree with many of his theories and sources -- he made a concerted effort to make an argument ... with references no less.
So don't write off Google yet ... there will be some fallout from this, despite what the US Media proliferates. Especially since Google did nothing when it first came and, and did not feel it was in violation of their policies. It was a 'knee jerk' done by a single executive, force by threat from various, female employees ... and only after it went public.
Again ... we'll see. He has a case.