In general yes, but you're on the most solid ground if you just state no reason for firing, or something generic like wanting to align staffing with business ne

In general yes, but you're on the most solid ground if you just state no reason for firing, or something generic like wanting to align staffing with business needs. If you actually give a reason but it appears to the court to be a malicious or vindictive one, in some states it can run afoul of the implied requirement, read into all economic relationships, of good faith and fair dealing. I'm not sure if it would apply here (probably not), but it's been applied in the past when a manager appeared to be doing things like timing a layoff to deliberately cause maximal harm to the employee, or a company had an unwritten policy of firing people before benefits vested in order to make sure the promised benefits never materialized.