Attorneys representing a college professor punished for refusing to address a transgender student by the student’s preferred pronouns just filed an appeal after a federal judge dismissed his lawsuit on March 12.
Nicholas Meriwether, a professor at Shawnee State University, made headlines in 2018 when he refused to honor a biologically male transgender student’s request to be referred to as a woman, with a female title and pronouns such as “she” and “her.” The student vowed to get Meriwether fired. The university launched an official investigation, then formally charged Meriwether, put a warning in his file, and said he would receive further punishment if he did not acquiesce to the student’s wishes.
Meriwether filed suit, alleging that officials at Shawnee State had violated his First Amendment rights by forcing him to address the student in a way that violates his faith. A federal judge dismissed it last month, saying that the way Meriwether addressed the student, by refusing to use preferred pronouns, was not protected under the First Amendment.
“Professors don’t give up their First Amendment freedoms simply by choosing to teach,” Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Travis Barham, the attorney representing Meriwether, said in a statement. “Public universities have no business trying to force people to express ideological beliefs that they do not hold. Dr. Meriwether remains committed to serving all students with respect, but he cannot express all messages or endorse all ideologies. When the university tried to force him to do this and then punished him for exercising his rights, it violated the First Amendment.”
Barham claims that the judge “misinterpreted and misapplied the law.” He is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to reverse the ruling.
This is a trickier case than usual because Meriwether is employed by a public institution. Thus, his refusal to abide by the student’s preference and the university’s guidelines present a different legal question than a typical free speech or free exercise dispute between two private parties.
While I understand the university’s case that it does have a vested interest to honor a student’s wishes, I also understand Meriwether’s case, that it does not seem constitutional, due to the First Amendment, that a public university can force a professor to violate his religious beliefs or compel speech against his will.
This issue of preferred gender pronouns is increasingly common in schools and at workplaces.
Psychologist Jordan Peterson, someone I’ve advocated for at length here at the Washington Examiner, initially skyrocketed to fame not because of his popular book 12 Rules for Life, but due to his refusal to bend to a human rights law in Canada that would possibly have compelled him as a professor to use preferred gender pronouns for transgender students.
The Supreme Court hasn’t heard a case quite like this yet, but it did examine an employment case that analyzed whether or not gender identity should be codified into law the way sex and race are under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It will be interesting to see what the appellate court does with Meriwether’s case and how the issue of speech, free exercise, and transgender pronouns continues to play out in the court of law.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
