A Christian professor in Ohio was allowed by the Court to pursue a case against a university that punished him for refusing to call a transgender student by his preferred pronoun.
Nicholas Meriwether, a Christian professor at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio is fighting for his constitutional rights after the university he works for punished him when he refused to call a transgender student by the pronoun he wanted.
The transgender student was a biologically born male who said he identified as a woman and wanted to be called "miss" instead of "sir."
Meriwether, the professor embroiled in the lawsuit, is a member of the Presbyterian Church of America. In 2018, he was threatened to be fired or suspended without pay after an investigation launched by the university found that he had allegedly created a "hostile environment" for the transgender student.
On Friday, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Meriwether and the case was sent back to the lower court, the Christian Post reported.
In the case, the Christian professor argued that the university he worked for violated his rights to free speech by controlling how he should refer to the students in his political philosophy class just so that a trans-identified student would not feel offended. The Christian professor argued that calling the student by his preferred pronoun, in this case the female pronoun despite being born male, would violate the professor's religious beliefs.
After a complaint was filed with the school administration, a superior suggested that Meriwether just call all of his students by their last names. The Christian professor suggested instead to call all of his students by their proper titles and names except the transgender student, who he would call by his last name. The superior agreed to the suggestion but the student was displeased, threatening to file a Title IX lawsuit, which led to an investigation.
The Title IX investigation was reportedly unfair, as it interviewed merely four witnesses, including Meriwether and the transgender student. The 6th Circuit ruling argued that there were no other non-transgender students in the class who was intervied or presented as a potential witness. Meriwether's case on the other hand claims that the school violated his First and 14th Amendment rights, the Ohio Constitution, and his contract with Shawnee State University.
According to The Washington Post, the three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit on Friday ruled in favor of Meriwether, stating that Shawnee State University "silenced a viewpoint that could have catalyzed a robust and insightful in-class discussion," the words of former President Donald Trump-appointed Judge Amul Thapar.
"We are very pleased that the 6th Circuit affirmed the constitutional right of public university professors to speak and lead discussions, even on hotly contested issues," Alliance Defending Freedom Vice President of Appellate Advocacy and Senior Counsel John Bursch said in a statement. "The freedoms of speech and religion must be vigorously protected if universities are to remain places where ideas can be debated and learning can take place."
