(JURIST) – The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held Friday that public universities cannot compel professors to respect student pronoun preferences. Per the court, such speech is protected under the First Amendment, particularly if pronoun preferences go against a professors religious or philosophical beliefs.
The case stemmed out of a dispute between Professor Nicholas Meriwether and a transgender student at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio. Meriwether teaches philosophy courses in the Socratic style, using formal, gendered titles in classes to encourage debate (Mr., Ms.). Jane Doe, the unnamed transgender student in the lawsuit, was a student of Meriwethers. She requested that Meriwether use she/her pronouns, but Meriwether refused, stating that doing so would go against his religious beliefs.
In the following months, Shawnee State University officials finally reached a temporary compromise where Meriwether would refer to Doe by her last name only. But the compromise soon fell through, when Shawnee States Title IX office recommended disciplinary charges against Meriwether for discrimination. Meriwether then brought suit in federal district court, where it was dismissed.
Upon appeal, arguments were heard in November and the Court of Appeals reversed the district courts dismissal.
In its opinion, the court states that academic freedom in colleges is of paramount importance, and exposing students to contrarian views is an essential part of a college education. The opinion further states that supporting transgender students pronoun preferences is an ideological task, and sends a message that professors can disagree with: People can have a gender identity inconsistent with their sex at birth.
The opinion further states:
If professors lacked free-speech protections when teaching, a university would wield alarming power to compel ideological conformity. A university president could require a pacifist to declare that war is just, a civil rights icon to condemn the Freedom Riders, a believer to deny the existence of God, or a Soviet migr to address his students as comrades.
This decision comes amidst a wave of transgender-rights cases currently ongoing across the US. Alabama is on track to pass a bill that would make providing any gender-affirming treatment for transgender youth a felony. Several states are also considering or have recently passed bills that would prohibit transgender youth from playing school sports on teams that align with their gender identity.
(c) 2021 Legal Monitor Worldwide. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
—-
This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
Judges who finally used their brain to think. I am in shock, as I do not have any faith in the Judiciary.
Even a broke clock, can be right twice a day. Just cause they got this ONE decision correct, doesn’t eliminate all the OTHER WRONG calls they’ve made.
Let’s hope Judges use their Brains and the law to make their rulings and not their feelings.
Gender identity controversy is fluff and nonsense. An infant at birth has male or female chromosomes. Which ever it is, is the sex distinction, It is both inherent and specific.
Gender however, is arbitrary, and contrived. Whether a transvestite in a miniskirt, or a scot in a kilt, both are similarly not trousers, and not bifurcated. Societal mores come into play here. And that is the elephant in the room folks are dancing around. IMHO
You are simply word playing here. Societal mores have nothing to do with it. Gender has ALWAYS been synonymous with biologic sex in the minds of EVERYONE, including the mentally ill transgenders. Otherwise, why have surgery and hormone treatment? They are trying to change their SEX.
ITS been that way for centuries..
One small victory for free speech against the leftist steamroller. Ironically, most professors are registered Dems i.e. leftist and they WANT to debase the English language, catering to a small cadre of hyper-activists using the gender confused to remove another brick from the wall of western civilization. All the evil ideas spreading through western culture were incubated in marxist-dominated academia and injected into America’s youth. It’s much more destructive than the Covid virus.
Wonder if student would have been happy with a new pronoun?
Shehim.
Pronunciation…..shim
These goof balls will have to quit school now and go back home to mommy with their hurt feelings. They didn’t get their way so they will be triggered. Why should .1 % of the population get to change our language and way of life.
I’m guessing the communazis will be working over time censoring all the foreign language courses, lecturing these countries that use these languages where all the nouns that have been assigned genders need to be corrected. le las les . . . der .. . die . ..das . . .
Na.. ITS ONLY white man’s language (ENGLISH) that needs to get sensored..