CINCINNATI (Legal Newsline) - A professor is appealing a federal judge’s decision to dismiss his lawsuit against his college after he was disciplined for not addressing a male transgender student with feminine titles and pronouns because he says it violated his religious beliefs.
Nicholas Meriwether sued the trustees of Shawnee State University in the Southern District of Ohio, alleging they had violated his First Amendment rights. But in February a judge ruled against him, leading to an appeal filed March 12 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
“By punishing and threatening to punish Dr. Meriwether for expressing his views regarding gender identity, defendants have retaliated and are retaliating against Dr. Meriwether for exercising his First Amendment rights,” wrote Travis C. Barham, Meriwether’s attorney, in his lawsuit.
"Dr. Meriwether has always treated his students with dignity and respect, and he went out of his way to accommodate this student but that is not enough for the university, which has forgotten that tolerance is a two-way street," Barham told Legal Newsline.
"Due to the university’s actions, Dr. Meriwether is teaching with a dark cloud over his head. The university has threatened Dr. Meriwether with 'further corrective actions' unless he communicates the university’s chosen ideological message, and those actions could include suspension without pay or even termination."
District Judge Susan J. Dlott decided that the philosophy professor failed to state a claim for violation of his rights under the U.S. Constitution.
“His speech, the manner by which he addressed a transgender student, was not protected under the First Amendment,” wrote Judge Dlott in her Feb. 12 opinion.
Judge Dlott’s husband is an infamous class action attorney, Stanley Chesley, who was disbarred after it was determined that he had charged unreasonable fees, failed to document his contingency fee arrangement in writing, improperly divided legal fees with attorneys from different firms, represented clients with conflicting interests, made false statements to courts and many other allegations, according to media reports.
“Further, he [Meriwether] did not plead facts sufficient to state a claim for a violation of his rights to free exercise of religion for a departure from religious neutrality,” Dlott stated in her decision.
Dlott's decision is dangerous, according to Dr. Meriwether's attorney, because it eliminates the free speech rights of all professors by saying that the First Amendment does not protect anything professors say in their professional roles.
"For decades, the Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that free speech is most vital on our university campuses but here the University is forcing a philosophy professor to endorse an ideology he does not believe, which the government should never do," Barham said in an interview.
"Freedom — of speech and religious exercise — includes the freedom not to speak messages against our core beliefs."
Nicholas K. Meriwether v. the Trustees of Shawnee State University, et al. is currently on appeal before the Sixth Circuit.
"Tolerance, including in philosophy and politics, is a two-way street," Barham said.
"Professor Meriwether went out of his way to accommodate all his students and treat them all with respect; his university punished him because he wouldn’t contradict his core beliefs. University officials are attempting to shut out every viewpoint that opposes their own. And in their rush to punish Dr. Meriwether, they’ve forgotten why universities exist in the first place: education – not indoctrination."