It has been 2 long years of court and slander for professor Nick Meriwether, who finally was granted a win in court, thanks to the First Amendment.
This all began when a transgender student requested professor Meriwether to use “she/her” pronouns whenever he address him in class. Professor Meriwether being the smart man he is, capable of knowing a man from a woman, told the male student that he would be willing to call him by his new name (his chosen female name), but refused to call the male student by addressing him with female pronouns.
To me that is being over the top respectful, but for the "only I can be comfortable" left, this was unacceptable.
A federal judge agreed that the University violated professor Meriwether's freedom of speech and religion. The judge stated the following,
The First Amendment interests are especially strong here because Meriwether’s speech also relates to his core religious and philosophical believes…. If professors lacked free-speech protections when teaching, a university would wield alarming power to compel ideological conformity. - See full case notes here
The University has made a settlement with professor Meriwether. The professor will not be forced to use the students preferred pronouns to address him and the University agreed to pay him $400,000 in damages and attorney’s fees, as well as remove a disciplinary warning in his employment record.
See the Case Summary:
Shawnee State University officials punished a philosophy professor, Dr. Nicholas Meriwether, because he declined a male student’s demand to be referred to as a woman with feminine titles and pronouns (“Miss,” “she,” etc.) Although Dr. Meriwether offered to use the student’s preferred first or last name instead. Initially, the University accepted that compromise, only to reverse course days later. Ultimately, it punished him by putting a written warning in his personnel file and threatened “further corrective actions” unless he spoke contrary to his own philosophical and Christian convictions.
In November 2018, ADF filed a lawsuit on Dr. Meriwether’s behalf. Initially, a federal judge dismissed the case, but we appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. In March 2021, the 6th Circuit ruled in our favor, upholding Dr. Meriwether’s First Amendment rights. The 6th Circuit explained that 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 émigré to address his students as ‘comrades.’ That cannot be.”
In April 2022, Dr. Meriwether’s case concluded with a favorable settlement, in which the university agreed to pay $400,000 in damages and attorney’s fees, rescind the written warning it issued in June 2018, and affirm his right to address students consistent with his beliefs.
Let's hope for more wins supporting our rights!
