In yesterday's Doe v. Doe, defendant Jane Doe had filed a Title IX complaint against fellow Tulane student John Doe: Both Jane and another student (not a party to the case), Sue Roe, had "reported having consensual sex with [John], falling asleep, and waking up to him engaging in sexual activity." Tulane found John "responsible for sexual misconduct" and expelled him, but
[John] alleges that [Jane's] statement to Tulane investigators was false, defamatory, and contradicted by other evidence, and that [Jane] conspired with Sue Roe and submitted false evidence in the course of the investigation.
John therefore sued Jane for, among other things, libel, and sought to proceed pseudonymously, but the District Court rejected that request, and the Fourth Circuit upheld that decision. Much of the Fourth Circuit's analysis turns on the appellate standard of review, which is for "abuse of discretion," so the Fourth Circuit's holding is simply that the District Court didn't seriously err in denying pseudonymity—the Fourth Circuit did not hold that courts must deny pseudonymity in such situations. Nonetheless, the court had some general things to say that I expect will be relevant for future cases:
