Monday's Fourth Circuit opinions from Judges Robert King, Marvin Quattlebaum, and Henry Floyd (Smith v. Towson Univ. and Doe v. ABA Accredited Univ.) were nonprecedential, and upheld the lower court decisions under an "abuse of discretion" standard. This basically means that the Court of Appeals concluded that the lower court decisions weren't clearly wrong; it didn't hold that they were the only right possible answer. Nonetheless, the court's action struck me as sufficiently worth noting; here is one of the decisions that the court upheld, Judge Rubin's decision in Smith v. Towson Univ. (D. Md.):
Self-represented plaintiff John Smith, filed the above-captioned Complaint. Plaintiff alleges that, among other things, his rights under the Rehabilitation Act were violated and he was discriminated against based on his mental health disability by Defendant and its employees….
Plaintiff seeks an order allowing him to proceed in this action under the pseudonym "John Smith." In support of this motion, Plaintiff provides minimal information to support his request but states that he is "mentally disabled" and was "stigmatized and subjected to disparate treatment" due to this status.. He states that the claims in his Complaint concern the animus of Defendant's staff toward him and their expectation that due to his mental disability he would be violent. He further contends that
the political landscape [is] increasingly divisive surrounding the stereotypical association between mental illness and school shootings [and he] would be subjected to irreparable harm that would exacerbate his mental disabilities, would permanently expose private and sensitive information that's protected under HIPPA laws, would result in the loss of future career opportunities that would discriminate against Plaintiff for the slander Defendants have created fueled by Plaintiff's mental disabilities, and without such protections, would act as a severe deterrent form similarly situated Plaintiff from pursuing litigation in exercising their rights.
Therefore, Plaintiff claims he should be permitted to pursue his claim under a pseudonym so that he can "expose corruption without the fear of it causing irreparable harm to his medical conditions and his future career." …
