Yesterday's Eleventh Circuit decision in Doe v. Florida Gulf Coast Univ. Bd. of Trustees (by Eleventh Circuit Judges Robert Luck, Andrew Brasher, and Nancy Abudu) involved a plaintiff who was suing under Title IX, challenging the University's decision to suspend him for allegedly having sex with his ex-girlfriend "when she was too intoxicated to consent." Plaintiff sought to proceed under a pseudonym—quite routine in such cases. But the district court said no, and the Eleventh Circuit held that the district court's decision wasn't an abuse of discretion:
We have laid out several considerations relevant to determining whether a district court should allow a litigant to proceed anonymously[:] … "whether the party seeking anonymity (1) is challenging government activity; (2) would be compelled, absent anonymity, to disclose information of utmost intimacy; or (3) would be compelled, absent anonymity, to admit an intent to engage in illegal conduct and thus risk criminal prosecution." "The 'information of utmost intimacy' standard" generally relates to topics like "abortion" as well as "prayer and personal religious beliefs." "On the other hand, courts have often denied the protection of anonymity in cases where plaintiffs allege sexual assault, even when revealing the plaintiff's identity may cause her to 'suffer some personal embarrassment.'" … We have [also] considered, for example, [4] whether "the party seeking anonymity is a minor," [5] whether the person "faces a real threat of physical harm absent anonymity," and [6] whether the movant would face "social stigma" if forced to proceed under the movant's true name.
The appellate court held that the district court didn't abuse its discretion as to the utmost intimacy and stigma factors:
