In 2021, in Meriwether v. Hartop, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that a university professor could pursue First Amendment free expression and free exercise challenges to Shawnee State University's policy that required professors to use students' desired pronouns. Eugene blogged on the case, and I participated in an Academic Freedom Alliance webinar discussing it.
This past week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit considered some similar claims in Kluge v. Brownsburg Community School Corp. As with Meriwether, Kluge concerned a teacher's challenge to his school's policy as it relates to how teachers should refer to transgender students, but there are also some significant differences.
