Professor claims school violated his First Amendment rights by punishing him for misgendering a student
Philosophy professor Nicholas Meriwether is continuing his legal fight against Shawnee State University, arguing that the school's insistence that he refer to a student by their preferred pronouns violates his First Amendment rights. The case was heard Thursday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit after it was dismissed by a judge earlier this year. According to the lawsuit, on the first day of Meriwether's political philosophy class, in January 2018, he answered a student's question with, "Yes, sir." That student, identified in the lawsuit as "Jane Doe," approached Meriwether after class to inform him that she is a transgender female and prefers feminine pronouns (she/her). Meriwether informed the student that he didn't