Blog Post #4- Meriwether V. Hartop and the First Amendment

 

On March 26th, 2021 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in the case Meriwether v. Hartop sided with the educational system and faculty speech rights. Nicholas Meriwether, a professor at Shawnee State University filed a lawsuit under First Amendment rights. Meriwether refused to call a student by the preferred pronouns of a transgender student because of his religious views. Even though, years prior the institution instated a new policy that professors had to use a student's preferred pronouns. Meriwether was reprimanded by the University after his refusal and continual discrimination of the student by calling other students “Ms.” or “Mr” and her by her last name. 

Meriwether took it to court saying that it is his right to exercise free speech under the first amendment. The sixth circuit sided with him “the court did not decide whether a professor could insist on actually using a pronoun that didn't match the student's preferred pronoun. Rather, the court only considered whether a professor could decline to use the student's preferred pronoun.” They ultimately rendered that consideration to be true. The verdict of this case poses the question “If the court says it does interfere with an individual’s first amendment rights, does that make it morally acceptable”? 

In today's culture, people are becoming who they feel best fits their inner self and being apathetic to society's judgments. Just because Meriwether did not believe in transgender identities, does that give him any liberty to discriminate against the student and sue because he did not want to follow the rules? I surmise this may be a case in which promoting tolerance from the Eight Values of Free Expression comes to play. If the other students and professors “handled” Meriwether by letting him know he was morally incorrect, does that give the girl enough justice? In my opinion, I believe the First Amendment is black and white when it comes to looking at facts and coming to a verdict, but it is gray when it comes to giving the “wronged party” proper justice.

Meriwether v. Hartop Verdict