The United States Supreme Court has held that the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution directs the government to treat alike \u201call persons similarly situated.\u201d Accordingly, the judiciary reviews with heightened scrutiny laws or policies that discriminate against individuals in a so-called \u201cprotected class.\u201d Although the Court still has not ruled on whether transgender individuals constitute a protected class for Fourteenth-Amendment purposes, it has ruled that the category of \u201csex\u201d in Title VII (a federal law on workplace discrimination) includes transgender individuals. Consequently, an employer may not dismiss an employee merely for being transgender. In 2021, the Education Department extended this protection to transgender students under a 1972 law that forbids sex-based discrimination in institutions of learning receiving funds from the federal government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These institutions could therefore invoke that 1972 law to justify disciplinary measures against professors who violate preferred-gender-pronoun policies, i.e., those that require professors to address their transgender students with the gender pronouns (\u201che,\u201d \u201cshe,\u201d etc.) that these students prefer. From a legal standpoint, however, the disciplinary measures could clash with the professors\u2019 constitutional right to free speech, which includes the right to refrain from speaking. In other words, the government \u2014in this case, represented by public institutions of learning\u2014 may not compel people to affirm a belief with which they disagree.By analyzing relevant court rulings handed down over the last two years, this presentation aims at resolving the tension between a public educational institution\u2019s interest in eradicating sex-based discrimination against transgender students and a professor\u2019s constitutional freedom from compelled speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Keyword<\/strong>: Public Education, Free Speech, United States of America, Transgender Community<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Manuel Triano L\u00f3pez The United States Supreme Court has held that the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution directs the government to treat alike \u201call persons similarly situated.\u201d Accordingly, the judiciary reviews with heightened scrutiny laws or policies that discriminate … Continue reading