By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) -A divided U.S. appeals court revived a lawsuit against an Indiana school district by a former high school music teacher who objected to being required to call transgender students by their chosen names.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Brownsburg school district near Indianapolis did not show that letting John Kluge refer to the students only by last name impeded its mission to create a safe and inclusive learning environment.
Tuesday’s 2-1 decision by the Chicago-based appeals court reversed an April 2024 ruling by an Indianapolis trial judge, and returned the case to her. The appeals court ruled against Kluge in an earlier stage of the case in 2023.
Lawyers for the school district did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kluge said his Christian religious beliefs barred him from using students’ preferred names and pronouns.
Brownsburg High School at first let him use last names, “like a sports coach” as he put it.
But it stopped after students and other faculty complained, and told Kluge to use first names or be fired.
Kluge decided to resign, and sued under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits workplace discrimination based on religion or religious practices.
Writing for Tuesday’s majority, Circuit Judge Michael Brennan cited a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision that broadened workplace protections for religious workers.
Brennan said Brownsburg did not show that Kluge subjected transgender students to “increased stigmatization” solely by using last names, or that doing so caused emotional distress and imposed an undue hardship on its educational mission.
“Brownsburg has not carried its burden to show undisputed facts of a serious disruption to the learning environment,” wrote Brennan, who was appointed to the bench by Republican President Donald Trump.
Circuit Judge Ilana Rovner, an appointee of former Republican President George H.W. Bush, dissented, saying the school “did what it could” to accommodate Kluge’s religious beliefs, rescinding the accommodation only when it proved harmful.
She also accused the majority of improperly making jurors a “super-personnel department” that could second-guess employers’ good-faith decision making.
Kluge was represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group.
ADF senior legal counsel David Cortman said he looked forward to proving at trial that Brownsburg discriminated against Kluge by deciding his religious views “couldn’t be tolerated.”
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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