A professor at Ohio's Shawnee State University is suing his superiors in federal court after he was punished for not referring to a transgender student by the pronouns she requested.

Nicholas Meriwether, who teaches religion and philosophy at the public university, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court Monday against the school's trustees and other officials stating they violated his freedom of speech, freedom of religion and due process.

Meriwether has taught at Shawnee State University since 1996. He says he always refers to all his students using "sir," "ma'am," "mister" or "miss" to foster an atmosphere of seriousness and mutual respect, according to the lawsuit.

In January, a student approached him after class to request that he use female gender words to refer to her.

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According to court documents, Meriwether said he wasn't sure if he could do that. The student said he began debating with her and would not give her a straight answer.

Meriwether said the student circled him threateningly and compared his refusal to someone calling him a "c---."

At the end of the conversation, Meriwether said he would refer to the student by her last name.

The student filed a complaint with the university.

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health supports name and pronoun changes for those with gender dysphoria. Experts say the trauma and distress experienced by those with gender dysphoria is only enhanced when their former gender identity is publicly revealed.

While Shawnee State does not have a transgender-specific policy, it includes gender-identity is its anti-discrimination policy.

Meriwether was informally warned and he asked for clarification about the university's policy.

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“I am afraid my answer is the same that it has always been: Every student needs to be treated the same in all of your classes," responded Roberta Milliken, an acting dean at the school.

The student later complained again stating that while Meriwether attempted to use her last name, he would put "mister" in front of it. Meriwether said this was accidental.

A Title IX investigation resulted in a written warning being placed in Meriwether's personnel file stating he violated the school's nondiscrimination policy.

Throughout the investigation and the grievance process that followed the warning, Meriwether said his constitutional rights were being violated in numerous communications with school officials.

"I am a Christian. As such, it is my sincerely held religious belief, based on the Bible’s teachings, that God created human beings as either male or female, that this gender is fixed in each person from the moment of conception, and that it cannot be changed,” Meriwether wrote.

The school denied his grievances.

“Do these freedoms supersede the rights of an individual, a student in this case, against discrimination by a public employee at a state-supported institution?" wrote Provost Jeffrey Bauer in his denial. "When provided with options to avoid discrimination and opposition to his religious beliefs, Dr. Meriwether chose to continue his disparate treatment of the student.”

Meriwether says it was the school that refused other options he proposed, including the idea of putting a disclaimer on his syllabus that he was identifying people by their chosen pronouns as "under compulsion."

University officials had not replied to a request comment at the time of this report.

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The group defending religious freedom

Two attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) are representing Meriwether. The ADF is a Christian, non-profit legal organization created to defend "religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and marriage and family."

The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled the ADF a "hate group." The ADF calls the Southern Poverty Law Center a "radical leftist organization."

In June, the Washington Post reported the ADF has taken nine cases before the U.S. Supreme Court in the past seven years and won all of them.

The group represented Hobby Lobby when they refused to cover contraceptives for their employees. It also represented the Colorado cake shop owner who refused to make desserts for same-sex marriages.

On their website, the ADF quotes Justice Samuel Alito's dissent to the Obergefell v. Hodges decision, the case that made same-sex marriage legal nationwide and got its name from Jim Obergefell, a Cincinnati resident who sued to have his out-of-state marriage recognized in Ohio.

What's the law?

There are cases which touch on similar issues to the Meriwether case, but none are an exact fit. Unlike a private employee, his status as a taxpayer-funded public employee raises specific questions.

Richard Ceballos, a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles, sued his employer after he said he was retaliated against when he challenged a case being pursued by his superiors in a memo. He was reassigned and demoted. Ceballos said his First Amendment rights were violated

The Supreme Court disagreed and ruled in 2006 that public employees making statements "pursuant to their position" as public employees, rather than as private citizens, have no First Amendment protection. Alito was in the majority on this decision.

Meriwether is arguing his school's demands extend beyond the classroom.

On the other side of the Meriwether case is religious freedom.

This year, the ADF lawsuit took aim at Georgia Gwinnett College who stopped a student from distributing religious leaflets in a free speech zone on campus after receiving complaints. But in this case, the college changed its policy prior to the ruling, and the case was dismissed.

In the Georgia Gwinnett College and Meriwether cases, the ADF argued against school's broader policies using the exact same language: the policies are "neither neutral nor generally applicable but allow Defendants to target religious expression and activities specifically."

This language refers to a landmark 1990 case, Employment Division v. Smith, in which a man sued after being fired for using the drug peyote in a religious ceremony. The Supreme Court ruled that neutral, generally applicable law does not violate the First Amendment even if the law burdens religious conduct.

The ADF argues Shawnee State's policies open the window to targeting Christians.

"Public universities have no business compelling people to express ideological beliefs that they don’t hold,” said ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer, director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Dlott has been assigned the Meriwether case. Hearings in the case had not been scheduled as of Monday.