A U.S. Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that a former assistant principal may continue with his religious discrimination lawsuit against his former school district, which allegedly fired him for "religious comments" he made objecting to a school play about the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a young gay college student.
A three-judge panel on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously reversed a lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit, saying that the plaintiff, Corey McNellis, had provided enough circumstantial evidence against the defendant, Douglas County School District, "to give rise to an inference of discrimination," the Hill reported.
"[McNellis] alleged he was treated less favorably than other DCSD employees and claimed DCSD’s termination decision was ‘premised on [his] religious beliefs. We agree," U.S. Circuit Judge Veronica Rossman, a Biden appointee, wrote for the court.
McNellis was fired in 2020 and filed the lawsuit in 2022.
The firing came after a DCSD investigation into "religious comments" McNellis made in response to an email from the theater director that announced that the school’s play would be "The Laramie Project," centered on Shepard’s murder. McNellis had replied by asking what avenues of recourse he would have to express concern about the play selection, "as a Dad of a student here and also as an employee in the school." This spurred a conversation where McNellis sent three additional emails with "religious comments," which allegedly were the basis of the firing.
In the first email, McNellis wrote that, "As a [C]hristian I would love to collaborate with your project. Please let me know if the love that Jesus can provide will help your play." He added in a second: "I understand people support this. Forgive me for having a different viewpoint and the audacity to publicly share it." In the third email, McNellis said, "[F]or the record, all of administration does not agree with me on this. I am totally solo. Good night Mustangs!"
The court stated that DCSD cited "religious comments" when informing McNellis that he needed to stay home the next day, as well as when he was put on leave and told three days later about the investigation. He was terminated less than a month later, and, according to the court filing, "Defendant directly cited Mr. McNellis’s emails regarding The Laramie Project as the reason for his termination."
"Here, Mr. McNellis’s allegations that DCSD repeatedly invoked his ‘religious comments’ before investigating and terminating him provide a plausible link between his termination and a discriminatory motive. Under these circumstances, and at this procedural stage, that is sufficient to nudge [his] claims across the line from conceivable to plausible," Rossman wrote.
However, the panel agreed with the lower court that McNellis could not prove his claims of retaliation and free-speech violations, so they upheld the lower court’s dismissal of those claims.