The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
"Plaintiff's Complaint Is Focused on Discrimination Related to Positionality Across Multiple Marginalized and Vulnerable Communities"
Not enough to get pseudonymity for plaintiff's employment discrimination claim, at least in S.D. Tex.
The plaintiff in Schoene v. Rice Univ. filed the complaint (alleging sexual orientation discrimination, disability discrimination, breach of contract, and constructive discharge) under his own name, but then moved to retroactively pseudonymize it five days later. The problem is that longstanding Fifth Circuit precedent is quite clear that employment discrimination plaintiffs generally must sue under their own names, notwithstanding the argument that this can cause them professional harm. And while plaintiff claims that he's facing not just "professional harm" and "stigmatization," but also unspecified "privacy, safety, and serious health consequences as case implicated medical diagnosis, as well as personal issues of both sexuality and disability," that too is generally not enough for pseudonymity.
Plus retroactive pseudonymity is generally even harder to get. And even when courts are potentially open to pseudonymity claims, for instance when there's real evidence of risk of physical or mental harm, or unusually strong privacy claims, they generally require some pretty specific, concrete evidence: General claims of "discrimination related to positionality across multiple marginalized and vulnerable communities" usually don't cut it.
The court unsurprisingly denied the motion to proceed under a pseudonym, though without a detailed opinion. Note that plaintiff, a humanities professor, is pro se; but his faculty web site says he studied law at a leading Canadian university, he was the editor-in-chief of his law school's journal, his teaching and scholarly interests include some law-related subjects (such as "Queer Ecojustice" and "Law and Literature").
