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Reason
Reason
Politics
Eugene Volokh

EXPLAINED: No pseudonymity for plaintiff professor who sued colleague and university alleging rape | Rare Historical Photos

From Doe v. St Lawrence Univ., decided earlier this month by Magistrate Judge Daniel Stewart (N.D.N.Y.), and just appealed to the District Judge:

In 2022, both Plaintiff and Defendant Moralez were employed as professors at SLU. Plaintiff alleges that on April 12, 2022, she attended an off-campus meeting at Moralez's home to "talk about future courses to be taught by [Plaintiff] in sociology that would be used to also satisfy requisites for a major or minor in Public Health." That night, Plaintiff alleges that Moralez drugged and brutally raped her…. It is unclear whether SLU fired Moralez, but Moralez claims that "[s]ince leaving SLU [he has] been unable to secure a teaching position at any level."

Courts are split on whether plaintiffs alleging rape should be allowed to proceed pseudonymously (see Appendices 2a & 2b of The Law of Pseudonymous Litigation), and the Magistrate Judge acknowledged that "[a]llegations of sexual assault are 'paradigmatic example[s]' of highly sensitive and personal claims and thus favor a plaintiff's use of a pseudonym." But he noted that "allegations of sexual assault, by themselves, are not sufficient to entitle a plaintiff to proceed under a pseudonym," and concluded that pseudonymity shouldn't be allowed here:

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