Indiana Music Teacher Wins Partial Victory in Religious Discrimination Case!
8/15/25
In 2018, John Kluge was forced to resign from Brownsburg Community School after his request for a religious exemption to the school’s mandatory “pronoun policy” was revoked. The policy required teachers to call students by their “preferred gender” and name, denying biological reality and biblical truth. John requested to call students by their last name as an alternative to the pronoun policy, which the school initially allowed. But after a year, they revoked his reasonable religious accommodation, ending his teaching career and violating his religious freedom.
IFI’s allied attorneys, Michael Cork, Roscoe Stovall, and Kevin Green, led the charge to defend Kluge’s religious liberty before the case was picked up by our national partner Alliance Defending Freedom. Michael Cork continues to serve as John’s local counsel.
Over the past six years, John has faced a tumultuous legal journey. In 2019, he filed a lawsuit against Brownsburg in a district court, which ultimately ruled in favor of the school. In 2021, three years after the case was appealed to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, it was sent back to the district court for reevaluation after the US Supreme Court’s decision in Groff v. DeJoy, which “increased the burden employers must meet to deny religious accommodations.”
IFI General Counsel Josh Hershberger filed an amicus brief in support of John, which stated:
“In recent years, IFI has noticed a growing trend of public schools ignoring the constitutional rights of parents, teachers, and students. Education is foundational to the project of raising children and building a strong family; and students, teachers, and parents should not face discrimination by school officials because of their political or religious views. For these reasons, IFI has publicly supported John Kluge and the right of teachers generally to live out their faith in the public school environment while respecting differences and modeling citizenship in a plural society. IFI is gravely concerned that the District Court’s decision in this matter will be used as precedent for violating the religious beliefs and conscience rights of other teachers in Indiana.”
Unfortunately, the district court again denied John’s petition. ADF filed a second appeal with the 7th Circuit in July of last year, arguing that his request for religious accommodation did not impose “undue hardship” on the school.
This month, the Court acknowledged that the district “introduced nothing to show that a teacher using one’s last name resulted in ‘emotional distress’ under an objective standard. Even if emotional distress qualifies as an undue hardship, Groff requires the employer to prove both that there was a hardship, and that the accommodation caused that hardship.”
The school district must now face a jury for its treatment of John, and they could be held responsible for damages and attorney fees.
IFI is excited to see continued positive momentum in this case. This ruling is also good news for Steven Ressler, who was fired by IKEA over a similar pronoun policy. Read more about Ressler’s case and IFI’s involvement here.
Thank you for supporting IFI and enabling our Five Freedoms Project to defend Hoosiers’ religious liberty. We couldn’t do this important pro bono work without you.