“Confirmed Judges, Confirmed Fears” is a blog series documenting the harmful impact of President Trump’s judges on Americans’ rights and liberties. It includes judges nominated in both his first and second terms.
Trump Seventh Circuit judge Michael Brennan, joined by Trump judge Amy St. Eve, issued a 2-1 decision that granted a jury trial to a public school teacher who claimed his religious beliefs require an exemption from a district policy that accommodates transgender students. George HW Bush judge Ilana Rovner dissented in the August 2025 case of Kluge v Brownsburg Comm School Corp.
What happened in this case?
Brownsburg High School in Indiana sought to partly address the “significant challenge” faced by transgender students in high school by providing that, with parental support, transgender students could officially change their name and gender in the school’s database. Once such changes were made, teachers and other school personnel were to use the new names and pronouns.
John Kluge, a music teacher, objected on religious grounds under Title VII. Brownsburg initially sought to accommodate Kluge by permitting him to address students by their last names only. The practice resulted in a number of complaints, including from parents, other teachers, and transgender students who felt “singled out” and “harmed.” After a year, Brownsburg determined that the accommodation to Kluge was causing “undue hardship” and decided to end it.
Kluge resigned from the district and filed suit, claiming that he was entitled to a religious accommodation under Title VII and that the “last name only” practice did not impose any “undue hardship” on the district. A district court granted summary judgment to Brownsburg and Kluge appealed to the Seventh Circuit.
How did Trump judges Brennan and St. Eve rule and why is the result harmful?
Trump judges Brennan and St. Eve issued a 2-1 ruling, holding that there were disputed issues of fact on whether the accommodation to Kluge caused undue hardship to the district. The majority ruled that there should be a jury trial on that issue.
Judge Rovner strongly dissented, based on a careful analysis of the record in the case and past precedent. She explained that the majority was now setting a “perilous precedent” because, even though there was no genuine dispute as to whether concerns and complaints were in fact reported to the school district, the court was mandating that a jury “second guess” the district’s “good faith assessment” of the harms caused by the religious accommodation “years down the line.” The result, she concluded, will be an “untenable restraint” that will harm school districts’ obligations concerning the welfare of students and others.
The decision by Trump judges Brennan and St. Eve will thus harm the Brownsburg school district and its students, especially LGBTQ+ students, and may well have similar effects in other school districts, particularly in the Seventh Circuit, which includes Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. The ruling also illustrates the importance of our federal courts to health, welfare and justice and the significance of having fair-minded judges on the federal bench.