As public employees notch legal wins in their quest to avoid punishment for refusing to use preferred pronouns at odds with another's sex, such freedom against compelled speech may not apply in the courtroom itself.

Ohio teacher Vivian Geraghty received a $450,000 settlement to drop her two-year-old First Amendment lawsuit against the Jackson Local School District for forcing her to resign shortly after Geraghty expressed "reservations" about participation in the "social transition" of gender-confused students, her Alliance Defending Freedom lawyers said Wednesday.

The religious liberty law firm secured an even bigger settlement for Virginia teacher Peter Vlaming in September and religious accommodations without payment for another set of Old Dominion educators, Deborah Figliola, Kristine Marsh and Laura Nelson, on Dec. 10.

Public school students in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee could be the first in the nation to have First Amendment rights recognized against compelled use of their peers' preferred pronouns in a case pending before the full 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.