Mahesh Khatri v. Ohio State University, et al.

As of August 1, 2022, due to the ongoing COVID19 pandemic which is caused by a coronavirus called SARS'CoV‘2, a select infectious agent, more than 6.4 million people have lost their lives. Although not confirmed yet, the World Health Organization is investigating if the virus leaked from a laboratory and caused the current pandemic. To prevent infections to humans and animals due to intentional misuse of select infectious agents (dangerous viruses) by untrained lab personnel in lower biosafety lab and animal facilities, petitioner reported the misuse to law enforcement agencies and The Ohio State University’s administration and faced retaliation. In Lane v. Franks, 573 U.S. 228, 240 (2014), this Court ruled that in order to show that the speech is employee-speech outside the protection of the First Amendment, the public employer must show that the speech is related to the employee’s “ordinary job responsibilities.” Id. at 240. The Sixth Circuit below included campus police in petitioner’s chain of command, falsified petitioner’s job description and actual speech, reporting of misuse of “select infectious agents” (highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus and the GB Texas strain of New Castle disease virus) which are included in the “Federal Select Agent Program”, in lower biosafety level, BSL-2 lab to reporting of “infectious agents” (H5N1 avian influenza virus, not a select infectious agent) to make petitioner’s speech related to his ordinary job duties and wrongly affirmed the district court’s ruling. Petitioner had appealed the district court’s incorrect ruling that reporting of