Tennessee man arrested over social media posts about Kirk settles lawsuit (1)
A Tennessee man arrested in September over social media posts about Charlie Kirk has settled his lawsuit and won $835,000.
More than $1.5 million in settlements have been reached with people who lost their jobs over social media posts critical of prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk following his assassination.
Free speech cases in Florida, Tennessee, and Indiana highlight the growing debate over the First Amendment, political speech, and social media.
“This spate of settlements is not surprising,” Aaron Tell, director of public advocacy at the Individual Rights Expression Foundation, told USA TODAY. “I think the size and frequency of these settlements shows that violating the First Amendment is costly.”
USA TODAY reported that in the two weeks since Kirk’s murder, at least 50 people have lost their jobs in the education sector alone. A Reuters investigation also found that 600 people across the private sector were fired over posts about Kirk.
Posting on social media can lead to dismissal
Kirk, a prominent conservative activist and founder of the youth group Turning Point USA, was assassinated on September 10, 2025, during a debate with students at Utah Valley University.
His death prompted an enthusiastic response across the political spectrum. Some hailed the 31-year-old as an almost messianic figure, while others likened him to a Nazi.
Many of the posts that criticized or failed to memorialize Kirk were picked up by the right and used as fodder for a very bitter culture war.
A central figure in the battle was Vice President J.D. Vance, who guest-hosted Kirk’s podcast of the same name five days after Kirk’s murder. In the episode, Vance said anyone who was “celebrating” Kirk’s death should report it to their employer.
There were other events that sparked verbal outrage, such as Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the killing of George Floyd in 2020. But Teer said what happened after Kirk’s assassination was particularly noteworthy because of the government’s involvement in many of the incidents, which “escalates the situation.”
Lots of lawsuits and settlements
In the eight months since Kirk’s death, First Amendment lawsuits have piled up across the country, from South Dakota to Florida, Tennessee to Texas.
Here are just a few of the recent settlements.
Suzanne Swierk
Ball State University has agreed to pay $225,000 to former health director Suzanne Swierk, who was fired for critical social media posts after Kirk’s assassination, IndyStar, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported.
Last September, Swiark and the American Civil Liberties Union sued Ball State President Jeffrey Mearns in federal court, alleging that his firing violated his First Amendment rights.
“I’ve never regretted posting this,” Swiark told IndyStar. “I have the same right to say that as anyone else, and I have no regrets because I still believe in what I wrote.”
Joshua Breisch, one of the ACLU attorneys who handled Sviaruk’s case, added, “If state officials and government officials don’t respect someone’s First Amendment rights enough, there’s going to be some legal costs involved.”
As part of the settlement, Ball State admitted no wrongdoing. In an email to university leadership after the settlement agreement, Mearns stood by his decision to fire Swiark. He said her posts had led to threats of withholding donations and admissions, had “severely harmed” the university’s reputation and caused “extreme disruption to our mission and our people.”
brittany brown
The state of Florida will pay nearly $500,000 in a free speech lawsuit settlement to Brittany Brown, who was fired from her state job for social media posts critical of Kirk after his murder, USA TODAY reports.
Brown, a biologist who worked for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, filed the lawsuit after being fired days after Kirk was killed. She was reposting posts from another account to her private Instagram story.
The post that bothered Brown read, “The whales are deeply saddened to learn of the shooting of Charlie Kirk. Haha, just kidding, the whales care about as much as Charlie Kirk cared about kids being shot in his classroom. In other words, they don’t care at all.”
At the time, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said Brown’s post “downplayed” Kirk’s murder. “We have a zero-tolerance policy against the incitement of violence and hatred and will not tolerate such behavior,” the agency said in a social media post on Sept. 15.
An agency spokeswoman declined to comment on the settlement, which includes a $485,000 payment to Brown.
Gary Edinger, an attorney representing Brown, said the lawsuit was the result of Brown’s “refusal to accept that the government decides what opinions employees are allowed to have.”
“These concerning actions highlight the extent to which political pressure from Tallahassee is influencing our state institutions,” Brown said in a statement. “FWC employees deserve better recognition, and so do Floridians.”
larry bushart
A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed by former Tennessee police officer Larry Bushart. He was arrested on September 22, 2025, and charged with threatening mass violence after posting a photo quoting President Donald Trump in the Facebook comments section of a local community group page.
He has been held for more than a month on $2 million bail, and his incarceration has caused him to lose his job as a medical transporter and miss his anniversary and the birth of his grandson, his lawyers said.
On May 20, the case was settled for $850,000 in exchange for the charges being dismissed, according to a news release from FIRE, Thea’s organization, which represents Bushart. The settlement does not include any admission of wrongdoing by the defendants.
“I am pleased that my First Amendment rights have been vindicated,” Bushart said in a statement. “The freedom of citizens to participate in civil discourse is critical to a healthy democracy. I look forward to moving forward and spending time with my family.”
Numerous lawsuits related to speech surrounding Kirk’s assassination are pending.
FIRE also represents a state employee fired by the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance for making a comment on a friend’s Facebook post that read, “The way white supremacists tap dance should be studied!”
Tell hopes the settlement will deter authorities from firing or punishing employees for their comments in the future, despite political pressure and online outrage.
“These types of ripple effects will result in dividends that far exceed the individual settlement amounts,” he said.
“Teachable moment”
David Keating, president of the Free Speech Institute, said the firings and subsequent settlements could be a “teachable moment” that would likely lead to employers publicly distancing themselves from employees’ controversial statements and finding ways to protect their First Amendment rights to make such statements.
He said insurance companies often pay out settlements involving government officials, and he hopes the Kirk-related case will lead to increased constitutional scrutiny when insurance companies write insurance policies for these customers.
“Just by asking these questions, we could gain local knowledge about the First Amendment, which unfortunately seems to be sorely lacking,” he says.
Keating also referred more broadly to the Republican Party’s free speech platform for the 2024 election, noting that many Kirk-related speech lawsuits involve public officials in Republican-controlled states.
Keating said Kirk himself was an advocate of free speech, and Erica Kirk declared at a memorial service in Arizona that she had forgiven her husband’s assassin.
“If she can find the ability to do that, certainly elected officials could pattern that behavior,” Keating said.
contribution: USA TODAY’s Janine Santucci, Angela Latham of the Nashville Tennessean, Stephanie Matat of the USA TODAY Network in Florida and Kate Sharon of IndyStar.
Drew Pittock covers trending news from around the country for USA TODAY. You can contact him at: DPittock@usatodayco.com.
Breanna Frank is USA TODAY’s First Amendment reporter. please contact her bjfrank@usatoday.com.
USA TODAY’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded by the Freedom Forum in collaboration with our journalism funding partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
