Since Charlie Kirk’s killing in September, employers across the country have taken action against employees who have spoken about the conservative activist in ways the employers don’t like. To the extent that Kirk has been eulogized as a free-speech advocate, it’s an ill-fitting legacy.
The latest lawsuit seeking to counter that suppression and retaliation comes from the Texas American Federation of Teachers. The union is suing the Texas Education Agency and its commissioner, Mike Morath, over alleged First Amendment violations.
The suit centers on a letter from Morath to school superintendents after Kirk’s death. In it, the education official lamented “reprehensible and inappropriate content on social media” posted by “some” educators in the state’s public schools. He said that he would refer educators who have “proliferated such vile content” for investigation within the agency.
According to the union’s complaint, filed Tuesday in Texas federal court, the state action “quickly unleashed a wave of retaliation and disciplinary actions against teachers based on their First Amendment protected speech.”
The complaint said that based on public reporting, more than 350 teachers have been reported to the Texas Education Agency, which oversees primary and secondary public education in the state, for investigation.
“Simply being under investigation negatively impacts an educator’s reputation, requires resource expenditures for legal representation, and can have lasting detrimental impacts on an employee’s long-term employment prospects, even outside of the education arena,” the complaint said. The plaintiff urged the federal court to halt the state policy and to order the termination of investigations prompted by Kirk-related posts under the policy. The civil defendants will have an opportunity to respond in court. In November, Reuters published a report finding that more than 600 Americans were fired, suspended, investigated or disciplined by employers over comments about Kirk, who was fatally shot in September while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University. State prosecutors said they’re seeking the death penalty against Tyler Robinson, who’s charged with murder. He has yet to stand trial but is presumed innocent unless and until he’s convicted or pleads guilty. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in the Trump administration’s legal cases.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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