Public universities have paid over $2.7 million to employees disciplined for controversial posts on social media about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, reports Fox News. At least five of these fired employees reached a settlement in cases alleging First Amendment rights were breached.
Tamar Shirinian, a former University of Tennessee professor, is expected to receive a $1.9 million settlement due to the disciplinary actions that the university took following her comments about Kirk, saying "the world is better off without him in it." She also added that "his kids are better off living in a world without a disgusting psychopath like him” and that she doesn't care for his wife's feelings.
Her post caused her to be put on administrative leave, and she was later fired. She is noted to have apologizes, admitting that her comments were “insensitive.”
This and other instances of professors being disciplined for speaking ill of Charlie Kirk following his assassination has sparked a long-winded debate.
Can free speech ever go too far? And if so, where does that line fall?
Zach Greenberg is the director of faculty legal defense at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). He says that the hope of FIRE is that free speech is protected, no matter which political view it comes from.
“I think that is the goal — to create a society where people can express views that are perhaps at odds with those of their colleagues or neighbors without being fired from their jobs and ending their careers,” says Greenberg. “That's the goal, the dream of the First Amendment, to create this culture of free speech that protects everyone's right to discuss ideas without suffering the consequences of losing your career and your livelihood.”
Greenberg says that it was great to see the employees be “vindicated for losing their jobs for exercising their free speech rights.”
