Indiana university – Ball State University will pay $225,000 to settle a free-speech lawsuit brought by former employee Suzanne Swierc after she was fired last September for a private Facebook post criticizing conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The ACLU says the firing violated h
A woman fired by Ball State University over a Facebook post criticizing conservative activist Charlie Kirk will receive $225,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging the university violated her free-speech rights.
The settlement, announced Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union, resolves a federal case the ACLU filed last year on behalf of Suzanne Swierc against Ball State University President Geoffrey Mearns.
Swierc worked as director of health promotion and advocacy at Ball State’s campus in Muncie, Indiana, before she was fired last September. Ball State said the sole reason for her termination was her private Facebook post about Kirk, saying it caused “significant disruption” to the campus.
Stevie Pactor, an ACLU attorney in Indiana, said Swierc’s firing violated her constitutional rights because she was “speaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern.”
“The First Amendment does not allow government institutions to retaliate in those circumstances, and this settlement reflects that,” Pactor said in a statement.
Mearns defended the decision in a statement sent Tuesday to campus leaders. which a Ball State spokesperson shared with The Associated Press. Mearns said backlash over Swierc’s post threatened to harm the school’s student enrollment and fundraising. He also said the settlement’s “modest monetary payment” to Swierc was substantially less than what fighting the lawsuit would have cost.
The dispute traces back to Kirk’s death. Kirk, founder of the conservative organization Turning Point USA, was killed by a gunman Sept. 10 on the campus of a Utah university. Before his death. Kirk was credited with galvanizing the conservative youth vote to help President Donald Trump win a second term.
Swierc was one of a wave of workers who lost their jobs in both the public and private sector after posting social media comments and memes about Kirk’s assassination. She is also not the first person to win a legal settlement after being punished for similar online posts.
Earlier this month. a Florida state agency agreed to pay $485. 000 to settle a lawsuit by a former state biologist who was fired after she reposted a meme that claimed Kirk wouldn’t care about children being shot in school. In January. Austin Peay State University in Tennessee reinstated a professor and paid him a $500. 000 settlement after he sued over his firing for posting a 2023 news headline that read: “Charlie Kirk Says Gun Deaths ‘Unfortunately’ Worth it to Keep 2nd Amendment.” Lawsuits by other fired workers are still pending.
In Swierc’s own Facebook post, she referred to Kirk’s killing as a “tragedy.” She also called it a “reflection of the violence, fear, and hatred he sowed.” She wrote: “If you think Charlie Kirk was a wonderful person, we can’t be friends.”
Swierc’s attorneys said her Facebook page’s privacy settings walled off her posts from the general public, but someone took a screen shot of her comments on Kirk that was shared widely online.
Ball State’s president said Swierc’s post resulted in a flood of outraged phone calls and emails to the university. Some callers warned they would withhold donations, and at least one parent said she planned to withdraw her children from the school. Mearns said some callers also threatened violence.
“The reaction was extraordinarily damaging to our University’s reputation and image, and it was exceptionally disruptive to our mission and our people,” Mearns said in his statement.
Ball State University Suzanne Swierc Geoffrey Mearns ACLU free speech First Amendment Charlie Kirk Turning Point USA Indiana lawsuit settlement Muncie