{"id":33,"date":"2026-05-26T20:42:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coasttocoastmoverss.com\/?p=33"},"modified":"2026-05-26T20:42:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:42:32","slug":"people-punished-for-criticizing-charlie-kirk-after-shooting-have-won-more-than-2-million-in-lawsuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coasttocoastmoverss.com\/?p=33","title":{"rendered":"People Punished For Criticizing Charlie Kirk After Shooting Have Won More Than $2 Million In Lawsuits"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<h2>Timeline<\/h2>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><span>MAY 26, 2026<\/span>Suzanne Swierc, who worked in administration at Ball State University in Indiana, was awarded a <strong>$225,000<\/strong> settlement after the school fired her and cited a Facebook post about Kirk as the sole reason. In her post, she referred to Kirk&#8217;s killing as a \u201creflection of the violence, fear, and hatred he sowed,\u201d adding, \u201cIf you think Charlie Kirk was a wonderful person, we can&#8217;t be friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/coasttocoastmoverss.com\/?p=31\">Trump Admin Will Provide Startups With Old Plutonium For Reactor Fuel<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>MAY 20, 2026<\/span>Larry Bushart, a 61-year-old retired police officer in Tennessee, was awarded an <strong>$835,000 <\/strong>settlement after he was charged with a felony and spent over a month in jail\u2014missing the birth of his grandchild\u2014after he refused to delete social media posts criticizing Kirk, his organization and President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>MAY 18, 2026<\/span>Biologist Brittney Brown was awarded a<strong> $485,000<\/strong> settlement from Florida&#8217;s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission after the agency fired her for reposting a meme on Instagram claiming Kirk didn\u2019t care about children being shot in their classrooms. Brown said she was fired the day after her post and claimed that within minutes, her firing was leaked to the popular Libs of TikTok social media account that doxxed many people who posted negatively about Kirk. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>MARCH 2, 2026 <\/span>Jana Aldrich, who posted on Facebook that she &#8220;wouldn&#8217;t miss&#8221; Kirk, was fired from her job as a teacher with a nonprofit as a result of her post. She challenged the dismissal through the state unemployment system and was awarded an unspecified amount of benefits in a settlement.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>JAN. 7, 2026<\/span>A tenured professor who was fired by Austin Peay State University in Tennessee for his social media post was re-hired and given a $500,000 settlement after the school admitted it violated his due process rights. After Kirk&#8217;s death, acting and directing professor Darren Michael shared a news article from 2023 with the headline &#8220;Charlie Kirk Says Gun Deaths \u2018Unfortunately\u2019 Worth It to Keep 2nd Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/coasttocoastmoverss.com\/?p=29\">Vance Praises Pope Leo\u2019s AI Warnings As \u2018Very Profound\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>JAN. 6, 2026<\/span>A court ruled Clemson University professor Joshua Bregy would be paid through the end of the spring semester after he was fired last fall for a Facebook post he made criticizing Kirk&#8217;s rhetoric regarding gun control (Clemson also fired two other employees for their Kirk posts, but they didn\u2019t sue). Exactly how much Bregy won in the settlement was not disclosed but is thought to be similar to his salary at the school year before, which was just over <strong>$90,000. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Key Background <\/h2>\n<p>Kirk, a right-wing political activist who spent much of his professional life advocating for Second Amendment rights, was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University in September. He was at the school for a debate planned by Turning Point USA, a youth organization he co-founded to advocate for conservative politics on high school and college campuses. His killing amplified some political divides, with some conservative politicians and right-wing figures largely describing it as a shocking \u201cact of evil\u201d and the death of a \u201cmartyr\u201d while some media outlets and left-leaning politicians pointed out his lifelong defense of gun rights and focused largely on the polarized online reactions. A number of prominent conservatives, including Vice President JD Vance, called on Kirk&#8217;s followers to report people who made disparaging remarks about him to their employers and encouraged they be fired. Trump later said any television network that criticized Kirk too harshly could be punished by the Federal Communications Commission. Legacy late night host Jimmy Kimmel was temporarily pulled from the air for his comments about the conservative response to Kirk\u2019s death, and the controversy exposed a broader debate over whether celebrating or joking about a political figure\u2019s death should be treated as protected expression.<\/p>\n<h2>What To Watch For<\/h2>\n<p>More settlements. Reporting from The Guardian estimates more than 600 people were fired or otherwise punished for posting about Charlie Kirk\u2019s death, and many of them later sued. Groups like the FIRE Foundation, a nonprofit legal group specializing in free speech, and the American Civil Liberties Union stepped up to file suits on behalf of those punished, and pending lawsuits include those filed by Tennessee state employee Monica Meeks, fired for calling Kirk a \u201cWhite Supremacist,\u201d and South Carolina teacher\u2019s aide Lauren Vaughn, who posted a verbatim quote from Kirk with &#8220;Thoughts and prayers&#8221; as the only added commentary. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/coasttocoastmoverss.com\/?p=27\">Iran Threatens Retaliation After New U.S. Strikes\u2014Hours After Trump Suggests Progress On Peace Deal<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<h2>Further Reading<\/h2>\n<p><span><span>Forbes<\/span><span>Who Was Charlie Kirk? Trump Credited \u2018Turning Point USA\u2019 Founder With Swinging Youth Vote<\/span><small>By <span>Sara Dorn<\/span><\/small><\/span><span><\/span><span><span>Forbes<\/span><span>Charlie Kirk Shooting Suspect Charged With Aggravated Murder\u2014Prosecutors Seek Death Penalty<\/span><small>By <span>Ty Roush<\/span><\/small><\/span><span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After the killing of Charlie Kirk, Vice President JD Vance called on employers to fire people who criticized him. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>People Punished For Criticizing Charlie Kirk After Shooting Have Won More Than $2 Million In Lawsuits - 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