An employee terminated by an Indiana university following her Facebook comments about conservative activist Charlie Kirk has been awarded $225,000 in a legal settlement that claimed her former workplace violated her constitutional free speech protections, her legal representatives announced Tuesday.
The American Civil Liberties Union revealed the settlement in a federal case they brought last year representing Suzanne Swierc against Ball State University President Geoffrey Mearns.
Swierc held the position of director of health promotion and advocacy at Ball State’s Muncie, Indiana campus until her termination last September. Ball State pointed to Swierc’s personal Facebook comment regarding Kirk as the only basis for dismissing her, claiming it created “significant disruption” on campus.
The termination of Swierc breached her constitutional protections since she was “speaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern,” stated Stevie Pactor, an ACLU lawyer in Indiana.
“The First Amendment does not allow government institutions to retaliate in those circumstances, and this settlement reflects that,” Pactor said in a statement.
Mearns stood by his decision to terminate Swierc in a Tuesday statement distributed to campus leadership, which a Ball State spokesperson provided to The Associated Press.
Mearns explained that negative reactions to Swierc’s comment posed risks to the institution’s student recruitment and donor contributions. He characterized the settlement’s “modest monetary payment” to Swierc as significantly lower than the expense of litigating her case.
Kirk, who established the conservative group Turning Point USA, died in a shooting incident on September 10 at a Utah university campus. Prior to his death, Kirk was recognized for mobilizing conservative young voters to support President Donald Trump’s successful bid for a second presidency.
Swierc joined numerous employees across public and private organizations who faced job losses after sharing social media content and images related to Kirk’s assassination. She represents one of several individuals who have secured legal settlements through court proceedings.
This month, a Florida state department agreed to a $485,000 settlement with a former state biologist dismissed after sharing a meme suggesting Kirk was indifferent to school shooting victims.
In January, Austin Peay State University in Tennessee brought back a professor and provided him a $500,000 settlement following his lawsuit over termination for sharing a 2023 news story titled: “Charlie Kirk Says Gun Deaths ‘Unfortunately’ Worth it to Keep 2nd Amendment.”
Legal cases from additional terminated employees remain active in the courts.
In her Facebook message, Swierc described Kirk’s death as a “tragedy.” However, she also characterized it as a “reflection of the violence, fear, and hatred he sowed.” She added: “If you think Charlie Kirk was a wonderful person, we can’t be friends.”
Swierc’s legal team noted that her Facebook account’s privacy controls restricted public access to her posts, though someone captured and widely distributed screenshots of her Kirk commentary online.
Ball State’s president reported that Swierc’s post generated numerous angry phone calls and emails directed at the university. Some threatened to stop financial contributions and at least one parent indicated plans to remove her children from the institution. Several callers made violent threats, Mearns reported.
“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.
