{"id":50,"date":"2026-05-26T21:13:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T21:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=50"},"modified":"2026-05-26T21:13:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T21:13:57","slug":"trendingnow-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=50","title":{"rendered":"Trendingnow"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The American Civil Liberties Union announced the settlement in a federal lawsuit it filed last year on behalf of Suzanne Swierc against Ball State University President Geoffrey Mearns.<\/p>\n

Read more Trendingnow<\/a><\/p>\n

Swierc worked as director of health promotion and advocacy at Ball State\u2019s campus in Muncie, Indiana, before she was fired last September. Ball State cited Swierc\u2019s private Facebook post about Kirk as the sole reason for her termination, saying it caused \u201csignificant disruption\u201d to the campus.<\/p>\n

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Swierc\u2019s firing violated her constitutional rights because she was \u201cspeaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern,\u201d said Stevie Pactor, an ACLU attorney in Indiana.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe First Amendment does not allow government institutions to retaliate in those circumstances, and this settlement reflects that,\u201d Pactor said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Mearns defended firing Swierc in a statement sent Tuesday to campus leaders, which a Ball State spokesperson shared with The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Mearns said backlash over Swierc\u2019s post threatened to harm the school\u2019s student enrollment and fundraising. He said the settlement\u2019s \u201cmodest monetary payment\u201d to Swierc was substantially less than fighting her lawsuit would have cost.<\/p>\n

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Kirk, founder of the conservative organization Turning Point USA, was\u00a0killed by a gunman Sept. 10\u00a0on the campus of a Utah university. Before his death, Kirk was credited with\u00a0galvanizing the conservative youth vote\u00a0to help President Donald Trump win a second term.<\/p>\n

Others fired for Kirk posts have won six-figure settlements<\/h4>\n

Swierc was among a wave of workers who\u00a0lost their jobs\u00a0in both the public and private sector after posting social media comments and memes about Kirk\u2019s assassination. And she isn\u2019t the first to win a legal settlement in court.<\/p>\n

Read more Trendingnow<\/a><\/p>\n

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Earlier this month, a Florida state agency agreed to\u00a0pay $485,000\u00a0to settle a lawsuit by a former state biologist who was fired after she reposted a meme that claimed Kirk wouldn\u2019t care about children being shot in school.<\/p>\n

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In January, Austin Peay State University in Tennessee\u00a0reinstated a professor\u00a0and paid him a $500,000 settlement after he sued over his firing for posting a 2023 news headline that read: \u201cCharlie Kirk Says Gun Deaths \u2018Unfortunately\u2019 Worth it to Keep 2nd Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lawsuits by other fired workers are still pending.<\/p>\n

Ball State says employee\u2019s post led to a flood of outrage<\/h4>\n

In her Facebook post, Swierc referred to Kirk\u2019s killing as a \u201ctragedy.\u201d But she also called it a \u201creflection of the violence, fear, and hatred he sowed.\u201d She wrote: \u201cIf you think Charlie Kirk was a wonderful person, we can\u2019t be friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swierc\u2019s attorneys said her Facebook page\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Ball State\u2019s president said Swierc\u2019s post resulted in a flood of outraged phone calls and emails to the university. Some warned they would withhold donations and at least one parent said she planned to withdraw her children from the school. Some callers threatened violence, Mearns said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe reaction was extraordinarily damaging to our University\u2019s reputation and image, and it was exceptionally disruptive to our mission and our people,\u201d Mearns said in his statement.<\/p>\n

Read more Trendingnow<\/a><\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Suzanne Swierc’s Kirk post was hidden behind privacy settings until someone took a screenshot. 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