“The First Amendment does not allow government institutions to retaliate in those circumstances, and this settlement reflects that," says Stevie Pactor, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Indiana

Suzanne Swierc, the former director of Health Promotion and Advocacy at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, has been awarded $225,000 in a settlement connected to her firing over social media remarks about Charlie Kirk following the right-wing figure’s assassination.

“Suzanne was speaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern when Ball State fired her over a private social media post,” said Stevie Pactor, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Indiana. “The First Amendment does not allow government institutions to retaliate in those circumstances, and this settlement reflects that.”

Swierc and the ACLU sued Ball State University in September 2025 for violating her right to free speech. Her firing from the institution came after she was targeted by the right-wing account Libs of TikTok on X, as well as Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, over posts she published on a private Facebook account regarding the killing of Kirk.

In the post, Swierc wrote, “Let me be clear: if you think Charlie Kirk was a wonderful person, we can’t be friends.” She referred to his death as “a tragedy,” expressed empathy for his wife and kids, and noted that while the shooting was “a reflection of the violence, fear, and hatred he sowed,” it “does not excuse his death.” Ball State University President Geoffrey Mearns notified Swierc of her immediate termination and cited the Facebook post as his reasoning.

Swierc’s position at Ball State University was purely administrative, as she was not a member of the educational faculty. Her role developed health and wellness programming for students at the institution located around 50 miles from Indianapolis. According to the ACLU of Indiana, the agreement reached in response to the lawsuit “allows Ball State employees to serve as references for Swierc and provides that, if asked, her supervisors will acknowledge her positive contributions to health promotion and advocacy work at the university.”

In response to the settlement, Mearns issued a statement to Ball State colleagues in which he stood by his decision to terminate Swierc’s employment at the university. “Under the terms of the settlement agreement, our University provided Ms. Swierc with a modest monetary payment. I authorized that payment, because it is substantially less than the anticipated amount of our University’s legal fees to defend the case,” Mearns stated in the letter, published by the Indiana Capital Chronicle. “The settlement does not vindicate Ms. Swierc’s claims, as her lawyers have stated today.”

Mearns maintains that the public response to the Facebook post “was extraordinarily damaging to our University’s reputation and image, and it was exceptionally disruptive to our mission and our people.”

Earlier this year, Austin Peay State University reinstated a professor who was similarly fired over social media posts relating to Kirk’s death. He was awarded $500,000 in his settlement, which hinged on his posting of a 2023 news article titled, “Charlie Kirk Says Gun Deaths ‘Unfortunately’ Worth it to Keep 2nd Amendment.” And just last week, a biologist who was fired by Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for sharing memes about Kirk’s death was awarded $485,000 in a settlement.