A Missouri lawyer was fired after posting about Charlie Kirk. Now she’s suing
A former attorney for Missouri’s education department this week sued the state’s former education commissioner, alleging that she was wrongfully terminated after posting online about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Lindsey Phoenix, who worked as legal counsel for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education until last year, filed the lawsuit Monday against former Education Commissioner Karla Eslinger, who retired from her post last month.
The lawsuit marks the latest fallout from the backlash that followed Kirk’s shooting death last year. Across the country, professors, government employees and other workers faced investigations, attacks and termination for public comments about Kirk, the polarizing 31-year-old activist who was fatally shot while speaking at a college in Utah last year.
Phoenix’s lawsuit appears to pose a test of the scope and limits of the First Amendment and state laws governing the political activity of government employees in their private lives. Phoenix alleges that her rights were violated and wants Boone County Circuit Court Judge Brian Stumpe to reinstate her to her position and award her financial damages, including lost wages and benefits.
The core of the suit centers on a meme Phoenix saw and reposted on her private Instagram story in the wake of Kirk’s death that read, “delulu is no longer the solulu. what we need is revolulu. with a side of assassinunu.” She was fired a week later after one of her followers — someone she knew from high school — complained about the post to Eslinger, the lawsuit said.
Phoenix did not share the story while at work and her private Instagram account made no mention of her employment with the state, a job where one of her duties included training employees about the state’s social media policies, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said that Phoenix’s direct supervisor notified her about the complaint and reassured her “that she had not done anything wrong” and “had not violated any policy.” Still, Eslinger, who was out of town at the time, pressed forward with an investigation, the lawsuit said.
Within a week of the post, Phoenix was called into a meeting with human resources personnel and was fired. The lawsuit said that Eslinger gave the direct order to fire Phoenix and alleges that the decision was political.
“(Phoenix) was terminated because (Eslinger) personally disagreed with (Phoenix’s) political opinions, and (Eslinger) used that arbitrary personal opinion and her position of power within government to terminate (Phoenix) while tolerating similar behavior from others within the very same agency,” the lawsuit said.
Wave of lawsuits
Eslinger, reached by phone on Tuesday, said she was not aware of the lawsuit and directed a reporter to the state’s education department (DESE). A DESE spokesperson declined comment in an email.
“DESE does not comment on personnel matters and pending legal issues,” said Lucas Bond, the spokesperson.
Phoenix’s attorney, Joanna Trachtenberg from Columbia, did not immediately return a call for comment.
The lawsuit alleges that Phoenix’s firing violated her First Amendment rights, which protects free speech. It also alleges that the firing violated state law, which protects employees’ right to take part in political activities and expression.
Gregory Magarian, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said he expected Phoenix to win the case. He drew similarities between the allegations in Phoenix’s lawsuit and a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision that found the First Amendment extends to government employees who make critical remarks about the president.
“This is a slam dunk,” Magarian said. “It just couldn’t be much clearer.”
Magarian added that the backlash after Kirk’s killing should serve as a lesson for government institutions and employers about how to handle pressure to terminate or discipline employees for their speech.
“People make these rash decisions and we’ve got a bunch of settlements and a bunch of lawsuits,” Magarian said. “And it’s just because, ultimately, these are easy legal questions.”
Phoenix’s lawsuit joins a growing wave of legal challenges from public employees who faced disciplinary actions in the wake of Kirk’s death. Colleges across the country have paid out nearly $3 million to settle three of those cases, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The immediate online backlash to comments about Kirk’s death put institutions on edge. The head of the University of Missouri System, for example, warned employees at the time that their online speech could result in termination.
The most visible example of the national fallout came when ABC, under pressure from the Trump administration, suspended talk show host Jimmy Kimmel for comments he made about reactions to the shooting. Kimmel was reinstated less than a week later.
