A woman fired by an Indiana university over her Facebook post criticizing conservative activist Charlie Kirk after he was killed will receive $225,000 to settle a lawsuit that accused her former employer of violating her free-speech rights, the woman's attorneys said Tuesday.
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.
Swierc worked as director of health promotion and advocacy at Ball State's campus in Muncie, Indiana, before she was fired last September. Ball State cited Swierc's private Facebook post about Kirk as the sole reason for her termination, saying it caused “significant disruption” to the campus.
Swierc's firing violated her constitutional rights because she was “speaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern,” said Stevie Pactor, an ACLU attorney 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 defended firing Swierc in a statement sent Tuesday to campus leaders, which a Ball State spokesperson shared with The Associated Press.
Mearns said backlash over Swierc's post threatened to harm the school's student enrollment and fundraising. He said the settlement's “modest monetary payment” to Swierc was substantially less than fighting her lawsuit would have cost.
Kirk, founder of the conservative organization Turning Point USA, was killed by a gunman Sept. 10 on the campus of a Utah university. Before his death, Kirk was credited with galvanizing the conservative youth vote to help President Donald Trump win a second term.
Swierc was among a wave of workers who lost their jobs in both the public and private sector after posting social media comments and memes about Kirk’s assassination. And she isn't the first to win a legal settlement in court.
Earlier this month, a Florida state agency agreed to pay $485,000 to settle a lawsuit by a former state biologist who was fired after she reposted a meme that claimed Kirk wouldn’t care about children being shot in school.
In January, Austin Peay State University in Tennessee reinstated a professor and paid him a $500,000 settlement after he sued over his firing for posting a 2023 news headline that read: “Charlie Kirk Says Gun Deaths ‘Unfortunately’ Worth it to Keep 2nd Amendment.”
Lawsuits by other fired workers are still pending.
In her Facebook post, Swierc referred to Kirk's killing as a “tragedy.” But she also called it a “reflection of the violence, fear, and hatred he sowed.” She wrote: “If you think Charlie Kirk was a wonderful person, we can't be friends.”
Swierc's attorneys said her Facebook page's 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.
Ball State's president said Swierc's 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.
“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.
Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.
FILE - A student enters Ball State University campus in Muncie, Ind., Sept. 10, 2020. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)
SAO PAULO (AP) — A year ago, Brazilian Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro touted his family’s connection with U.S. President Donald Trump as a major political asset. This week, Bolsonaro is in Washington leaning into that relationship again in an attempt to shore up his weakening presidential bid after he received millions of dollars from a disgraced banker.
Bolsonaro arrived on Tuesday without a public agenda. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, his rival in October’s elections, had a three-hour meeting with Trump on May 7. The 80-year-old leader seeks a fourth, nonconsecutive term.
The Trump administration has not commented publicly on the Bolsonaro scandal.
The son of former President Jair Bolsonaro has been under fire since May 13, when messages leaked by The Intercept from a federal police investigation showed he received about $12 million from Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of the shuttered Banco Master.
Vorcaro is accused of defrauding bank customers out of hundreds of millions of dollars after he convinced them to make shady investments. Brazil’s federal police estimate the bank’s total fraud at 12 billion reais ($2.3 billion).
Flávio Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing and asserts that Vorcaro’s money was used to produce a movie about his father’s life. The investigation continues.
Political opponents have been on the attack since the revelation.
“Anyone getting close to a criminal banker gives a bad sign," former Minas Gerais Gov. Romeu Zema, a Jair Bolsonaro supporter who is running for the presidency, said on Monday.
Bolsonaro’s campaign has been shaken as he searches for a running mate and tries to form party alliances. The latter is key for him to get more resources and free air time on TV and radio, which is determined by the number of seats that each party holds in the lower house.
Even before Bolsonaro’s connection to Vorcaro was public, he lacked support from many in the business community.
Former Goias Gov. Ronaldo Caiado and Renan Santos, also presidential hopefuls, have raised doubts about Bolsonaro, and some politicians argue that former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro should replace him as presidential candidate.
“Michelle would bring many voters back. She has a good name for herself,” former environment minister and lawmaker Ricardo Salles said in a recent podcast. “She is much softer and that could work.”
Michelle Bolsonaro lives with the former president in Brasilia, where he is under house arrest for his coup attempt conviction. She has remained silent about the link between the senator and the failed banker and about making a presidential run.
“That is none of my business. I have to take care of my husband,” she said last week.
Sen. Marcos Rogerio, one of Flávio Bolsonaro’s key allies in congress, said the presidential hopeful has been giving the necessary explanations for what happened between him and Vorcaro.
“Moments like this deserve our attention. He needs to make it all clear. But he has also argued in favor of a congressional inquiry on Banco Master. This thing will not bar his candidacy at all,” Rogério told journalists on Saturday. “We are not going to re-evaluate his bid or choose a different person. The senator’s candidacy is still standing.”
Political analyst Lula Guimaraes, who has worked for candidates across the political spectrum in Brazilian elections, said the revelations would have been deadly for Bolsonaro if they had come out shortly before the vote.
The police investigations could further hurt his chances, but voters might leave the issue aside when it matters, Guimaraes added.
“As of now, people in Brazil want to know who will win the next World Cup. They want to know whether Neymar will play or not. That alone will make this whole affair less visible for a month,” Guimaraes said. “I don’t think this alone will be deadly for Flávio Bolsonaro, but even the man himself said there’s more about him and Vorcaro to come out. He’d better buckle up.”
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, talks on the phone as he arrives for the swearing-in ceremony for justices Nunes Marques and Andre Mendonca as president and vice president of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
