Ball State President Settles Free Speech Lawsuit

Ball State University president Geoffrey Mearns has settled a First Amendment lawsuit brought by a former employee fired for a Facebook post about the assassination of activist Charlie Kirk.

Suzanne Swierc, a former student affairs staffer, was fired from Ball State in September following a post in which she expressed sadness about Kirk’s death after he was assassinated at an event at Utah Valley University but condemned the conservative firebrand’s rhetoric.

“Charlie Kirk’s death is a reflection of the violence, fear, and hatred he sowed,” she wrote in the post, which an unknown person later captured in a screenshot and shared with state officials and others.

A screenshot of Suzanne Swierc's Facebook post included in court filings. The text reads, "Let me be clear: if you think Charlie Kirk was a wonderful person, we can't be friends. His death is a tragedy, and I can and do feel for his wife and children. I believe in the Resurrection, and while it's difficult, I can and do pray for his soul. Charlie Kirk's death is a reflection of the violence, fear, and hatred he sowed. It does not excuse his death, AND it's a sad truth. The shooting is a tragedy, and I can and do feel for a college campus experiencing an active shooter situation. The deaths of Melissa and Mark Hortman, the children shot and killed in Minneapolis last month, and the children shot in Colorado today are all tragedies that also deserve your attention. Charlie Kirk excused the deaths of children in the name of the second amendment."

Ball State fired Swierc on Sept. 17, a week after she made the post. While court documents indicate she did not meet with Mearns, they show he signed her termination letter and indicated she was fired for the post. Ball State officials told local media her post “caused significant disruption to the university.”

The American Civil Liberties Union then sued on Swierc’s behalf on First Amendment grounds. Mearns agreed to settle the case on April 7, The Muncie Star Press reported.

University officials declined to discuss any monetary details but wrote in a statement shared with the local newspaper and Inside Higher Ed that Mearns and the plaintiff had reached an initial settlement agreement and the case would be “fully resolved when an agreement between the parties is memorialized, signed, the stipulation of dismissal is filed, and the court enters an order dismissing the matter.”

Swierc was one of hundreds of workers fired for Kirk-related comments, including many in higher education. Multiple others have since won similar lawsuits on free speech grounds.

While Mearns has settled the Swierc case, the ACLU of Indiana recently filed two other lawsuits against Mearns and other university officials. The first challenges a university rule barring student protests within 50 feet of most campus buildings, and the other takes aim at a rule demanding students comply with all official directives.