Make it two days in a row that a six-figure settlement was announced to resolve a lawsuit brought by an American punished for a social media post following the death of Charlie Kirk.
The conservative activist was eulogized as a free speech advocate when he was fatally shot last year, though one of the legacies of his assassination has been that people around the country have faced reprisals for their own free speech about Kirk.
At least some of those people have found success in vindicating their rights through civil lawsuits.
On Wednesday, we learned of the $835,000 settlement for Larry Bushart, a retired law enforcement officer who was jailed on a baseless charge for 37 days in Tennessee over a social media post following Kirk’s September killing.
On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union announced an $485,000 settlement for Brittney Brown, a former Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologist who was fired over a meme she posted to her private Instagram story.
She reposted a message from the parody/satirical account @awhalefact that said “The whales are deeply saddened to learn of the shooting of charlie kirk, haha just kidding, they care exactly as much as charlie kirk cared about children being shot in their classrooms, which is to say, not at all.”
Brown explained in her complaint that the @awhalefact post “references the shooting of Mr. Kirk on September 10, 2025, and his past controversial remarks on school shootings,” including his view that “it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights” and that school shootings could best be addressed by having more armed guards at schools.
Brown said in her complaint that she “intended her repost to convey a particularized political message which is apparent from the text itself.”
She noted that one of the outcomes of Kirk’s death “has been a tremendously increased fervor for censorship” and that “government actors at all levels have called for Americans to lose their jobs and livelihoods because they exercised their right to freely express political views that are controversial — a right Mr. Kirk himself exercised and encouraged for others.”
Yet, she said, “the basic freedom to talk about the biggest public issues of the day, and to debate and even condemn the political views of others, is fundamental to our democracy. And it is that basic freedom that the State of Florida has denied Plaintiff Brittney Brown.”
Brown said she didn’t claim to speak on behalf of the conservation agency but that the Libs of TikTok account, which targets liberals, shared a screenshot of her post next to a screenshot of her LinkedIn profile on X and suggested that she be fired.
Brown said in her complaint that Libs of TikTok is closely followed by senior officials in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration and in the state legislature.
Later in the same day that Libs of TikTok made the post (a Sunday), the agency issued a public statement saying, “We’ve been made aware of an FWC employee’s recent social media post and we do not condone nor tolerate this type of hateful sentiment. We’re actively working towards a swift and immediate resolution regarding this individual’s employment.” Brown noted in her complaint that this statement was made after hours on a weekend, which, she said, was something that rarely, if ever, happened. She was fired the following morning, and Libs of TikTok celebrated her termination online.
Before they reached a settlement, the defendants said in a motion to dismiss that Brown failed to allege a First Amendment violation.
“Even assuming Brown spoke as a private citizen on a matter of public concern, she must plausibly allege that her interest in reposting the meme outweighs FWC’s interest in maintaining effective and credible public service,” the motion said, referring to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The named defendants in Brown’s complaint were Roger Young, in his official capacity as executive director of the agency, and Brown’s ultimate supervisor Melissa Tucker, director of the Division of Habitat and Species Conservation, which oversees the Wildlife Diversity Conservation Section.
The ACLU said in the settlement announcement that the FWC will pay Brown $275,000, including $40,000 in back wages and $235,000 in compensatory damages, plus $210,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs.
Brown said in a statement that all she wanted was her job back.
“I see no leaders amongst FWC ‘leadership,’ but that’s to be expected when a state agency becomes the governor’s personal puppet show. The ‘Free State of Florida’ only provides First Amendment protections to those in favor with the current administration, while the rest of us are expected to fall in line or risk losing our livelihoods,” she said.
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