Ball State University will pay $225,000 to settle a federal lawsuit filed by Suzanne Swierc, a former health promotion director who was terminated after she posted a comment critical of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on her private Facebook page, the American Civil Liberties Union announced Tuesday. The settlement ends a case that accused the university of violating Swierc’s First Amendment rights and drew attention to how public employers regulate employees’ off-duty political speech.
Swierc was fired in September 2025, about six weeks after Kirk was killed in a shooting, court records show. Ball State said the Facebook post had caused “significant disruption” to the campus and cited it as the sole reason for her termination. The post’s content has not been made public.
The ACLU of Indiana filed suit in federal court on Swierc’s behalf last year, naming Ball State President Geoffrey Mearns as the defendant. The suit argued that Swierc was speaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern — the killing of a widely known national figure — and that the university could not punish her for that expression without violating the Constitution.
“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. “This settlement affirms that the First Amendment protects public employees when they engage in political speech outside of their official duties.”
Pactor said the settlement requires Ball State to pay $225,000 and does not include an admission of liability by the university. The settlement follows a string of First Amendment lawsuits brought by government employees who were fired or disciplined after posting online comments about Kirk, a polarizing figure who founded Turning Point USA and built a national conservative student organization before his death.