A Florida biologist who was dismissed by the state wildlife agency for criticising conservative activist Charlie Kirk on social media has agreed a $485,000 settlement. Brittney Brown was fired in September after she reposted a meme on her personal Instagram account saying Kirk would not care about children being shot in classrooms. The settlement covers backpay, damages and legal costs, and she has agreed not to seek future employment with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated on a Utah university campus on 10 September. His death triggered a wave of dismissals across the public and private sectors, with supporters combing social media for posts they viewed as celebrating the killing. The conservative account Libs of TikTok shared Brown's identity and workplace, and she was fired the next day, according to her lawsuit.
Brown had worked for the FWC for about seven years studying shorebirds and seabirds on the Florida panhandle. She said in her lawsuit that she struggled to find other work because the agency regulates her research specialisation. Her attorney, Carrie McNamara of the American Civil Liberties Union's Florida chapter, called the settlement "a hard-won vindication" and said: "The first amendment does not disappear when someone accepts a government job."
The case also revealed that Brown's former supervisor, Melissa Tucker, had claimed the post generated hundreds of formal complaints, but discovery showed only about 50 had been received. US district judge Mark Walker imposed sanctions against Tucker for exaggerating the number and failing to correct the record.
In a separate incident, retired Tennessee police officer Larry Bushart was jailed for 37 days over a Facebook post joking about Kirk's assassination. Tennessee officials agreed this week to pay $835,000 to settle his lawsuit, in which he said he lost his post-retirement job and missed the birth of his granddaughter while in custody.
