Within hours of Charlie Kirk’s death, the University of Tennessee found itself under pressure. An anthropology professor named Tamar Shirinian called Kirk a “disgusting psychopath” in a private Facebook post and added, “The world is better off without him in it.” Someone tagged Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett in the post, and Burchett responded, “On it.” Days later, the university’s board of trustees placed Shirinian on leave, contending that Shirinian’s “reckless use of incendiary language” made her unfit to continue work as a professor.
Last week, the university reckoned with the risks of that employment action: the board approved a $1.9 million settlement payment to Shirinian, concluding that litigating Shirinian’s claims against the university would drain resources that the university would prefer to use in other ways.
Private employers, of course, generally have considerable latitude to address off-duty speech. The First Amendment limits government employers, not private ones, and most private-sector employees work at will. Still, “at will” does not mean “risk free.” Some states protect political activity or lawful off-duty conduct, public employers face more substantial constitutional limits, and the NLRA may protect employee speech undertaken with coworkers, or on their behalf, for mutual aid or protection—particularly when it concerns workplace terms, conditions or collective workplace concerns.
The practical lesson is not that employers must tolerate every ugly thing an employee posts online. And not every controversial post requires an immediate termination. But employers should slow down long enough to ask the right questions. What was said? Did the employee connect the post to the company? Did the post violate a clearly stated policy? Did it affect coworkers or customers? Have comparable situations have been handled consistently in the past? A carefully documented decision grounded in actual workplace impact is much easier to defend than a hurried announcement designed to make an angry internet audience move on to someone else.
