Matthew Sanders
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The University of Missouri sent an email to employees on Wednesday warning them about the potential consequences of social media posts related to Charlie Kirk’s death.
“Employees do not have unlimited rights to speak as citizens on matters of public concern,” the email signed by UM System President Mun Choi reads. “If an employee’s speech can cause disruption such as workplace disharmony, impeded performance or impaired working relationships, the university’s interest in the efficiency of its operations may outweigh the employee’s rights of free expression. Under the First Amendment, this determination is made on a case-by-case basis and affords employees with considerable room to express themselves as citizens. However, speech that causes significant disruption can be a basis for discipline or termination, even when it occurs off-duty.”
Choi notes later in the message that “special considerations of academic freedom apply for faculty and graduate instructors.”
The email also tells employees not to post copies or excerpts of internal university messages.
Choi writes that the university has fielded complaints related to social media posts “in multiple instances.” University spokesman Christopher Ave declined to share more information about those complaints.
“The letter from the university I actually thought was a pretty good summation of the current state of the law,” said Dave Roland, director of litigation for Freedom Missouri. “I did not read it as threatening anybody, simply saying you need to be aware, here are the contours of what is certainly in the clear, here are some areas where you might be getting into dangerous waters.”
Andrew Hutchinson, a representative of LiUNA Local 955, which represents University of Missouri employees, told ABC 17 in an email that union members are in active discussions with each other and their legal counsel to determine their next course of action.
Kirk, a prominent conservative political activist whose Turning Point USA organization sought to win college students to his cause, died after being shot in the neck by a rifle on Sept. 10 on the campus of Utah State University. A Utah man, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, has been charged with murdering Kirk.
Prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death penalty.
Kirk supporters have sought to highlight social media posts that are critical of Kirk and celebrate his death. Many have called for people who author or share such posts to lose their jobs. The Hallsville Board of Education heard public comment Wednesday after suspending two employees while it investigates posts they shared after Kirk’s death.
“There is what the Constitution says and was intended to mean, and there is what courts have held. And although these things very frequently overlap, occasionally they do not,” Roland said. “What the courts have tended to say is that even when a teacher engages in speech that would absolutely no question be protected under the First Amendment, they can still lose their jobs if enough people complain. That’s what it boils down to.
“The courts have said that because schools are sensitive to the possibility of losing students or losing funding, they would be within their rights to discipline or fire teachers who engage in protected speech, even if it’s completely separate from the school environment, because the school has to protect its own interests.”
However, Roland believes that, as a matter of constitutional law, it would still be “indefensible” for public schools to fire an employee for expressing an opinion, unless they are advocating for violence or threatening a person.
“One of the ideas that the nation was built on is that we have to be able to have an open and honest exchange of ideas, even when those ideas may make other people uncomfortable or may make them really angry, to be the kind of society that our founders intended,” Roland said. “We have to be able to tolerate ideas that we strongly disagree with.”
He added that calling for people to lose their jobs for expressing opinions could dissolve the concepts that America was built on.
“Conservatives used to understand the evil of cancel culture because they most frequently felt its brunt. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, it is extremely disheartening and I think dangerous that they are using that same club against people who disagree with them,” Roland said. “If we allow ourselves to go down this path, we are going to dissolve the very concepts on which this nation was built. We’re going to obliterate the freedom of speech that is the cornerstone of American society in American politics, and it’s very difficult to come back from those kinds of things.”
ABC late-night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was suspended indefinitely on Wednesday after Kimmel made remarks accusing Kirk’s allies of politicizing his death.
“When you have them folding like that, it just encourages the government to press more. President Trump gets a settlement from CBS. He gets a settlement from ABC. So he goes out and he sues The New York Times for $15 billion, hoping that he can get a settlement from them, trying to make everyone kneel to his idea of what’s acceptable discourse,” Roland said. “We’ve got to have people who have the bravery to stand up and speak their minds regardless, knowing that the people in power may try and silence them.”
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