Florida officials will pay nearly half a million dollars to a biologist fired by a government agency for criticizing conservative activist Charlie Kirk on social media after his death.
The state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission fired biologist Brittney Brown in September after she reposted a photo on her personal Instagram account claiming Kirk wouldn’t care about shooting children in their classrooms. She filed a lawsuit seeking to be reinstated, saying she struggled to find other work because the government agency is the regulatory body for her research specialty in bird conservation.
On Thursday, Brown signed a $485,000 settlement agreement with agency administrators covering back pay, damages and attorney costs. As part of the deal, she agreed not to seek future employment at the agency.
Fish and Wildlife officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Brown was among a wave of public and private sector workers who They lost their jobs Because of comments about Kirk’s assassination on the UT campus. There are pending lawsuits regarding many of these dismissals.
Before his death, Kirk and the organization he founded, Turning Point USA, It galvanized the votes of young conservatives To help President Donald Trump win a second term.
Kirk’s supporters combed social media after Shooting on September 10 For posts that they considered a celebration of his death. Influencers like Laura Loomer vowed to destroy the careers of people who made light of the murder, and conservative social media account Libs of TikTok shared the identities and workplaces of many of those who posted with its audience of millions.
Libs of TikTok posted about Brown, and she was fired the next day, according to her lawsuit. Brown said someone alerted Libs of TikTok about her termination only about 10 minutes after it happened and before it was announced.
In a rare case in Tennessee, a retired police officer was jailed for 37 days over a Facebook post joking about Kirk’s assassination. Tennessee officials agreed Wednesday Pay $835,000 To settle a lawsuit filed by Larry Bushart. While behind bars, Bosshart lost his job after retirement and was unable to give birth to his granddaughter before authorities eventually dropped a felony charge against him, he said in the lawsuit.
Before terminating her employment, Brown worked for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for about seven years and studied shorebirds and seabirds in the area, according to court documents.
Carrie McNamara, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, called Brown’s settlement agreement a “hard-won vindication” that sends a message to Florida officials that they cannot punish speech they don’t like.
“The First Amendment doesn’t go away when someone accepts a government job,” McNamara said.
Brown’s former supervisor at the agency, Habitat and Species Conservation Director Melissa Tucker, claimed that Brown’s post sparked hundreds of formal complaints and caused significant disruption. Discovery in the case later revealed that the agency received only about 50 complaints.
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker imposed sanctions on Tucker last week on charges of overstating the amount and then failing to correct the record.