Settlement at Ball State After Employee’s Charlie Kirk Post

Ball State University has agreed to pay $225,000 to settle a First Amendment lawsuit brought by Suzanne Swierc. Swierc was the director of health promotion and advocacy at Ball State in Muncie, Indiana, and she was fired in September 2025 after a private Facebook post about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The ACLU of Indiana filed the case on her behalf, and the university’s president, Geoffrey Mearns, has approved the settlement.

Although the university said the post caused significant disruption, Swierc’s lawyers argued she was speaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern. While the payment resolves this suit, other similar cases have been settled recently: state and local employers have paid six-figure sums to workers punished for posts about the Kirk shooting, with reported settlements of about $485,000 and $500,000 in two separate cases. Ball State said leaders worried the controversy would harm enrollment and fundraising, and the settlement now ends the litigation.