Federal Court Allows Lawsuit Challenging a Florida College’s Retaliatory Firing Over Charlie Kirk Posts to Move Forward

ORLANDO, FL – A federal judge rejected an Eastern Florida State College (EFSC) supervisor’s attempt to escape a retaliation lawsuit naming her alongside the college’s board of trustees. The supervisor had moved to dismiss claims arising from her retaliatory firing of a state employee who made social media comments about Charlie Kirk’s legacy.

The lawsuit was brought by Erika Santos, a former grant accountant at the college, who was suspended without pay for a month and terminated after the EFSC’s Human Resources department received an anonymous letter enclosing screenshots of her private Facebook page. Her posts discussed Kirk’s well-documented views on sexual assault, abortion, and school shootings, which are matters of public concern and are constitutionally protected speech. During the EFSC’s month-long investigation into Santos’s comments, an internal memo acknowledged that the posts were made in her private capacity and cited no evidence of disruption to campus operations or safety concerns.

In the court order, the judge ruled that Santos’s claim against her former supervisor could go forward, finding that previous U.S. Supreme Court case law gave her “fair warning that terminating an employee for speaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern, without allegations of actual or reasonably anticipated operational disruption, could violate the First Amendment.”

Erika is one of several state employees across the state who were targeted and penalized for their social media posts in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death. Since then, there have been a growing number of lawsuits throughout the country challenging government actors for violating employees’ rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendment. Most recently, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) reached nearly a half a million-dollar settlement with Brittney Brown, a former FWC biologist, who was fired for posting a satirical whale meme referencing Kirk on her Instagram story.

“Florida insists on imposing control over the marketplace of ideas – what professors can teach, what name a teacher can go by, and here, what a grant accountant can post on Facebook,” said Michelle Morton, Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Florida. “Behind it all is a government that believes paying someone’s salary entitles it to police their ideas. It doesn’t, but the State counts on people staying quiet. It takes people like Erika fighting back to ensure that the First Amendment continues to protect our right to think for ourselves.”

“Public employers have wide latitude to run their workplaces,” said Ryan Barack, Partner at Kwall Barack Nadeau PLLC. “What they don’t have is the authority to fire someone over off-duty speech that caused no disruption at all. Because this claim is going forward against the supervisor personally, she will have to answer for firing Erika over a Facebook post. An anonymous letter is not a reason to end someone’s career.”

Santos is represented by the ACLU of Florida and the law firm of Kwall Barack Nadeau PLLC and seeks damages and injunctive relief for violations of her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The trial for this lawsuit is set for June 2027.

The court order can be found below.