Texas Tech University Discipline Case Over Alleged Charlie Kirk Comments Moves Forward
A federal judge refused to order Texas Tech University to retract a report it made to the state bar about a law student accused of celebrating conservative activist Charlie Kirk's killing.
Tuesday's ruling is a procedural setback in an ongoing free speech lawsuit Ellen “Ellie” Fisher filed last month to stop Texas Tech from putting the reprimand in her law school record and alerting the Texas Board of Law Examiners, saying the discipline could hurt her ability to become a lawyer.
However, before U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr ruled on her emergency request, Texas Tech did both, and also recommended against her admission to the State Bar of Texas.
Starr noted in his ruling that he could not make Texas Tech take it back. He wrote that sovereign immunity, which can shield states and their officials from certain federal court orders, barred him from doing so.
Fisher's First Amendment lawsuit can continue as a claim for monetary damages against law school officials and Honor Council members sued in their individual capacities, he added.
Fisher, a third-year law student, Texas Tech undergraduate alum and founder of the campus’ NAACP chapter, says news of Kirk’s death broke at the end of a Race and Racism class on Sept. 10 and discussions among students and faculty continued throughout the day in faculty offices and legal clinics, where law students meet clients and work on real cases. Even so, the lawsuit argued, Fisher was the only student investigated and punished.
The lawsuit, filed April 12 in federal court in Lubbock, also says that nearly two months after Kirk's death on Nov. 6, someone scrawled a racial slur on Fisher’s car while it was parked on Texas Tech property.
After Fisher reported that incident, the lawsuit said, the school told her it was “irrelevant” and proceeded with a monthslong Honor Council investigation into whether Fisher acted unprofessionally when she discussed Kirk’s killing in classrooms and clinic offices.
The process ended March 11, when the Honor Council panel of faculty members and a student found Fisher responsible for violating the law school’s honor code after concluding her comments appeared “loud, happy and celebratory” and made some people uncomfortable. The lawsuit disputes that characterization, arguing witness accounts conflicted and that some testimony described Fisher’s comments as neither unusual nor unprofessional.
Specifically, the lawsuit says some witnesses alleged Fisher made comments, including using profanity to describe Kirk as well as “I’m in the best mood ever” and “They got him ... this is great.” But another professor recalled her saying only, “Have you heard that Charlie was shot?” and “It looks bad,” according to the suit. Other witnesses said they did not hear her celebrate Kirk’s death.
The council recommended a written reprimand be placed in her permanent school record, which the lawsuit says could damage her legal career because she would have to disclose it to the Texas Board of Law Examiners.
After Fisher sued but before the defendants were formally been served, law school Dean Jack Nowlin issued the reprimand, reported it to the board and filed a recommendation against Fisher’s admission to the State Bar of Texas, according to Starr’s ruling.
Fisher's lawsuit still seeks a ruling that Texas Tech violated Fisher’s constitutional rights and asks for monetary damages. Starr did not decide on whether Texas Tech violated her rights, writing only that her entitlement to emergency relief was "anything but clear" at this stage.
In an interview with The Texas Tribune in March, Michael Thad Allen, Fisher’s attorney, said the case raises a basic question about legal education. “What kind of lawyers are they going to produce at the Texas Tech School of Law?” he said. “They can’t be made to feel uncomfortable? That is infantilizing.”
The Tribune requested comment from Allen, Texas Tech University System, Texas Tech University and the law schoolabout Tuesday's ruling.
The lawsuit comes after top Texas Republicans pushed universities to punish students over speech about Kirk’s death. Last fall, Gov. Greg Abbott called for a Texas State University freshman to be expelled, and Attorney General Ken Paxton said his office would investigate the University of North Texas for not disciplining students accused of celebrating Kirk’s shooting.
The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
Disclosure: Texas Tech University, Texas Tech University System and University of North Texas have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
