After Charlie Kirk's assassination, private-sector employees discover the right to free speech doesn't apply at work

https://fortune.com/2025/09/14/charlie-kirk-assassination-private-sector-
employees-free-speech-rights-workplace/

In the days following the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie 
Kirk, numerous workers have been fired for their comments on his death, 
among them MSNBC political analyst Matthew Dowd.

It’s far from the first time workers have lost their jobs over things they 
say publicly — including in social media posts. In the U.S., laws can vary 
across states, but overall, there’s very little legal protections for 
employees who are punished for speech made both in and out of private 
workplaces.

“Most people think they have a right to free speech…but that doesn’t 
necessarily apply in the workplace,” said Vanessa Matsis-McCready, 
associate general counsel and vice president of HR Services for Engage 
PEO. “Most employees in the private sector do not have any protections for 
that type of speech at work.”

Add to that the prevalence of social media, which has made it increasingly 
common to track employees’ conduct outside of work and to dox people, or 
publish information about them online with the intent of harming or 
harassing them.

Employers have a lot of leeway
Protections for workers vary from one state to the next. For example, in 
New York, if an employee is participating in a weekend political protest, 
but not associating themselves with the organization that employs them, 
their employer cannot fire them for that activity when they return to 
work. But if that same employee is at a company event on a weekend and 
talks about their political viewpoints in a way that makes others feel 
unsafe or the target of discrimination or harassment, then they could face 
consequences at work, Matsis-McCready said.

Most of the U.S. defaults to “at-will” employment law — which essentially 
means employers can choose to hire and fire as they see fit, including 
over employees’ speech.

“The First Amendment does not apply in private workplaces to protect 
employees’ speech,” said Andrew Kragie, an attorney who specializes in 
employment and labor law at Maynard Nexsen. “It actually does protect 
employers’ right to make decisions about employees, based on employees’ 
speech.”

Kragie said there are “pockets of protection” around the U.S. under 
various state laws, such as statues that forbid punishing workers for 
their political views. But the interpretation of how that gets enforced 
changes, he notes, making the waters murky.

Steven T. Collis, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin and 
faculty director of the school’s Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center, 
also points to some state laws that say employers can’t fire their workers 
for “legal off duty conduct.” But there’s often an exception for conduct 
seen as disruptive to an employer’s business or reputation, which could be 
grounds to fire someone over public comments or social media posts.

“In this scenario, if somebody feels like one of their employees has done 
something that suggests they are glorifying or celebrating a murder, an 
employer might still be able to fire them even with one of those laws on 
the books,” Collis said.

For public employees, which can range from school teachers and postal 
workers to elected officials, the process is a bit different. That’s 
because the First Amendment plays a unique role when the government is the 
employer, Collis explains — and the Supreme Court has ruled that if an 
employee is acting in a private capacity but speaking on a matter of 
public concern, they’re protected.

However, that has yet to stop the public sector from restricting speech in 
the aftermath of Kirk’s death. For instance, leaders at the Pentagon 
unveiled a “zero tolerance” policy for any posts or comments from troops 
that make light of or celebrate the killing of Kirk.

The policy, announced by the Pentagon’s top spokesman Sean Parnell on 
social media Thursday, came hours after numerous conservative military 
influencers and activists began forwarding posts they considered 
problematic to Parnell and his boss, defense secretary Pete Hegseth.

“It is unacceptable for military personnel and Department of War civilians 
to celebrate or mock the assassination of a fellow American,” Parnell 
wrote Thursday.

A surge of political debate
The ubiquity of social media is making it easier than ever to share 
opinions about politics and major news events as they’re unfolding. But 
posting on social media leaves a record, and in times of escalating 
political polarization, those declarations can be seen as damaging to the 
reputation of an individual or their employer.

“People don’t realize when they’re on social media, it is the town 
square,” said Amy Dufrane, CEO of the Human Resource Certification 
Institute. “They’re not having a private conversation with the neighbor 
over the fence. They’re really broadcasting their views.”

Political debates are certainly not limited to social media and are 
increasingly making their way into the workplace as well.

“The gamification of the way we communicate in the workplace, Slack and 
Teams, chat and all these things, they’re very similar to how you might 
interact on Instagram or other social media, so I do think that makes it 
feel a little less formal and somebody might be more inclined to take to 
take a step and say, ‘Oh, I can’t believe this happened,’” Matsis-McCready 
said.

Employers are not ready
In the tense, divided climate of the U.S., many human resource 
professionals have expressed that they’re unprepared to address 
politically charged discussions in the workplace, according to the Human 
Resource Certification Institute. But those conversations are going to 
happen, so employers need to set policies about what is acceptable or 
unacceptable workplace conduct, Dufrane said.

“HR has got to really drill down and make sure that they’re super clear on 
their policies and practices and communicating to their employees on what 
are their responsibilities as an employee of the organization,” Dufrane 
said.

Many employers are reviewing their policies on political speech and 
providing training about what appropriate conduct looks like, both inside 
and outside the organization, she said. And the brutal nature of Kirk’s 
killing may have led some of them to react more strongly in the days that 
followed his death.

“Because of the violent nature of what some political discussion is now 
about, I think there is a real concern from employers that they want to 
keep the workplace safe and that they’re being extra vigilant about 
anything that could be viewed as a threat, which is their duty,” Matsis-
McCreedy said.

Employees can also be seen as ambassadors of a company’s brand, and their 
political speech can dilute that brand and hurt its reputation, depending 
on what is being said and how it is being received. That is leading more 
companies to act on what employees are saying online, she said.

“Some of the individuals that had posted and their posts went viral, all 
of a sudden the phone lines of their employers were just nonstop calls 
complaining,” Matsis-McCready said.

Still, experts like Collis don’t anticipate a significant change in how 
employers monitor their workers speech — noting that online activity has 
come under the spotlight for at least the last 15 years.

“Employers are already and have been for a very long time, vetting 
employees based on what they’re posting on social media,” he said.


-- 
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look 
forward to America being great again.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that 
stupid people won't be offended.

Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.

Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama 
/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.