By the time Maria Ruhtenberg was fired from her job last September for posting about Charlie Kirk’s assassination, few people even knew what she had written.
The posts and comments she had made on Facebook were only visible to her friends. Just one person, a Facebook friend she barely knew, complained to her employer. “I don’t even know how we became Facebook friends, honestly,” said Ruhtenberg.
Ruhtenberg then sued the state and Wright in federal court for First Amendment retaliation. In May, they settled and Ruhtenberg was awarded $125,000 in damages.
The Iowa public defender’s office and Wright did not respond to a request for comment.
Nine months after Kirk’s assassination, cases like Ruhtenberg’s continue to be resolved in favor of people who suffered consequences for their social media activity about Kirk. While many of these plaintiffs have settled with six-figure payouts, they are still grappling, to different degrees, with the aftermath of their firings.
I am surprised at this outcome
I would have thought this falls under the “you’re free to speak but not from consequences of your speech” interpretation.
I’m not saying I agree with the boot licking hyper sensitive crybaby weasel snitches, I just figured most jobs can fire you for representing the company poorly.
It’s because she had a government job, so her speech was protected. If it were a private employer she probably could have been fired without consequence.
I’m still surprised, I thought they’d argue it was taking a political view or something
It was her personal Facebook account and government employees are allowed to be as political as they want in their personal lives. Private employers are another matter, they can fire you for anything that is not protected legally.
Only active duty military are barred from making public political statements as far as I know.
