HUMAN RIGHTS
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sent a letter to the dean of Texas Tech’s law school demanding an end to the investigation of a student facing the possibility of having her legal career ruined over her immediate reactions to the shooting of Charlie Kirk.
According to a news release from the group on Tuesday, law school student Ellie Fisher discussed the shooting on the day it happened and later criticized a late commentator on Facebook, a routine exercise of her First Amendment rights.
Days later, Fisher was accused of announcing the assassination in an “overexuberant” manner and of celebrating the news with her mother. Shortly thereafter, she was formally placed under investigation for violating the school’s code governing academic and professional integrity.
The First Amendment prohibits a public school like Texas Tech from pursuing disciplinary sanctions against students for their protected speech. And the school ignored Fisher’s due process rights by not explaining to her in clear terms what she was accused of and relying on other students’ subjective interpretation of her demeanor to punish her.
Even if Fisher is ultimately exonerated, this investigative process — now entering its fifth month — is punishment all its own, and sends an unacceptable message to other TTU students that offering an opinion on current events, even outside of campus, can imperil their legal career.
On Tuesday, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sent a letter to TTU law school Dean Jack Wade Nowlin alerting him to the egregious First Amendment violations in Fisher’s case. As FIRE Program Counsel Garrett Gravley put it:
“Fisher is in academic jeopardy of the highest order: her entire legal career and education are at stake. Yet TTU has failed to give her sufficient notice or information about her alleged conduct–and why it amounts to an Honor Code violation. This notice is required for her to properly defend herself. Despite multiple meetings and correspondence with administrators, Fisher has still been left to guess what, specifically, she did to warrant investigation and potential punishment.
— From Jack Whitten, F.I.R.E. communications
