The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Emory University Senate Open Expression Committee Opinion on "Termination of Professor Due to Charlie Kirk-Related Speech"
From the opinion released Oct. 21, 2025:
In the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, an Emory professor posted certain comments about the assassination on social media—first writing "Good riddance," and then writing that they "[didn't] feel bad" about the assassination and that Kirk "seem[ed] like a disgusting individual." The Emory administration, characterizing these comments as celebrating and inciting violence, terminated the professor.
The Committee for Open Expression finds that most of the reasons given by Emory for the termination are inconsistent with Emory's Open Expression Policy (Policy 8.14).
- Inconsistency with Emory's values cannot itself be a reason for termination.
- People's mere distress that an Emory professor can make such statements cannot itself be a reason for termination.
- The Open Expression Policy cannot justify bowing to outsiders' efforts to put pressure on Emory to fire the professor by making threats to other members of the Emory Community.
- Patients' and parents'/students' distrust cannot justify termination when it is not based on actual patient care or the content of teaching.
- Violation of Emory's Social Media Guidelines cannot be the basis for termination, because these guidelines do not present themselves as being mandatory; and if they did, a termination cannot be based on the failure to provide a disclaimer in a context like this one, where a disclaimer would serve no useful purpose.
- The relevant unit of the University seems to have not considered Open Expression rights during the disciplinary process, which violates the Policy's requirement that Open Expression rights be given substantial consideration before any discipline occurs.
The only potentially valid reason is the professor's initial denial of having made the first of the two statements; but this seems unlikely to have been a deliberate lie, and so it seems unlikely to have violated the policy mandating cooperation with investigations. The Committee therefore concludes that the professor's termination violated the Open Expression Policy….
For more details, see the whole opinion. Note that our own Sasha Volokh (who of course is a law professor at Emory) is the Chair of the Open Expression Committee.
