The Volokh Conspiracy
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"Ex-Cop Sues After Spending 37 Days in Jail for Sharing Meme Following Charlie Kirk Murder"
From the Complaint in Bushart v. Perry County (W.D. Tenn.); as usual, note that these are just allegations, and I look forward to seeing any eventual court decision:
Larry Bushart spent 37 days behind bars simply for speaking his mind. It took a national uproar about his detention for Perry County officials to drop the charge against Mr. Bushart—a charge officials knew from the outset was unfounded.
On September 10, 2025, a gunman assassinated conservative commentator Charlie Kirk as he debated members of his audience at a Utah university. The attack dominated the national conversation. As many mourned Kirk, a passionate advocate for Second Amendment rights, others exercised their First Amendment rights by arguing his killing evidenced a need for stricter gun control measures. Some argued gun-rights advocates had downplayed gun violence in the past.
Ten days after Kirk's death, Larry Bushart—a 61-year-old retired law enforcement officer and a resident of Lexington, Tennessee—noticed a Facebook post promoting a candlelight vigil in nearby Perry County. Underneath it, he posted a series of political memes, the internet's version of political cartoons. One image (the "Meme") accurately quoted a statement President Donald Trump made after a January 2024 shooting at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa:
Defendant Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems understood Mr. Bushart's political message. He later acknowledged in a media interview that he and his deputies "knew" the Meme was not about Perry County High School in Tennessee, but about a 2024 shooting at a Perry High School in Iowa—a different school with a different name in a different state, some 695 miles away.
But Sheriff Weems—who helped to promote the Kirk candlelight vigil on social media—publicly claimed it might have caused "mass hysteria" if interpreted as a prediction of what President Trump might say after a hypothetical shooting at Perry County High School.
So, at 11:14 PM the next evening, Lexington Police—at the direction of Sheriff Weems—arrested Mr. Bushart and hauled him to jail. Mr. Bushart would remain incarcerated for 37 days, unable to pay the $2 million bond that a court imposed on him based on the false claims by Weems and his investigator, Defendant Jason Morrow, that Mr. Bushart had threatened mass violence at a school. Specifically, the arrest warrant (obtained at Sheriff Weems's direction and based on Investigator Morrow's affidavit) omitted the fact the Meme referenced a real shooting from a different year in a different state.
In the 37 days Mr. Bushart was jailed, Defendant Weems mischaracterized the Meme to local media, declaring that Mr. Bushart posted it "to indicate or make the audience think it was referencing our Perry [County] High School." Sheriff Weems claimed, "teachers, parents and students [had] conclude[d] he was talking about a hypothetical shooting at our school. Numerous [people] reached out in concern." He also stated "investigators" … "believe[d] Bushart was fully aware of the fear his post would cause and intentionally sought to create hysteria within the community."
When Mr. Bushart posted the Meme, he had no inkling or reason to think that anyone would take it as a threat of violence. And unsurprisingly, Defendants—ignoring multiple requests under the Tennessee Public Records Act—have produced no evidence that any person interpreted the Meme as a threat. In fact, the Perry County School District has no records at all concerning Mr. Bushart or the Meme.
It is clearly established that the First Amendment prohibits government officials from arresting people for protected political speech. Defendants Weems and Morrow understood Mr. Bushart's post as political commentary on the debate about guns in America, but orchestrated his arrest anyway, flouting the long-entrenched First Amendment protection for even the most provocative, hyperbolic political speech. Mr. Bushart brings this action to vindicate his constitutional rights and to deter Sheriff Weems, Investigator Morrow, and similarly situated officials from future misconduct.
