![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/09\/branch-post-1024x712.webp?resize=1024%2C712&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin called for <\/a>Branch, who leads a clinic at the law school to assist low-income individuals, to be fired, \u201cThe First Amendment protects your right to say what you want. It does not, however, guarantee you the job you want, regardless of what you say. The law school should terminate her immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n University of Arkansas Little Rock Chancellor Christina Drale wrote of Branch\u2019s comments, \u201cAs educators we should hold ourselves to a higher standard of conduct that values civil discourse, speaks clearly about the dangers of political violence, and that prioritizes a rigorous, fair-minded learning environment. The postings I read this morning do not reflect this standard.\u201d<\/p>\n Branch has been suspended with pay while the university conducts its investigation.<\/p>\n While Reuters reports<\/a> Branch is the first in legal academia to get swept up in the witch hunt, educators have been targeted in other disciplines. According to the PayDay Report<\/a>, hundreds of teachers, staff, and professors have been suspended \u2014 particularly in red states where state agencies are actively investigating the education community en masse<\/a>. And in Florida, they\u2019re taking it a step further than just social media posts. Education commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas<\/a> is asking folks to rat out private conversations that express disfavored viewpoints.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing right now is certainly what feels to me to be McCarthy-like,\u201d\u00a0Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar said.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cWhere people are being encouraged by the commissioner and by others to essentially hunt for, teachers or staff or professors who are saying something that someone has a problem with, however small it may be, and to essentially expose that, to dox teachers, to threaten teachers and staff and professors.\u201d<\/p>\n Biglaw firm Perkins Coie also fired an attorney <\/a>for comments about the death of Kirk they found objectionable. <\/p>\n The post Law Professor Suspended Over Charlie Kirk Post<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n Law professor Felicia Branch was suspended by the University of Arkansas Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law over comments she made on Facebook concerning the death of far-right activist Charlie Kirk. Her comments, which called particular attention to the methods of Kirk and his own take on gun violence, sparked a firestorm in the state. <\/p>\n Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the now-deleted post (available below) \u201cvile.\u201d Lieutenant Governor Leslie Rutledge said, \u201cWhile faculty members have the right to express opinions, openly celebrating the assassination of a fellow American crosses a line.\u201d<\/p>\n Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin called for <\/a>Branch, who leads a clinic at the law school to assist low-income individuals, to be fired, \u201cThe First Amendment protects your right to say what you want. It does not, however, guarantee you the job you want, regardless of what you say. The law school should terminate her immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n University of Arkansas Little Rock Chancellor Christina Drale wrote of Branch\u2019s comments, \u201cAs educators we should hold ourselves to a higher standard of conduct that values civil discourse, speaks clearly about the dangers of political violence, and that prioritizes a rigorous, fair-minded learning environment. The postings I read this morning do not reflect this standard.\u201d<\/p>\n Branch has been suspended with pay while the university conducts its investigation.<\/p>\n While Reuters reports<\/a> Branch is the first in legal academia to get swept up in the witch hunt, educators have been targeted in other disciplines. According to the PayDay Report<\/a>, hundreds of teachers, staff, and professors have been suspended \u2014 particularly in red states where state agencies are actively investigating the education community en masse<\/a>. And in Florida, they\u2019re taking it a step further than just social media posts. Education commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas<\/a> is asking folks to rat out private conversations that express disfavored viewpoints.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing right now is certainly what feels to me to be McCarthy-like,\u201d\u00a0Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar said.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cWhere people are being encouraged by the commissioner and by others to essentially hunt for, teachers or staff or professors who are saying something that someone has a problem with, however small it may be, and to essentially expose that, to dox teachers, to threaten teachers and staff and professors.\u201d<\/p>\n Biglaw firm Perkins Coie also fired an attorney <\/a>for comments about the death of Kirk they found objectionable. <\/p>\n The post Law Professor Suspended Over Charlie Kirk Post<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Law professor Felicia Branch was suspended by the University of Arkansas Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law over comments she made on Facebook concerning the death of far-right activist Charlie Kirk. Her comments, which called particular attention to the methods of Kirk and his own take on gun violence, sparked a firestorm in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":133628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-8cP0Mb.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/06\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568.jpg?resize=174%2C160&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n