Four months after a judge dismissed a former University of Mississippi employee’s lawsuit alleging a violation of First Amendment rights, Lauren Stokes and her legal team are appealing the decision in federal court.
The former executive assistant to the university’s vice chancellor was one of several public employees throughout the United States fired following backlash over social-media posts following the September 10, 2025, assasination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk while he spoke at a Turning Point USA event at a university in Utah.
Stokes shared a social-media post describing Kirk and those like him as “yt supremacist and reimagined Klan members” who had “wreaked havoc on our communities” through opposition to gun control, support for abortion restrictions and racist rhetoric. Someone anonymously screenshot her repost and posted it to the “What’s Happening in Oxford” Facebook page. Though Stokes had deleted the post shortly after making it, it was already making the rounds in social-media circles around Mississippi. It caught the attention of Mississippi State Auditor Shad White, who called for the University of Mississippi to respond to Stokes’ post.
By the next day, the university placed Stokes on administrative leave, asked her to resign and then fired her. UM Chancellor Glenn Boyce condemned the post in a statement. Stokes’ personal information had been doxxed and the restaurant she owns with her husband received an anonymous threat.
Stokes’ lawsuit alleged that the University of Mississippi and Boyce’s collective actions violated her First Amendment rights to free speech. However, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Mississippi Glen H. Davidson dismissed the case in March, ruling that Stokes failed to establish a violation of her rights. He also ruled that Boyce has qualified immunity under the 11th Amendment because he was acting in his official capacity as a state employee when he fired Stokes.
Stokes’ case is the first of its kind to be dismissed, her lawyer Alysson Leigh Mills argued in a July 16 brief.
Similar cases have resulted in victories for the fired faculty and staff members, including settlements at the University of Tennessee and the University of Alabama this summer. While the settlement amount in the Alabama case is not public, the University of Tennessee is paying out a $1.9-million settlement to its fired assistant professor.
Attorneys representing plaintiffs in related cases across the country contend that the firing of employees over social-media posts on personal accounts violate employees’ First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
“If the district judge (who dismissed Stokes’ case) is correct, a government employer may terminate an employee for no better reason than external hecklers disagree with her political point of view…,” Mills said in Stokes’ appeal. “That is not the law, but the district judge’s orders set a dangerous precedent that affects everyone, whatever their politics.”
Stokes’ appeal is to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases that originate from lower courts in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. The court has not yet made a decision on whether to accept Stokes’ case.
‘I’m Still Suffering and Humiliated’
Davidson’s dismissal came after University of Mississippi employees and students testified on February 13 that Stokes’ dismissal chilled free speech across campus.
Seven witnesses testified before the court: Stokes, coworker Angela Atkins, UM sociology professor Dr. James Thomas, Pre-College Programs Director Dr. Wendy Pfrenger and UM students Calvin Wood, Kathryn Elizabeth Wildman and Lauren Hite.
Stokes served as the executive assistant to Vice Chancellor Charlotte Parks at the time of Kirk’s death on September 10, 2025. Her Instagram post was a repost of the following message:
“For decades, yt supremacist and reimagined Klan members like Kirk have wreaked havoc on our communities, condemning children and the populace at large to mass death for the sake of keeping their automatic guns. They have willingly advocated to condemn children and adult survivors of SA to forced pregnancy and childbirth. They have smiled while stating the reasons people who can birth children shouldn’t be allowed life-saving medical care when miscarrying. They have incited and clapped for the brutalizing of Black and Brown bodies. So no, I have no prayers to offer Kirk or respectable statements against violence. @thecollectress”
Stokes testified that after her post started going viral, Parks texted Stokes later that night to check on her.
At around 9 a.m. the next morning, after exchanging emails with her boss, UM Human Resources placed Stokes on a paid administrative leave. She was told the move was “in [her] best interest,” and “for [her] safety,” a February 20 court filing said, summarizing the February 13 testimonies.
At 10:30 a.m., Parks called to ask Stokes to consider resigning, Stokes testified on February 13.
Parks called again at 11:30 a.m., giving Stokes an hour to consider resigning, she testified on February 13. Parks fired Stokes by 1 p.m. Boyce issued his statement shortly afterward.
The harassment only escalated from there, Stokes testified.
“It made my firing newsworthy, and it condemned me to my whole community,” Stokes testified on February 13. “And it made it seem like I had done something wrong when I hadn’t.”
Stokes’ restaurant, Tarasque Cucina, received a bomb threat just two hours after Boyce published his statement. While the death threats began before Boyce’s statement, they increased after its publication, Stokes testified.
“Men older than me have spat me in public. … People are still saying vitriolic things to me,” Stokes said during her testimony. “I was suffering and humiliated then, and I’m still suffering and humiliated,”
Stokes filed her lawsuit against Boyce last October.
National Controversies
Nationally, other public employees fired over comments following Kirk’s death have reached settlements, although several cases remain pending.
In Iowa, a firefighter, a public defender and a teacher fired over Kirk posts reached settlements with their former employers. In June, Florida paid out a settlement to a biologist who was fired from a state agency following another post about Kirk’s death.
Turning Point USA, which Kirk founded, hosted an event on the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, Mississippi, in the month following Kirk’s death.
Their campus visit drew controversy, with students in opposition to Turning Point USA holding an alternative event at the same time.
Sociology professor James Thomas, one of the town hall speakers, is the only University of Mississippi professor on TPUSA’s Professor Watchlist—a list of academics that the organization accuses of pushing leftist propaganda in classrooms or discriminating against conservative students. In 2020, Mississippi’s Republican State Auditor Shad White investigated Thomas for participating in the anti-racism Scholar Strike.
Thomas was one of six university employees and students to testify on Stokes’ behalf in February.
The Turning Point USA event led to both classes and events being cancelled on campus, with the permission of UM provost Noel E. Wilkin, Thomas testified on February 13.
The university’s attorney, James Cal Mayo, Jr., declined to comment on Stokes’ appeal.
Boyce and Mills were not available for comment.
Follow the Mississippi Free Press’ coverage of controversy following the death of Charlie Kirk and read past stories here.
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