Free speech lawsuits mount after Charlie Kirk assassination

"They were very vague. I don't think they understood why they were there, but that it involved a Facebook post," Bushart recalls. The local police had been sent there at the request of Sheriff Nick Weems of Perry County, Tenn. He objected to a post that quoted President Trump telling people to "get over" a school shooting in Iowa two years ago which Bushart says was meant to contrast with the call to memorialize Kirk."

"But the sheriff said it could be interpreted as a threat against the high school in his county, which shares the name of the school mentioned in the Trump meme. "I knew that I'd threatened no one, and the conversation wasn't even about their local school or community," Bushart says. "I thought, 'No, we were having a conversation about Charlie Kirk, his death and your desire to hold memorial services for him.'" The sheriff had him arrested."

""We sent Lexington police department out to speak to him, and he refused to do that," Weems said. "What kind of person does that? What kind of person says he don't care, 'I'm not taking it down?'" Bushart spent 37 days in jail over that Facebook meme unable to afford the $2 million bond. As negative publicity mounted, prosecutors dropped the charges. Now he's suing, represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)."

Five months after the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, a wave of lawsuits reveals Americans were investigated, fired, and in one case arrested for online reactions. Larry Bushart, a retired police officer in Lexington, Tenn., posted memes mocking Republican officials' mourning of Kirk. Sheriff Nick Weems sent Lexington police to confront Bushart over a post quoting President Trump saying "get over" a school shooting, which the sheriff said could be read as a threat against a local high school that shares the name. Bushart refused to delete the post, was arrested, spent 37 days jailed on a $2 million bond, prosecutors later dropped the charges, and Bushart is now suing with representation from FIRE.

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