Source: Judging Freedom
by Andrew P Napolitano
“In the aftermath of the murder of Charlie Kirk, many folks who dared to express views of him and his work outside the mainstream lost their jobs, professional standing and State Department visas as they were fired or otherwise disciplined by employers or bureaucrats who concluded that anti-Kirk views could harm the employers’ businesses or were inconsistent with institutional values. … private entities that are not subject to the Bill of Rights may punish speech harmful to their product or values. … But none of this punishment-for-speech mania can rise to a criminal level. Until now. Now, in a jail in Perry County, Tennessee sits a retired 24-year veteran police and corrections officer whose sole offensive behavior was to quote President Donald Trump and have the quote appear to reflect Trump’s sentiment about the public aftermath of the Kirk murder.” (10/30/25)