Image Credit: University of Tennessee & Canva
Tennessee Conservative News [By Olivia Lupia] –
Former University of Tennessee (UT) anthropology professor Tamar Shirinian had a win in court earlier this week when a judge permitted her to amend her lawsuit against the school for her dismissal over remarks made following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, allowing her to add new complaints and defendants to the case, including a Republican State Representative and a conservative U.S. Congressman.
Shirinian was initially placed on administrative leave pending termination proceedings after she posted objectionable comments about Kirk’s death, saying the world was “better off without him in it”, calling him a “disgusting psychopath,” and saying his widow Erika was a “sick f—” for marrying him”. She later wrote an appeal protesting her suspension, but moved to legal action when that effort failed.
Filed on Oct. 29, 2025, the federal complaint alleges the university, Chancellor Donde Plowman, UT System President Randy Boyd, and Faculty Senate President Charles Noble did not back Shirinian’s First Amendment right to free speech and were more concerned with protecting the university from backlash by donors who put political pressure on the school to fire her.
The suit maintains that her comments were protected under private political speech and requests her reinstatement as a full tenure track faculty member and financial compensation for back pay, emotional distress, “loss of enjoyment of life”, damages, and attorneys’ costs.
But on Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jill E. McCook ruled in favor of Shirinian’s motion to file a second amended claim with new defendants and granted all but one of her new requests.
The amended filing comes after a different federal judge denied Shirinian’s request for a temporary restraining order allowing her to return to the classroom in December of 2025, ruling that Shirinian’s comments did not fall under protected political speech because she did not “specifically engage with Charlie Kirk’s politics or his political message.” Shirinian was officially terminated by the university on Feb. 11, 2026, for misconduct.
Shirinian’s new motion also hinges on months of discovery, including documents and sworn testimony from university decision-makers, legislators, and Shirinian herself. Her attorneys argued the discovery processes provided new information about who participated in her termination actions, what information was considered in those actions, and whether officials conducted any analysis of potential safety concerns of campus disruptions.
In the proposed amended complaint, the University of Tennessee and Charles Noble are removed as defendants while six more are added: Congressman Tim Burchett, State Rep. Chris Todd, Ryan Stinnett, Cynthia Moore, John C. Compton, and an unidentified John Doe #1.
Shirinian claims the unnamed John Doe threatened to withdraw a $10+ million gift if she was not terminated, while Rep. Todd reportedly sent a private email to the UT president demanding her termination. She also says Congressman Burchett “signaled his intent to intervene” by posting “On it” on social media in response to calls for Shirinian’s firing.
The amended suit will also drop her claim alleging retaliation for private political speech and will instead add several more including procedural due process violations, defamation, false light invasion of privacy, tortious interference with a business relationship, and inducement or procurement of breach of contract.
Only a defamation per se claim will not be included, which Shirinian withdrew herself, as Judge McCook found the defendants had not met the required burden of proof at this point to show the proposed claims were not warranted. The ruling does not prevent the defendants from filing future motions to dismiss, but for now the case will proceed with Shirinian’s updated complaints.
With the ruling greenlighting her ability to amend the complaint, Sherinian’s updated suit will be filed by June 22. It will still seek an unspecified compensation amount to include back pay, front pay, punitive damages, and damages for emotional distress. A jury trial date is currently set for January 19, 2027, and is expected to last five days.
Olivia Lupia is a political refugee from Colorado who now calls Tennessee home. A proud follower of Christ, she views all political happenings through a Biblical lens and aims to utilize her knowledge and experience to educate and equip others. Olivia is an outspoken conservative who has run for local office, managed campaigns, and been highly involved with state & local GOPs, state legislatures, and other grassroots organizations and movements. Olivia can be reached at olivia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
2 Responses
Her comments were vile and classless. Celebrating or gloating over someone’s murder especially taunting the widow and kids is morally repulsive. It shows zero basic human decency. Many people (including plenty on the left) rightly called it out as disgusting. That said, the legal question is different….. Public university professors generally have First Amendment protections for speech made as private citizens on matters of public concern.
The university has to show that her speech caused substantial disruption to university operations that outweighs her free-speech rights (the Pickering balancing test).
If UT fired her mainly because powerful donors or politicians pressured them, that weakens their position significantly.
Similar cases after Kirk’s death have resulted in settlements, reinstatements, and payouts (e.g., $500k at Austin Peay, $225k at Ball State). Universities often overreact under political pressure and then lose in court or settle.
Being an asshole on Facebook shouldn’t automatically get you fired from a public university if you’re speaking as a citizen even if what you said is hateful. But universities aren’t completely powerless when speech creates real chaos on campus. This will likely settle with money changing hands, or she may win on appeal. The amended lawsuit just gives her more shots at different angles. The real cultural issue is how normalized this level of vicious glee over political violence has become normal from the left. That’s the deeper problem beyond the lawsuit.
Hope the vile pukess’ efforts fail.