Winter 2026 FIRE Quarterly
Monica Meeks is a combat veteran and lifelong public servant fired for criticizing Charlie Kirk from her personal Facebook shortly after his assassination. Larry Bushart was jailed for more than five weeks for a Facebook comment about Kirk. Only after the arrest went viral did prosecutors drop the charges. When their rights were violated, they contacted FIRE. Also in this issue:
- Words are not violence: We conflate the two at our peril.
- New Jersey school board member silenced for asking constituents about proposed tax increase.
- Indiana University's free speech crisis.