A union is suing Texas’ education agency for investigating teachers over posts about Charlie Kirk

A Texas teachers union sued the state’s education department on Tuesday, accusing it of an improper “wave of retaliation” against public school employees over their social media comments following the killing of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk.

The lawsuit says the free speech rights of teachers and other school staff were violated by the Texas Education Agency and its commissioner, Mike Morath, because they directed local school districts to document what the education agency described as “vile content” posted online after Kirk’s fatal shooting in September.

Despite calls for civility, some people who criticized Kirk after his death drew backlash from Republicans seeking to punish anyone they believe dishonored him.

The lawsuit says the agency has received more than 350 complaints about individual educators that could subject them to investigation. It cites the cases of four unnamed teachers — one in the Houston area and three in the San Antonio area — who were investigated over social media posts critical of Kirk or of the reaction to his death. According to the lawsuit, the Houston-area teacher was fired, while the three San Antonio-area teachers remain under investigation.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Austin by the Texas American Federation of Teachers, which represents about 66,000 teachers and other school employees.

“A few well-placed Texas politicians and bureaucrats think it is good for their careers to trample on educators’ free speech rights,” Texas AFT President Zeph Capo said in a statement. “Meanwhile, educators and their families are afraid that they’ll lose everything: their livelihoods, their reputations, and their very purpose for being, which is to impart critical thinking.”

The education agency said it could not comment “on outstanding legal matters.”

The lawsuit comes less than month after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, both conservative Republicans, announced a partnership with Turning Point USA, the right-wing group Kirk founded, to create chapters on every high school campus in the state.

The Associated Press sent emails seeking comment from the governor’s office and Turning Point USA, which are not named as defendants in the suit.

Morath told school superintendents in a Sept. 12 letter that social media posts could violate Texas educators’ code of ethics and promised that “each instance will be thoroughly investigated.”

The lawsuit argues that the letter represents a state policy that is overly broad and too vague, allowing enforcement to be arbitrary and inconsistent. Federal courts previously have ruled that overly broad and vague policies and laws aren’t permissible under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because they could squelch protected speech.

The lawsuit said the Houston-area teacher expressed a view online that “karma played a role” in the death of Kirk, a strong advocate of gun rights. It said the San Antonio teachers compared the widespread outrage on the right over Kirk’s death to a lack of outrage over other violence, criticized Kirk’s positions on immigration or criticized him for comments that his critics considered racist, anti-immigrant or misogynist.

The lawsuit said none of their posts celebrated or promoted violence, which Morath said wouldn’t be protected speech.

Kirk embodied the pugnacious, populist conservatism that has taken over the Republican Party since President Donald Trump’s political rise, an unabashed Christian conservative who often made provocative statements about politics, gender and race. He launched Turning Point USA in 2012, targeting younger people and venturing onto liberal-leaning college campuses where many GOP activists were nervous to tread. He was shot during such an appearance at a university in Utah.