TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Azya Thornton on Oct 31, 2025

An assistant professor at the University of Tennessee (UT) at Knoxville is suing the university for suspending her over a social media comment she made criticizing political activist Charlie Kirk after he was assassinated. Tamar Shirinian filed the complaint Oct. 29 in federal court, naming the university, Chancellor Donde Plowman, UT System President Randy Boyd and Faculty Senate President Charles Noble. The suit claims that the officials were under national political pressure to fire her and tried to protect the university against backlash from donors instead of defending her free speech rights under the First Amendment, Knox News reports. Shirinian says her comments were private political speech. She is asking to be allowed back in the classroom and for the university to drop termination proceedings against her. “As a matter of practice, the University of Tennessee System does not comment on pending or active litigation,” a UT System spokesperson told Knox News in response to the suit.