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A Texas Tech University law student is suing the school after faculty disciplined her over comments regarding the death of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk.
Third-year law student and founder of Texas Tech University’s NAACP chapter, Ellen “Ellie” Fisher, filed a lawsuit on Sunday (April 19) arguing the school violated her free speech rights, according to The Dallas Examiner.
According to the suit, Fisher is accused of making remarks about Kirk’s death that were described as “loud, happy and celebratory,” though witness accounts dispute that characterization.
One faculty member recalled Fisher briefly asking, “Have you heard that Charlie was shot?” and saying, “It looks bad,” or words to that effect. The suit also points to statements from other students who allegedly made more explicit comments about Kirk’s death, including celebrating the news, but were not disciplined.
According to the suit, when news of Kirk’s death began circulating on September 10, 2025, Fisher was singled out and investigated by the School of Law Honor Council regarding her comments, while other students were never contacted.
At the time, Fisher was attending the Race and Racism law class with Professor Kenneth Williams, the Fred Gray Endowed Chair for Civil Rights and Constitutional Law at the Texas Tech School of Law, in which she was the only Black student.
“A student announced that Charlie Kirk had been... I don't remember the exact word that we used, killed, assassinated, or whatever, but a student did announce that as we were ending a class,” Williams said when recounting that day.
That student, whom Williams claimed was not Black, reportedly referred to Kirk as a “racist” when the class was discussing his death. Students and faculty continued discussions around offices throughout the campus that day.
The suit also alleges that when another student wrote a racial slur on Fisher’s car nearly two months later in November, the school told her the incident was “irrelevant” and conducted a month-long investigation into whether she acted unprofessionally when discussing Kirk’s death in classrooms.
When that process concluded on March 11, 2026, the council panel found Fisher had violated the law school’s honor code due to her comments as being “loud, happy and celebratory” in reference to Krik’s death and making some other students feel uncomfortable, and recommended that a written reprimand be placed in her permanent school record.
Specifically, Professor William R. Keffer conducted around 21 interviews with faculty members and students. This included Terri Morgeson, a clinical instructor and Director of the Texas Tech School of Law Family Law Clinic, who found Fisher’s alleged comments offensive.
Morgeson and her students, Madison Wright and Allison Monacelli, told Keffer that Fisher made the following statements to Professor Joe Stephens: “That mother f**er [Charlie Kirk] got shot”; “I’m in the best mood ever”; and “They got him … This is great.”
Stephens and various witness accounts dispute this claim, arguing that Fisher’s comments were neither unusual nor unprofessional.
“There was nothing unusual about it at all,” Stephens said, remarking that students were openly talking about the assassination all day just as Fisher was. “There's passion behind what she says and what she does, but it didn't feel at all out of character. When she left, I don't remember having a memory of being like, "That was weird," or, "That was wrong."
The suit asks for a judge to rule that the council and Texas Tech violated Fisher’s constitutional rights and block the recommended reprimand from being placed in her school record.
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