U. Florida Law Prof Loses Emeritus Status Over Post About Charlie Kirk and Trump
“I did not want him to die. I reserve that wish for Trump.”
It’s amazing that this is happening to so many supposedly smart people.
The College Fix reports:
UF law professor’s emeritus status yanked over post about Trump, Charlie Kirk
The University of Florida has removed the emeritus status of a retired law professor after he reportedly published a negative social media post about both assassinated conservative leader Charlie Kirk and President Donald Trump.
“The University of Florida has been made aware of a retired faculty member who issued a post on social media that is raising concerns. In accordance with the university’s policies and regulations, UF has rescinded this individual’s emeritus status,” the university posted on X on Friday.
The scholar’s post was allegedly made Sept. 10 — the day Kirk was killed while debating students at Utah Valley University, according to several Florida news outlets, some of which provided a screenshot.
WCJB in Gainesville reported the scholar at the center of the controversy is Jeffrey Harrison, who retired in 2020 after specializing in economics, contracts, antitrust and copyright law.
His UF bio page had been taken down by the university and The College Fix could not immediately locate an email address for Harrison to request comment.
The post had stated:
“There is a lot of commentary about Charlie Kirk. It’s not that complicated. He was [an] evil person [spouting] all kinds of hateful messages. I did not want him to die. I reserve that wish for Trump. But let’s face it, even members of the Gestapo and guards at the concentration camps had children. That does not make them [heroes], nor does it make Charlie Kirk someone to be admired.
Administrators have not made an official emailed announcement to law students about the incident, a UF law student told The College Fix on Friday.
Meet Jeffrey Harrison.
He’s an emeritus professor at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law.
“I did not want him [Charlie Kirk] to die. I reserve that wish for Trump.”
He should lose any affiliation w/ UF & any current duties.
CC: @GovRonDeSantis @UF pic.twitter.com/QwjHboo15Y
— ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) September 18, 2025
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Comments
They HAVE to signal to their group. They can’t help themselves. They must repeat the sacred words and phrases to signal that they’re still among the cloud people, completely oblivious to how callous, small, and vindictive they appear to normal society.
Again I don’t see how this can possibly be legal. He wasn’t teaching, so his statement can’t interfere with his ability to do his non-job. And it’s settled law that a government entity may not fire an employee for expressing the wish that the president be assassinated.
My understanding is that he wasn’t an employee and therefore was not fired. He is retired and was stripped of the honorary emeritus title and any perks that went with it.
As a non-employee, he was not fired. He had a useless title taken off of publications.
What “settled” law would that be Milly? You talking out of your backside (again)?
Milly’s backside is wrong. Even a cursory search as blunt as
“can a public employee be fired for wishing the president dead”
{subtle— not]
will tell the reader that:
Yes, a public employee can be fired for wishing the President dead, even though the First Amendment provides some protection for political speech. A public employer can discipline a worker if the conduct interferes with the government’s ability to do its job, especially when it involves potentially disruptive or illegal speech. The specific circumstances determine the outcome, balancing the employee’s speech rights against the employer’s interests.
…..
The government can discipline an employee if their speech is disruptive to the workplace, harms public perception, or interferes with their job performance. A public statement wishing for the death of the President would likely be seen as a serious disruption to morale and public trust.
Beautiful. “Emeritus” means, “having fulfilled one’s term of service; retired.”
Is the guy now an unperson?
Memory holed?
I appreciate the University’s effort to distance itself from this horrible person, but it’s too late.
He’s still an emeritus. The University may revoke any privileges associated with the status but can’t undo his service unless we’ve gone full 1984 or Stalinist Russia where photographs were cropped or edited to remove people who’d fallen out of favor.
Of course, it’s today’s academy. We don’t know if the University has fallen victim to the sloppy expression of today or it really meant what it said.