Ex-professor sues S.C. lawmakers for flagrantly retaliating against her speech

CLINTON, S.C. — A former English professor is suing four South Carolina lawmakers who threatened to retaliate against her employer, the private Presbyterian College, unless it fired her for an essay she wrote about the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

In September 2025, Dr. Emily Taylor published an essay titled “Dying to Be Men: American Masculinity as Death Cult” that drew the ire of four state lawmakers from the Laurens County delegation: South Carolina State House Representatives Luke S. Rankin*, Mark Willis, John McCravy, and Craig Gagnon.

Those lawmakers threatened to block state funds to her employer via the Higher Education Tuition Grants Commission unless the college fired her for her speech. On December 18, 2025, Dr. Taylor resigned because of the threats.

Dr. Taylor is suing the four lawmakers in U.S. District Court for what the lawsuit describes as “textbook, unconstitutional jawboning.” She is asking the court to declare the state lawmakers’ actions unconstitutional and order them to rescind their letter and threats. She also seeks compensation for back pay, lost benefits, and compensatory and punitive damages.

She is represented in the case by the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina and by attorney Joshua Snow Kendrick of Kendrick & Leonard, P.C.

"I worked my entire life to become an English professor. I was the first person in my family to go to college and earn a PhD, and I was dedicated to serving students like me at Presbyterian College,” said Dr. Emily Taylor. “Now I wonder: Do we really have freedom of speech if politicians can order employers to part ways with their employees? I can tell a lot of people are nervous now to express their ideas publicly. How can we have a democratic society if we can't freely exchange ideas?"

“Dr. Taylor was not only an advocate for the disenfranchised in our community, she also modeled empathy and flexibility in her own positions,” said Dr. Justin Brent, Professor of English at Presbyterian College. “Her civility, tolerance, and willingness to compromise will be missed."

“This is not a close case,” said Allen Chaney, Legal Director of the ACLU of South Carolina. “Representative Rankin and his colleagues can voice their opposition to Dr. Taylor’s article, but the First Amendment unmistakably forbids them from retaliating against Dr. Taylor or her employer because of her viewpoints. This is 101-level civics, and they should know better.”

Dr. Emily Taylor taught at Presbyterian College for more than a decade, ending her time there as a full professor and director of the Gender and Women’s Studies Program. Additionally, she has written about South Carolina politics via a personal newsletter called Hot Feminism.

On Sept. 11, 2025, the day after the conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley State University, Dr. Taylor published an essay that was subsequently republished in Ms. Magazine. Her essay concluded:

"I’m sorry for Charlie Kirk and all the other men like him that have been raised in this America and with these ideals of masculinity. I’m sorry that he decided to adopt this hateful ideology and to profit from it. And as the mother to a boy and a girl, my heart breaks for the America these children are growing up in. Here’s hoping we can save ourselves."

Rep. Rankin, a freshman representative from Laurens County, immediately began publicly calling for Dr. Taylor’s firing. On Sept. 19, he wrote on the social media platform X, “I continue to insist on her immediate termination.” On Sept. 30, Rankin and his colleagues from the Laurens County delegation sent a letter to the president of Presbyterian College in which they threatened to strip the college’s state funding unless it took “decisive and appropriate disciplinary action” against Dr. Taylor.

On Dec. 18, Dr. Taylor agreed to resign her post rather than risk the college’s state-administered financial support. The same day, Rep. Rankin posted a celebratory video to Facebook, calling Dr. Taylor’s resignation “a massive win” and saying, “We don’t need these leftist, crazed, woke professors in the classroom.”

“This is a huge, incredible win. I am so excited,” Rep. Rankin said in the video. “Christmas just got a whole lot better.”

Since losing her job, Dr. Taylor has struggled to find similar employment. Her speech is also chilled, as she fears further retaliation for speech that offends state lawmakers.

The lawsuit demonstrates how state elected officials disregarded Dr. Taylor’s First Amendment rights. As the initial complaint states, the four state lawmakers “abandoned persuasion (which is protected by the First Amendment) and resorted to intimidation and coercion (which is prohibited by the First Amendment) to retaliate against Dr. Taylor for her protected speech.”

Dr. Taylor’s essay is an example of core political speech about matters of deep public concern. The U.S. Supreme Court has long held that such speech “occupies the highest rung of the hierarchy of First Amendment values, and is entitled to special protection” (Connick v. Myers, 1983). More recently, in NRA v. Vullo (2024), the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed that “[a] government official cannot coerce a private party to punish or suppress disfavored speech on [their] behalf.”

Dr. Taylor’s case is the second case filed by the ACLU of South Carolina on behalf of higher education faculty who lost their jobs due to protected speech about the late Charlie Kirk. Previously, in the case Bregy v. Clemson, an assistant professor who lost his job at Clemson University sued to challenge the university’s actions. In January 2026, he won a settlement and the university rescinded its firing of the faculty member, allowing him to finish his term of employment.

As reported in outlets including Reuters, more than 600 Americans were fired, punished, or even arrested because of their social media posts about Kirk’s death. An ongoing wave of free speech lawsuits has resulted in some of those Americans winning settlements and returning to their jobs.

For more information and updates, see our case page for Taylor v. Rankin.

* State Representative Luke S. Rankin, a defendant in this lawsuit, is a freshman representative from Laurens County — not to be confused with State Senator Luke A. Rankin of Horry County, who serves as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.