Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LITIGATION NEWS, TRENDS—Union sues Texas ed agency alleging baseless investigations of educators after Kirk assassination, (Jan 7, 2026)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

According to the American Federation of Teachers, the state investigated more than 350 educators in September 2025.

Yesterday, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which represents a variety of educators, healthcare professionals, public employees, and others, announced that it has filed a federal lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and its commissioner, challenging as unlawful TEA’s investigations into educators’ activities in the days following Charles Kirk’s assassination.

Specifically, the lawsuit identifies a letter from TEA that the union contends “unleashed a wave of retaliation and disciplinary actions against teachers” based on speech about a matter of public concern made outside of the classroom and their official duties, which the union argues is protected by the First Amendment. The union alleges that members have been placed on administrative leave, reprimanded, and terminated for social media posts.

The union contends that the “impermissibly vague, overbroad” TEA policy chills educators’ protected speech and could have “lasting detrimental impacts” on educators’ employment prospects. The union alleges that “[s]imply being under investigation negatively impacts an educator’s reputation, requires resource expenditures for legal representation, and can have lasting detrimental impacts on an employee’s long-term employment prospects, even outside of the education arena.”

Doxxing and attacks. Indeed, the complaint alleges that as a result of TEA’s policy and the commissioner’s actions, educators and other employees “have come under immediate, vicious attack and doxxing, often by outsiders who do not live in the educator’s district or have children at the educator’s school, and in some cases are not even residents of Texas.”

One example. For example, one popular teacher “was fired after a politician used her posts—which simply raised questions about the circumstances of Mr. Kirk’s death and did not promote violence in any way—as the centerpiece of his election campaign, encouraging his supporters to call for [that teacher’s] dismissal. Tellingly, only two members of the school board voted for Teacher 1’s termination; the remaining five present members abstained in protest.”

The lawsuit was filed in the Western District of Texas; the case is No. 1:26-cv-00024.

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