Speaking of the First Amendment: Once Again, Local Officials Learn That Trashing the First Amendment Is Expensive

FIRE plaintiff Larry Bushart and his wife Leanne.

​We earlier reported on the $3 million payout Marion County, Kansas, made to The Marion County Record after that newspaper was illegally raided by the sheriff’s office and its editor’s home was ransacked. The editor’s distraught 98-year-old mother, a co-owner of the paper, died shortly afterward.
 
Now a county and a sheriff in Tennessee are receiving another expensive lesson – this time to the tune of $835,000 – for holding a retired law enforcement officer in jail for 37 days for posting a meme. Here’s the report from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which helped represent the plaintiff, Larry Bushart, in a federal civil rights lawsuit. FIRE reports:
 
“After the September 2025 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Larry commented on a Facebook post promoting a vigil in nearby Perry County by sharing a meme that accurately quoted Donald Trump’s statement after a school shooting: ‘We have to get over it.’
 
“That meme – which Larry didn’t create or alter – included a reference to the 2024 school shooting at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa. But that did not stop Weems from seeking and obtaining a warrant for Larry’s arrest, based on the absurd notion that the meme could be interpreted as a threat against Perry County High School in Tennessee ...
 
“Weems admitted in a later interview that he knew at the time of the arrest that Larry’s Facebook post was a pre-existing meme that referred to an actual shooting that took place in a different state, over 500 miles away. But Weems and Morrow left out that extremely important context from their warrant application. Not that it should have mattered; the Supreme Court has long held that heated political rhetoric is fully protected by the First Amendment.
 
“Larry spent over a month behind bars on a $2 million bond. Perry County released him from jail only after his plight went viral nationwide and prompted outrage. During his stay in jail, Larry lost his post-retirement job and missed his anniversary – as well as the birth of his grandchild. After his release, he teamed up with FIRE to hold those who violated his constitutional rights accountable.”
 
Kudos to FIRE for helping Bushart stand up to this bullying. As many Americans are being arrested for exercising their First Amendment rights – whether by making controversial posts, reporting public information, or recording the police – they are pushing back in the courts. We hope local officials will learn that trashing their citizens’ First Amendment rights is hard on the résumé and the wallet.

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