A Florida Atlantic University professor who was placed on leave over social media posts he made about Charlie Kirk’s opponents has filed a federal lawsuit against the university’s leaders, saying they violated his First Amendment rights.
Dr. Rebel Cole, an eminent scholar in the College of Business, filed the lawsuit Wednesday against FAU President Adam Hasner and several other top university officials who he said were behind his suspension in September.
Cole was suspended by the university in September over posts he had made on his personal X account following Charlie Kirk’s assassination, in which he said those celebrating the assassination were inciting riots and threatened to “hunt (them) down” and make them “both unemployed and unemployable,” according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday.
An anonymous complainant had sent screenshots of several of Cole’s posts to FAU the day before his suspension. He has remained on administrative leave ever since.
“Dr. Cole is still prohibited from teaching his classes, working with doctoral students on their theses, engaging in faculty duties, attending university sponsored events, and stepping foot on FAU’s campus because he exercised his rights to free speech under the U.S. and Florida constitutions,” his attorneys wrote in a federal complaint.
In addition to Cole, FAU suspended two other faculty members over social media comments following Kirk’s assassination in September. Unlike Cole, the two professors, art history professor Karen Leader and English professor Kate Polak, were both suspended for comments they made against Kirk himself, rather than his opponents. Neither professor has filed a lawsuit against the university, according to federal court records.
FAU, through an attorney, told Cole in a Sept. 15 letter that he was being placed on leave because his “continued presence on the job adversely affects university operations” and that his social media posts were being investigated because the university believes they “might disrupt the efficient functioning of the University, and/or jeopardize the safety or welfare of other employees, colleagues, or students.”
In the lawsuit, Cole argued that FAU, a public university acting as the state, violated his First Amendment right to comment on issues in his capacity as a private citizen on his personal social media page. The university never provided evidence to support the allegation that Cole’s presence threatened others at FAU or disrupted the university’s functioning, he said, and presented no complaints from students or faculty about him.
The social media posts in question came as a response to a video posted on X depicting a man chanting “we got Charlie in the neck,” according to the lawsuit. Another user argued that the chant was free speech. When Cole argued back that it was not, the user said “no one is afraid of you.”
“We are going to hunt you down,” Cole wrote back. “We are going to identify you. Then we are going to make you radioactive to polite society. And we will make you both unemployed and unemployable.”
The anonymous complainant also submitted posts in which Cole discussed “the importance of private gun ownership under the Second Amendment (specifically self-defense after Kirk’s murder)” and the high-profile killing of a woman on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to the lawsuit.
Cole’s suspension and subsequent media attention also caused him emotional distress, according to the complaint, leading him to receive death threats, while he and his wife were ostracized from their church in Delray Beach. This week, Cole was forbidden from attending a finance and real estate conference at FAU that he had personally founded in 2024 because he is still unable to set foot on the school’s campus.
The lawsuit requests that Cole be reinstated to his position at FAU and receive monetary damages.
FAU “acted illegally to strip me of my 1st Amendment rights,” Cole wrote on X Friday. “We are standing up for faculty across America. We cannot allow administrators to strip us of our 1st Amendment right. We will WIN.”
He declined to comment further when reached by the South Florida Sun Sentinel Friday.
The attorney representing FAU referred a reporter to the university for comment. A spokesperson for FAU declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying the university does not comment on pending litigation.
Cole’s attorneys did not return a request for comment.
