EX-SC professor sues lawmakers who demanded firing over Charlie Kirk essay
A former Presbyterian College professor who published a critical essay on conservative activist Charlie Kirk is suing four South Carolina lawmakers in federal court.
State House lawmakers representing Laurens County demanded Emily Taylor, a professor, be fired from her post at the school after she published the essay, “Dying to be Men,” the day after Kirk was assassinated in Utah. The four House members threatened to revoke state funding to the private university, including tuition assistance, if Taylor wasn’t fired, the lawsuit alleges.
Taylor resigned in December over the threats, according to court filings. Now, she is accusing state Reps. Luke Rankin, R-Laurens, Mark Willis, R-Greenville, John McCravy, R-Greenwood, and Craig Gagnon, R-Abbeville, of violating her free speech and asking the court to declare their actions unconstitutional.
“Defendants’ conduct constitutes textbook, unconstitutional jawboning,” the lawsuit reads “They are under no obligation to like Dr. Taylor’s views or to stay silent about their opinions, but they cannot use their authority as state officials to suppress or retaliate against Dr. Taylor’s speech.”
Taylor is also seeking compensation for back pay and lost benefits, claiming she has had a difficult time finding employment this year.
“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,” Taylor said in a news release. “How can we have a democratic society if we can’t freely exchange ideas?”
Taylor is being represented by the ACLU of South Carolina and Joshua Snow Kendrick of Kendrick & Leonard, P.C. The lawsuit was filed in district court in Greenville on March 11.
In a texted statement, Rankin said the lawsuit “is frivolous and reflects a broader effort to use the legal system to target political opponents.”
In the days after Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University, Republican lawmakers and activists called for the firing of individuals who publicly spoke critically of the Turning Point USA founder, including staff at Clemson University.
Taylor, the former director of the women’s and gender studies department, published an essay in Ms. magazine titled “Dying to be Men: American Masculinity as Death Cult” on Sept. 11. In the opening paragraph, she wrote “the violent discourse espoused by Charlie Kirk and many others has resulted in his murder in front of a crowd of thousands of students.” The essay was also published in her newsletter.
Two days later, Rankin, a freshman legislator, called for her resignation on social media over the essay.
“This statement is deeply troubling, inflammatory and entirely unacceptable, particularly from someone entrusted with educating young minds,” Rankin wrote on social media Sept. 13.
Later in the month, Rankin and three other members of the Laurens County delegation sent a letter to the university threatening to withhold funding if it didn’t fire Taylor, according to court filings and a social media post by Rankin. Taylor resigned in late 2025.
In a video posted after her resignation, Rankin called her resignation “a massive win.”
The lawsuit argues the letter sent by the Laurens County delegation was intimidation and coercion, rather than persuasion, and not protected by the First Amendment.
A call to Willis was not immediately returned. A call made to the business number listed on McCravy’s legislative information page was also not immediately returned. Gagnon referred questions on the lawsuit to Rankin.
Rankin also sponsored a bill this year to name a stretch of U.S. Highway 76 in Laurens County in honor of Kirk. The legislation passed out of the House earlier this month.
This is a breaking news story and may be updated.
This story was originally published March 18, 2026 at 12:52 PM.