Conservative Sued for Criticizing Coffee Shop Over Grotesque T-Shirt in the Wake of Charlie Kirk’s Assassination – The ACLJ Is Stepping Up To Defend Him
The ACLJ is stepping in to defend a client who is being sued for defamation by a coffee shop after he spoke out about what he witnessed in the coffee shop.
Our client has already spent thousands of dollars defending himself. Now we are taking over to protect him and fight for his rights.
While at a coffee shop with his family the day before Charlie Kirk’s funeral, our client saw another customer wearing a grotesque, bloodied T-shirt reading “Problem Solved” – a design widely understood as celebrating Kirk’s assassination. An employee of the coffee shop then approached the individual and stated that she liked his shirt. The individual responded that he was “celebrating” that day, and she responded that she “loved” it.
With the news of Charlie Kirk’s death still recent and raw for an immeasurable number of people worldwide, our client was disturbed by what he had just witnessed. So he did what Americans do every day: He spoke out about it. He posted on Facebook that the employees of this coffee shop were celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk.
For that, he is now being sued.
The coffee shop does not deny the core facts. They don’t deny the shirt. They don’t deny the core statements. They don’t deny the interaction happened in their coffee shop. They simply don’t like how our client described it on social media.
But that’s not defamation.
The First Amendment does not allow lawsuits over opinion or reasonable interpretations of disclosed facts. Our client didn’t make anything up. He described what he personally witnessed. Calling the exchange between the coffee shop barista and the customer wearing the blood-soaked “Problem Solved” T-shirt a “celebration” of Charlie Kirk’s death is, at minimum, a protected opinion and not a false statement of fact.
This is not a basis for a defamation claim, but it is a warning sign to all Americans. You have a right to express opinions, even when those opinions are sharp or unwelcome.
The ACLJ has always fought for your right to free speech, and this isn’t our first defamation case. We are stepping in here because this lawsuit is exactly the kind of attempt to punish speech that the Constitution does not allow.
We are reviewing the full record and preparing next steps, but one thing is already clear: Our client’s speech is protected, and we are ready to fight. Join the fight and stay tuned for more updates in this case.