Taylor v. Rankin

Summary

On March 11, 2026, Dr. Emily Taylor filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina against four South Carolina state lawmakers who represented Laurens County in the state legislature. The filing alleged that they engaged in unconstitutional jawboning, referring to the use of governmental authority to pressure or coerce a private party into suppressing protected speech without issuing a formal order. It alleged that the lawmakers used their official positions to pressure Presbyterian College to terminate her employment based on her protected expression and threatened to interfere with state administered funding through the Higher Education Tuition Grants Commission, creating a funding risk for the institution if it did not comply. It sought declaratory relief, rescission of their September 30, 2025 letter and related threats, and damages including back pay, lost benefits, and compensatory and punitive relief.

The dispute arose from a September 11, 2025 essay Dr. Taylor published titled Dying to Be Men: American Masculinity as Death Cult. The essay was republished in Ms. Magazine on September 12, 2025 in the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. It addressed masculinity, American political culture, and the ideological influence of Kirk’s activism. It included a passage expressing sympathy for “Charlie Kirk and all the other men like him that have been raised in this America and with these ideals of masculinity,” while also describing his ideology as “hateful” and criticizing its broader cultural influence. The filing framed the essay as core political speech on matters of public concern entitled to the highest level of First Amendment protection. It arose in a broader post assassination environment in which colleges and universities were facing public scrutiny and, in some instances, disciplining or terminating faculty and staff over social media and public commentary about Kirk’s death, contributing to heightened sensitivity around speech on campus.

Following publication, on September 19, 2025, Rep. Luke S. Rankin publicly called for Taylor’s immediate termination on social media platform X, stating that he “continue[d] to insist on her immediate termination.” On September 30, 2025, Rankin and the other lawmakers sent a letter to Presbyterian College leadership stating that the institution should take “decisive and appropriate disciplinary action” against Taylor and indicating that they would pursue action affecting state administered funding if the college did not comply, thereby creating a funding risk to the institution. The complaint describes the lawmakers’ objection as arising from disagreement with the essay’s characterization of masculinity and its critical framing of Charlie Kirk’s ideology, and alleges that their response was based on the viewpoints expressed rather than any professional misconduct or academic deficiency. It further alleges that this response was intended to coerce the college into terminating her employment and constituted retaliation for protected speech.

On December 18, 2025, Taylor resigned from her position, alleging she did so under pressure created by the lawmakers’ threats to cut off or end state financial support to the college. She alleged resulting loss of income, benefits, and professional opportunities, as well as ongoing chilling of her speech due to fear of further retaliation. The American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina, representing her along with private counsel, described the case as involving government officials who abandoned persuasion and instead used coercion and intimidation to suppress disfavored viewpoints in violation of First Amendment limits on government jawboning. In summarizing the claim, the ACLU stated that officials “crossed a constitutional line” by using the threat of governmental leverage to pressure a private college into punishing protected speech.