ILLINOIS (WCIA) — The conversation around the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has cost many their jobs.

In Springfield a city employee resigned this past week after making a post disparaging Kirk.

A similar thing happened in Urbana as well.

The city came out to condemn the post, but said the employee was acting as a private citizen and their speech was protected.

“If you say crazy stuff, you’re going to face the consequences. And we’ve seen that primarily with work and work related incidences, when you lack empathy and you lack compassion and common sense, you are going to be correctly disciplined,” Senator Andrew Chesney, a member of Illinois Freedom Caucus, said.

The job losses in the wake of Kirk’s death have some questioning if the right to free speech is being infringed.

The ACLU of Illinois said the firings might not seem right, but they are legal.

“It is a common misconception that the first amendment sort of is equally protective of speech in every context,” Kevin Fee, Legal Director for the ACLU of Illinois, said.  

Fee said that losing a job over speech isn’t unheard of. But he added that the debate over Kirk is different.

“It’s not limited to people who are making very extreme statements, certainly in support of political violence. But really, all sorts of political discussion that’s even remotely critical of Charlie Kirk,” Fee said.

The type of speech being punished isn’t his only concern.

Conservative activists are now gathering personal information on Kirk critics and publishing those lists on websites and social media platforms.

Those efforts are getting support from top White House officials like Vice President JD Vance.

“What is not common or what’s not normal is to see high ranking political figures, you know, marshaling the machinery and the power of the state to effectively out and punish people and to do so really in a way that’s directed at a particular political viewpoint,” Fee said.

Conservatives like Chesney however welcome the involvement of the White House. He believes Kirk’s critics are crossing a line and need to see consequences.

“I think that that’s what we’re seeing, is we’re seeing people get radicalized in various different capacities and we want to try to catch it early to address it, you know, both through the legal system and other means,” Chesney said.

The ACLU also said political posts for government employees or professors at a public university are held to a different standard. It all comes down to a case-by-case basis but generally posts or statements by government employees received higher First Amendment protections.