Lawsuit: Texas GOP judge fired secretary for anti-Trump Facebook posts

Updated 1 hour ago
By Chuck Lindell, American-Statesman Staff

A federal lawsuit claims that a 14-year secretary was illegally fired last year because her boss, a Republican judge on the state’s highest criminal court, disapproved of her Facebook posts disparaging President Donald Trump and other GOP politicians.

Olga Zuniga argued that her Facebook activity, which included support for Democrats, was done in her role as a private citizen, that she had no public role with the Court of Criminal Appeals, and that the firing violated her free-speech rights.

Zuniga sued her former boss, Judge Kevin Yeary, for whom she worked after his election to the court in 2014 until he fired her last October after searching for her Facebook profile and finding comments on “politicians and political issues that were different than his,” the lawsuit said.

Zuniga also sued the Austin-based appeals court, a nine-judge body that has the final say on criminal law matters in Texas.

“The Constitution of the United States limits the power of government to control and intrude on the lives of American citizens,” said the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Austin federal court. “Instead, Yeary and the court violated the First Amendment of the Constitution and ended the career of a public servant for exercising her right to free speech.”

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https://www.statesman.com/news/lawsuit-texas-gop-judge-fired-secretary-for-anti-trump-facebook-posts/LG5qZpKQOo0yXuteVlshXP/