Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

laidoffamazon

I’ll be honest this seems low for what he’s been through.

jubilanti

This was the meme he posted that got him jailed: https://www.fire.org/sites/default/files/styles/417xy/public...

josefritzishere

A judgement isn't enough. Those behind the warrant should be in prison, and fined personally. The tax payers of Tennessee shouldn't have to foot the bill for their malfeasance.

ikeboy

The path to solving a culture that overincarcerates is not by incarcerating those involved in perpetuating that culture. We need to tame the impulse to throw people in jail for doing things we dislike, not just point it at different targets. I see several comments saying that criminal charges should be brought over this. That is not the way.

arein3

Thank god 1st amendment works. But it should not get paid from taxpayer money, instea the offending officer ahould pay it

contubernio

The sheriff that arrested him should face criminal charges for misuse of authority. That he doesn't reflects a structural weakness in US law. In most European legal systems a law enforcement officer overstepping his legal authority would face criminal charges for it.

Aurornis

> retired Tennessee law enforcement officer Larry Bushart has won a substantial settlement from the county and sheriff behind his arrest. I did not expect to read that the victim was a retired law enforcement officer. This whole case is weird. I’m glad he won a settlement but I would like to see some actual accountability.

bko

Reminds me of Douglass Mackey, who was convicted for sharing deceptive memes before the 2016 election that falsely told Clinton supporters they could vote by text message. He was sentenced to 7 months in federal prison in 2023.

elicash

I’ll cut against the grain here and say it’s ABSOLUTELY appropriate for taxpayers to pay the bill here. It’s pretty toxic that people don’t want to take responsibility for their own government in a democracy. In this case, it’s especially bad, given the sheriff is elected by the people directly. But I’d go even further and say even where control is less direct, we need incentives for voters to take this stuff seriously.

mlmonkey

Giving some of the taxpayers' money back as a fine is no victory. Victory would be if the Sheriff and others involved actually went to jail. Until that happens, expect other power-trippers to keep doing such things. After all, what do they have to lose? Not a penny! Since the fine comes out of the pool of money that taxpayers collected!

Cider9986

Victory news...

epolanski

Why's everyone picking (rightfully) on the sheriff alone and ignoring that he got a legal warrant from a judge, and that the defendant was then later kept in prison by a judge?

freediddy

The fact that taxpayers and not the police themselves have to pay the settlement is the worst part of this. Every settlement against the police should be taken from their pension fund. This is something I've been advocating for decades now, because it creates an incentive not to do things like this. Right now, good cops don't patrol bad cops because it won't affect them. By aligning the incentives right, it will mean good cops will force out the bad cops quickly.

mrandish

I have tremendous respect for FIRE's commitment to defending free speech equally whether attacked from the left or the right.

appstorelottery

New business model apparently. USD$22,567.56 per day. 1. Make Trump meme 2. Go to jail for N days 3. Profit ($22k per day) Nice ;-)

shevy-java

Trump should personally have to pay for all those costs. Why are taxpayers required to pay up for those orange shenanigans?

IAmBroom

Just a note to the many commentors hear gnashing their teeth that "the sheriff should have to pay, not the taxpayers!"... The article makes it pretty clear that the settlement was against the sheriff and others involved. Digging further[0]: "Morrow and Weems have been sued in their personal capacities and could “be on the hook for monetary damages,” a press release from Bushart’s legal team at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) said. Perry County, Tennessee, is also a defendant since it’s liable for unconstitutional acts of its sheriffs." So, it sounds like most of the burden is placed directly on the shoulders of the guilty "officers of the law". 0: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/man-sues-cops-wh...

dylan604

"Today, the parties announced in a joint statement that Larry will receive $835,000 in exchange for dismissing his complaint. " They do not mention what their cut of that will be, but since they also do not specifically state they were working pro bono, I'd imagine it'll be around 40-50%.

m3kw9

what a pay out!

fortran77

I'm still not seeing how that "meme" could in any way be a threat. I've dissected it every possible way. It would never have occurred to me that the point that meme was trying to make was to threated violence. What am I missing?