An arbitrator has ordered The Washington Post to reinstate columnist Karen Attiah and award her back pay nearly a year after the newspaper fired her over social media posts she made following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
According to a decision obtained by The New York Times, arbitrator Sarah Miller Espinosa ruled Thursday that The Post “did not have good and sufficient cause” to terminate Attiah and violated its labor agreement.
“The Washington Post failed to establish the grievant engaged in gross misconduct,” Espinosa wrote.
Attiah was fired in September 2025 after posting comments on Bluesky in reaction to Kirk’s killing. The newspaper accused the longtime columnist of “gross misconduct,” arguing her posts violated its social media policies and damaged the newspaper’s “integrity.”
Among the posts cited in Attiah’s termination letter was one in which she said that refusing to engage in “performative mourning” for a White man who “espoused violence” was not itself violence.
In another post, Attiah argued that part of what keeps America violent is the expectation that people demonstrate “care, empty goodness and absolution for white men who espouse hatred and violence.”
The only post from that period in which Attiah specifically named Kirk was not cited in her termination letter. In that post, Attiah attributed a racist quote to Kirk and described it as using his “own words.”
However, the quote was an internet-sourced misquotation apparently stemming from Kirk’s argument against affirmative action in which he named specific individuals.
The Post’s termination letter also referenced what it described as “documented performance concerns,” indicating the newspaper believed existing internal issues contributed to its decision.
“Given these concerns, and in light of your recent unacceptable Bluesky posts, we cannot tolerate the risk your performance poses to The Post,” the letter said.
Attiah fought the firing, maintaining that her social media commentary was consistent with her responsibilities as an opinion columnist.
During arbitration proceedings in June, Attiah described her posts as part of her work “commenting on our discourse on political violence.”
Following the arbitrator’s ruling, Attiah told The Times that the decision vindicated her position.
“This decision confirms what we’ve said from the start: I was doing my job as an opinion writer, and this was wrongful termination,” Attiah said, adding that she was “relieved to finally have that record set straight.”
Attiah also celebrated the decision on social media, sharing The Times report and declaring that she had prevailed in her case against her former employer.
“The Washington Post fired me last year for speaking the truth after Charlie Kirk’s killing. I fought back,” she wrote.
Attiah added that The Post had been ordered to reinstate her “immediately.”
[READ MORE: Employer Health Care Costs Projected to Jump Nearly 10% in 2027, Aon Analysis Finds]
