BUZZ
Adjunct’s delivered dessert had pic of the late senator along with the word ‘congratudolences’
A pair of Republican Indiana U.S. representatives are demanding Indiana University fire a law professor after she sent a cake to deceased Senator Lindsay Graham’s Senate office with the message “congratudolences” on it.
According to the Indianapolis Star, Reps. Marlin Stutzman and Mark Messmer called Professor Elizabeth Booker Houston’s message “vile and cruel,” claimed it violated the IU handbook, and demanded Houston’s termination in a letter to the IU president and law school dean.
“Celebrating the death of anyone, regardless of political affiliation or ideology, is abhorrent and counter to the values of civility, respect, and basic human decency that Hoosiers hold dear,” the representatives’ letter reads. “This kind of hateful and insensitive rhetoric has no place at Indiana University and is appalling to see from someone who is employed by your institution.”
Stutzman and Messmer noted that if IU won’t fire Houston, it should answer whether it will “condemn her actions” … and if those actions “align with the university’s ethical standards and mission.”
Graham passed away July 11 at the age of 71.
I just dropped this cake off at Lindsey Graham’s office. Congratudolences, Darline! Your brother is burning in hell, and now, you’re working for the devil! pic.twitter.com/xecQPYaYl5
— Elizabeth Booker Houston (@booker_squared) July 14, 2026
Houston, whose X bio notes she’s also a comedian, told the Star that universities “knew about her social media presence before they hired her […] and some have invited her to speak because of it.”
She said “That kind of isolation is really what the right counts on, really making people feel very alone and afraid and scared. It’s important for people like myself to speak out, when we have the ability to do so, because of those individuals who are silenced, who are forced out, who were hit hard financially, who lost their careers, who lost their communities.”
Houston added to the “comedy” in her X thread about the cake, responding to at least one commenter:
Girl, stop bending over for Lindsey Graham’s ghost. You’re not his type anyway.
— Elizabeth Booker Houston (@booker_squared) July 17, 2026
Stutzman said his questions for IU “are not about 1st Amendment compliance, but rather of university policy.” He said the IU law school code of conduct “point[s] to carrying oneself with maturity and respectfulness” which Houston “seems to have thrown to the wayside.”
IU’s Principles of Ethical Conduct says “Community Members are committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct and integrity.”
On Tuesday, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression posted on X that Stutzman and Messmer “may find [Houston’s] expression controversial or offensive, but that does not make it punishable. As a public university, @IndianaUniv cannot discipline a professor for protected political speech made as a private citizen.”
Indiana University Law Professor Steve Sanders told Indiana Public Media that “embarrassment or criticism from lawmakers is not enough to justify action against Houston.”
“Does this incident tell us that she is no longer competent to teach food and drug law on a part-time basis, remotely?” Sanders asked. “I do believe that it is very likely a court would find that any retaliation against her for the exercise of her First Amendment rights would be a violation of the First Amendment.”
The Star cites the U.S. Supreme Court Pickering case which held that “public employees do not lose their First Amendment rights on matters of public importance when expressed in their private capacity.”
MORE: Indiana U. student: Laughing at me on a bike is a microaggression
