Former University of Tennessee Student Gets $250K Settlement Over Cardi B’s ‘WAP’ Lyrics

The lawsuit was filed after UT threatened to expel Kimberly Diei from school over a tweet she made containing the lyrics of Cardi B's 'WAP.'

Kimberly Diei, a former pharmacy student at the University of Tennessee, has secured a $250,000 settlement after a legal battle that began when the university attempted to expel her over a social media post featuring the lyrics of Cardi B’s “WAP.” The lawsuit reached its conclusion on Feb. 29.

According to The New York Times, the settlement announcement was made by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) — a pro bono organization that has represented Diei through the lawsuit. The lawsuit filed four years ago claimed that UT was violating her First Amendment rights.

UT’s Health Science Center College of Pharmacy launched two separate investigations into Diei in 2021, which resulted in her almost being expelled for her posts violating the “professionalism” standards of UT students.

The investigations were set in motion just two days after Diei enrolled at UT. The college committee’s professional conduct committee looked into her posts after they allegedly received an anonymous complaint about her content.

At the time, Diei made several posts on X, then known as Twitter. One of her tweets included lyrics to “WAP” by Cardi B, and the other was a selfie of herself, which was captioned with lyrics from Beyoncé.

While the UT administration stated that the posts were in violation, as they were overly “sexual” and “vulgar,” FIRE argued that Diei’s words were under the protection of the First Amendment — a sentiment that was shared by a federal appeals court on Wednesday.

With the representation of FIRE, Diei has argued that while her posts were racy, they were also shot positive and unrelated to her identity as a pharmacy student at UT Tennessee.

Greg Greubel, a FIRE attorney who worked on the settlement case, said, “UT’s pharmacy school learned an important lesson today. There is nothing unprofessional about students expressing their love of hip-hop and their sexuality on social media. Kim has proven something FIRE has said for 25 years: The First Amendment robustly protects students’ rights to have a voice outside of school, even if college administrators don’t like what they have to say.”