--- title: Cyclist Fired for Flipping Off Donald Trump Sues Ex-Employer description: Juli Briskman is suing her former employer, who fired her over a photo of Briskman flipping her middle finger at the president's motorcade canonical: https://time.com/5228865/juli-briskman-donald-trump-middle-finger-lawsuit/ author: Eli Meixler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-04-05T06:37:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:52:47.183Z article:section: Politics og:title: Cyclist Fired for Flipping Off Trump Sues Former Employer og:description: The suit claims her termination violated Virginia employment law og:url: https://time.com/5228865/juli-briskman-donald-trump-middle-finger-lawsuit/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt187e838300c02ecd/69892cde0a4a22f3979d2507/gettyimages-867601574.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Cyclist Fired for Flipping Off Trump Sues Former Employer twitter:description: The suit claims her termination violated Virginia employment law twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt187e838300c02ecd/69892cde0a4a22f3979d2507/gettyimages-867601574.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Cyclist Who Was Fired for Flipping Off President Trump Is Suing Her Former Employer by [Eli Meixler](/author/eli/) ## Eli Meixler Apr 5, 2018 6:37 AM CUT  A woman on a bike gestures with her middle finger as a motorcade carrying President Donald Trump from Trump National Golf Course in Sterling, Virginia on Oct. 28, 2017. A woman on a bike gestures with her middle finger as a motorcade carrying President Donald Trump from Trump National Golf Course in Sterling, Virginia on Oct. 28, 2017.Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images by [Eli Meixler](/author/eli/) ## Eli Meixler Apr 5, 2018 6:37 AM CUT The woman who was fired from her job after a viral image of her flipping off President Donald Trump’s motorcade has filed a lawsuit against her former employer. Juli Briskman’s lawyers argue that the termination [breached](https://www.thegellerlawgroup.com/single-post/2018/04/04/Woman-Fired-for-Giving-President-Trump-the-Middle-Finger "undefined") her First Amendment right to free speech and “violated the basic tenets of Virginia employment law.” She is represented by the Geller Law Group in partnership with the nonpartisan nonprofit [Protect Democracy](https://protectdemocracy.org/about/ "undefined"). > [](https://twitter.com/julibriskman/status/981648109121036288) Briskman, 50, briefly became a national figure in October after a photo of the cyclist brandishing a middle finger at Trump’s passing motorcade went viral. She then lost her job at Akima LLC, a Virginia-based government contractor, which argued that the photo violated the company’s social media policy. “I filed this lawsuit against my former employer today because I believe that Americans should not be forced to choose between their principles and their paychecks,” Briskman said in the statement. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5228865/juli-briskman-donald-trump-middle-finger-lawsuit/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5228865/juli-briskman-donald-trump-middle-finger-lawsuit/"},"headline":"The Cyclist Who Was Fired for Flipping Off President Trump Is Suing Her Former Employer","datePublished":"2018-04-05T06:37:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:52:47.183Z","description":"The suit claims her termination violated Virginia employment law","url":"https://time.com/5228865/juli-briskman-donald-trump-middle-finger-lawsuit/","keywords":["White House","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt187e838300c02ecd/69892cde0a4a22f3979d2507/gettyimages-867601574.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eli Meixler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eli/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt187e838300c02ecd/69892cde0a4a22f3979d2507/gettyimages-867601574.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP","caption":"TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP","creditText":"Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5228865/juli-briskman-donald-trump-middle-finger-lawsuit/","name":"The Cyclist Who Was Fired for Flipping Off President Trump Is Suing Her Former Employer"}}]}] ```