--- 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](https://time.com/author/eli/) ## Eli Meixler Apr 5, 2018 6:37 AM UTC  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](https://time.com/author/eli/) ## Eli Meixler Apr 5, 2018 6:37 AM UTC 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) 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/). > [](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"}}]}] ```