Woman Fired for Flipping Off Trump

A viral image of a DC-area cyclist giving President Donald Trump the finger as he passes by in his motorcade has been making the rounds this week. We’re well past the period wherein pundits and commentators bemoaned the inability of the current Commander-in-Chief to be “presidential.” I think everyone watching at home–both in the United States and abroad–now understands that presidential qualities such as restraint, dignity, courtesy, and thick-skinnedness are beyond the current administration. But there’s a corollary to the fact of Trump’s corrosive and degrading behavior: his opponents don’t have to hold back either.

The cyclist pictured in this vicariously cathartic image has been identified as Julie Briskman by the Huffington Post, and the same article reported that she had been fired from her job with Akima, a local company which also does government contracting work. Virginia, where Briskman’s job was based, is an at-will-employment state, like much of the country. This allows employers to dismiss employees for almost any reason, or even no reason at all.

There are exceptions, however, including dismissing any employee for a reason that is provably discriminatory, for example a person’s race, religion, gender, or other protected classes. These sorts of things are generally difficult to prove, of course, but Akima’s explanation for parting ways with Briskman, if not carefully worded, could open them up to a wrongful termination suit.

Why was Briskman fired? Well, because she flipped off Trump, clearly. Akima admits as much. And this was a political act. Briskman had no personal relationship with the president. She is one of his several hundred million constituents, and she is not happy with the job she is doing. Her rude hand gesture is an act of political protest, protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Are there exceptions to these constitutional rights? Well, as just one example, rights for people with disabilities were built up over much of the 20th century through Supreme Court decisions interpreting constitutional rights to equal free rights for all (the 14th amendment). But an employer can determine the occupational bona fides of a job, and if a person’s disability is found to prevent them from being able to do the job effectively with reasonable supports, then denying that person a job is not discrimination. If you deny a qualified person a job just because you don’t want to build a wheelchair ramp, well, then discrimination it very much is.

Likewise, if Akima, a government contractor, can clearly show that absolute political neutrality of all employees, including in their private lives and social media feeds, is genuinely necessary, they might have a case for arguing that Briskman’s freedom to protest puts her company through undue hardship and that she has to be let go.

Having examined Akima’s Code of Conduct, particularly its social media policy, which makes no mention of political neutrality, I’m not convinced. Their official argument is that the hand gesture itself was sufficiently lewd or profane to warrant an immediate firing, despite her social media page having no mention or connection to her place of work. This seems particularly flimsy.

They may be sidestepping the right to protest argument by not mentioning the political nature of her act, relying on at-will employment law to back up their state-enshrined right to dismiss someone for the pettiest of reasons. But as Briskman points out in that article, a conservative co-worker who used similarly crass language that was anti-liberal rather than anti-Trump got a pass, suggesting the selectively harsh enforcement of the policy against Briskman was related to her personal political views.

In any case, Akima’s cowardly pro-Trump act is a win for the historically unpopular president, whose efforts to muzzle the press and influence organizations like the NFL to attack his detractors on his behalf are part of a general, dictator-like strategy to trample over U.S. citizens’ constitutional rights in order to bolster his own administration. If he had his way, Trump would shut down every media organization that did not praise him, personally arrange for the financial destruction of every wealthy, famous, or otherwise influential person to use their free speech and protest rights to criticize him on whatever platforms are available to them, and undermine the legislative and judicial branches of government which serve partly as a check against tyrannical power.

It’s therefore important that everyone from blue- and white-collar workers, political representatives, journalists, athletes, and celebrities continue to use their constitutional rights to hold the Trump administration accountable. He will hit back, and there will be cowards that fold to his wishes and hit on his behalf, but an ever-increasing majority of our fellow citizens and allies from around the world are with you.

But take note, also, with your constitutional rights barely holdiing back the United States’ first wannabe dictator, this is a time to think about how much legislation is nowhere near as strong as it should be, including labor rights in the majority of at-will employment states. Legislated rights for everyday citizens are critical in times like these.

Photo Credit: Brendan Smialowski via Getty Images. Image used under fair use.