Woman Forced to Resign for Giving the Finger to President Trump: Why She’ll Win

Juli Briskman sued her former employer, Akima, today. She alleges that Akima forced her to resign last November after she was identified as the woman—and Akima employee— who gave the President’s motorcade the middle finger. Akima’s story? They’re a government contractor. Their website says: “With thousands of active contracts in the federal, military and civilian markets, Akima companies are proving to be a critical part of successfully meeting the toughest challenges for their customers.” They didn’t want to be identified with Briskman’s political opinions and lose contracts.

But Akima is not as neutral as you might think. Earlier in 2017, a Senior Director of Operations at Akima called Briskman “a fucking Libtard asshole” in a Facebook discussion. He identified himself in a way that made clear to Facebook readers that he worked for Akima. The Company allowed this nice man to keep his job after he deleted his offensive comment.

So, why will Briskman win?

While her complaint is not online (yet), news reports say that when she was forced to resign she negotiated a four week severance package—a pittance for a single mother of teenage kids. Akima paid two of the four weeks. So she is suing for about $2,500 to recover on her contract claim. If she has a piece of paper that is signed by a company representative, she’ll be a hands-down winner in court. She’ll get her small sum of money and attorney’s fees.

Her attorneys also are quoted as saying that she has a First Amendment claim. Their point is that a government contractor cannot fire an employee out of fear of political reprisal.

That’s going to be an uphill climb for Ms. Briskman. Akima is a private employer, and Virginia is an employment-at-will state. That means Akima could fire (or force her to quit) any time, for any reason, or no reason at all.

But Ms. Briskman has already won. This morning, news accounts report that her GoFundMe site has raised $100,000.

When I donated $18 at around 11:00 a.m., the fund had more than 5,000 donors and raised more than $134,000.

A concluding thought: While this appears to be a legal battle, the larger story here is empowerment of another woman, and affirmation of her courage by thousands of strangers who feel a connection to her. If the nation’s democratic values are going to survive in the coming years, the main force will be women—women like Ms. Briskman.