Florida nurse fights license suspension over Trump-related post

Lexie Lawler wished White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt a gruesome childbirth injury.

Stephany Matat

• A Florida nurse had her license suspended after posting a video wishing a gruesome childbirth injury on Donald Trump's press secretary.
• The nurse is appealing the suspension, arguing it violates her First Amendment right to free speech.
• Florida's health department claims the suspension is not about free speech but about protecting public safety from a nurse showing "extreme animus."

Florida’s health department is refuting a First Amendment defense by a former labor and delivery nurse whose license was suspended because of a social media post wishing President Donald Trump’s press secretary a gruesome childbirth injury.

Attorneys representing the Florida Department of Health wrote in a recent court filing that Lexie Lawler, who lost her license in late January, “displayed a hatred so extreme” in her comments.

The filing also said her statements suggested she couldn’t “be trusted to provide safe medical care for patients who support the President or otherwise express political views with which she disagrees.”

Lawler previously worked at Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital, but she lost her job a day after she posted on TikTok wishing a childbirth injury to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who announced her pregnancy with a second child in December.

Lawler filed a petition to the 1st District Court of Appeal Feb. 19, asking the court to quash an emergency order that suspended her license, which was sent to her on Jan. 28.

Her attorney contended in the petition that the order violated Lawler's First Amendment rights to free speech since it was "clearly in retaliation."

"The comments she made were vulgar and crude but they reflect only her animus toward Katherine Leavitt and do not reflect a danger to potential patients," said Julie Gallagher, a Tallahassee attorney representing Lawler who specializes in administrative law.

But it's not about First Amendment rights, the health department countered. It's about the "probable danger to health, safety or welfare of the state."

Lawler "is not being punished for speaking her mind. Her privilege to practice nursing is being regulated because of an extreme animus – of which her statements are evidence – posing a danger to the health, safety, and welfare that the Department is charged with protecting."

The letter ordering Lawler's license suspension specifically cites a TikTok post, where Lawler said, in part: "As a labor and delivery nurse, it gives me great joy to wish Karoline Leavitt a fourth-degree tear.” This video went viral, with millions of views.

Florida's involvement in suspending Lawler's license

Lawler was promptly fired after she posted the video, but Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier also weighed in, responding to a post from Libs of TikTok urging the state nursing board to revoke her license.

"Being fired isn’t good enough. Any healthcare worker who fails to uphold his or her obligation to provide adequate, safe healthcare should not be licensed in Florida," Uthmeier wrote Jan. 27. A day later, Uthmeier said that Lawler was no longer allowed to practice nursing in Florida. He also applauded the department's prompt action.

Lawler's official state records show that her license, originally issued in 2014, was suspended by emergency order.

In the same week, Uthmeier also posted that another nurse, Erik Martindale, was no longer registered in Florida after posting on Facebook that he wouldn't assist in anesthesia procedures for someone who supports MAGA.

Uthmeier's office didn't respond to a request for comment on whether the state was involved in this process; state records show that Martindale had voluntarily relinquished his license.

This reporting content is supported by a partnership with Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. USA Today Network-Florida First Amendment reporter Stephany Matat is based in Tallahassee, Fla. She can be reached at [email protected]. On X: @stephanymatat.