BOCA RATON, Fla. — A Palm Beach County labor and delivery nurse fired over online comments about White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is now asking a state appeals court to throw out the emergency suspension of her nursing license.
Alexis B. Lawler, a registered nurse who worked at a hospital in Boca Raton, filed a petition with the First District Court of Appeal on Feb. 18, 2026, asking the court to either quash the suspension entirely or scale it back so she is only barred from working in labor and delivery, not from all nursing work.
The Florida Department of Health issued an Order of Emergency Suspension of License on Jan. 28, 2026, immediately stripping Lawler of her ability to practice nursing. The suspension came after Lawler posted a video online on or about Jan. 22, 2026, in which she said she wished White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt would suffer a "fourth-degree tear" during labor.
The following day, Lawler posted on Facebook, mocking people who had called her employer to report her. She was subsequently fired.
On January 27, 2026, one day before the emergency suspension was issued, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeir publicly called for Lawler's license to be revoked, saying being fired "isn't good enough."
In the petition, Lawler's legal team argues her comments were "protected political speech" made on her own time, in her own home, directed at a political public figure — not at any patient.
The petition cites multiple U.S. Supreme Court cases establishing that offensive or outrageous political speech is constitutionally protected, and argues the state is punishing Lawler for her political viewpoint.
Lawler's attorneys also argue no real emergency existed to justify the suspension, citing Florida law, which requires an emergency suspension order to be based on specific facts showing an immediate, serious, and continuing danger to the public.
The petition argues no patient was ever harmed or threatened, no allegations exist that Lawler ever provided inadequate care, and the Department of Health's theory — that a patient might see her video and might choose a different hospital — the petition claims is speculation, not a documented emergency.
The move comes as free speech advocates question whether the state went too far and violated Lawler's First Amendment rights.
Lawler and her family have so far declined to comment.
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