Texas judge orders Southwest Airlines attorneys to 'religious-liberty training' for flouting his ruling in pro-life discrimination case



A federal judge in the Lone Star State has ordered three attorneys for Southwest Airlines to attend a Christian law firm's eight-hour course on religious liberty for having violated court orders issuing from a pro-life flight attendant's religious discrimination case.

In addition to hammering the attorneys over their apparent insolence, U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr, nominated by former President Donald Trump in 2019, has made sure Southwest cannot hide from its employees its past discriminatory behavior or its legal inability to repeat that behavior, requiring that they say as much in an internal memo.

What's the background?

TheBlaze previously reported that Southwest Airlines fired Charlene Carter in 2017 for expressing pro-life views and taking issue with the requirement that she subsidize pro-abortion activism by way of mandatory union dues. She had been with the airline for roughly 20 years.

With the help of free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation, Carter took the Transport Workers Union and Southwest to court.

In July 2022, a federal jury agreed that Carter had been wrongfully terminated for her pro-life and religious views and awarded the former flight attendant a $5.1 million verdict — $950,000 from Local 556 of the Transport Workers Union and $4.15 million from Southwest Airlines.

Starr reportedly had to reduce the original amount to $810,180, including $150,000 in back pay, because federal discrimination law limits damages that companies can pay out.

In December, Starr further ordered the company to reinstate Carter with full seniority and benefits.

Violations

Extra to compensation and reinstatement, Starr ordered the airline and union to take various corrective actions, such as informing "Southwest flight attendants that, under Title VII, they may not discriminate against Southwest flight attendants for their religious practices and beliefs, including – but not limited to – those expressed on social media and those concerning abortion."

It appears the airline did not follow Starr's order to the letter or even the sentence.

According to a sanction order issued by Starr on Monday, messages dispatched by Southwest airlines to employees "failed to mention Title VII, that the federal law known as Title VII contains a prohibition, and that that prohibition forbids Southwest from discriminating against flight attendants for their religious beliefs."

Instead, they said only, "Southwest does not discriminate against our Employees for their religious practices and beliefs.

"In the universe we live in — the one where words mean something — Southwest's notice didn't come close to complying with the Court's order," wrote Starr.

The federal judge indicated the attorneys for the airline further violated the court's corrective order by circulating a memo around the company "stating that its employees must abide by the types of policies over which Southwest fired Carter and that it believed its firing of Carter was justified because of these policies."

Consequently, Carter moved for sanctions, and the court moved to take Southwest to task once more.

Remedies

The airline has been ordered to send attorneys Ferrie Forbes, Kevin Minchey, and Chris Maberry to religious liberty training, which will be conducted by the Alliance Defending Freedom, concluding that this "is the least restrictive means of achieving compliance with the Court's order."

Starr stated that "Southwest must transport ADF's representative to Dallas and be responsible for any food, accommodation, or other travel expenses for ADF's representative."

Starr has also ordered the airline to issue an email to its flight attendants explaining how its previous messages were wrong, along with the correct message.

Concerning the order, Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation, said in a statement obtained by TheBlaze, "Southwest’s past behavior against Carter was discriminatory and illegal, and the District Court’s order rightly shuts down Southwest Airlines’ bald-faced attempt to dodge its responsibility to inform flight attendants of its wrongdoing."

"Hopefully this order provides hope to other independent minded workers that their right to express their religious dissent against union and company political agendas cannot so easily be waved away," added Mix.

The ADF said in a statement to CNN it is "pleased that the judge and jury protected the religious speech of the employee in this case."

Jim Campbell, chief legal counsel for ADF, said, "Every company should respect religious liberty and diverse viewpoints in the workplace. ... We are happy to help Southwest achieve that goal by providing training on Title VII and other applicable laws barring religious discrimination."

Southwest and the union appealed the December ruling and told CNN they will similarly appeal Starr's sanctions order.

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Bystanders watch in horror as NYC carriage horse collapses ​​​in extreme heat — then it sadly gets worse



Heartbreaking footage of a carriage horse in New York City collapsing during rush hour traffic in Manhattan on Wednesday has sparked outrage against both the driver and the controversial practice of using horse-drawn carriages on busy city roads.

Bystanders watched in horror as a horse named Ryder collapsed onto the hot pavement and then the driver of the carriage reacted by repeatedly hitting the heat-exhausted animal and shouting, “Get up! Get up! C’mon, get up."

“I saw the horse collapse. He obviously was malnourished, dehydrated, hungry. The guy started whipping his horse and telling him to get back up instead of giving him water,” one witness told the New York Post. “It’s really sad, man. You can tell that horse was not taken care of. You can tell [the driver] was exploiting that horse."


Police officers soon arrived and hosed the horse down in an effort to help lower his body temperature.

\u201chorse in carriage collapses in Midtown Manhattan due to the hot weather \n\nhttps://t.co/JqrwaU8QXt\u201d
— Viral News NY (@Viral News NY) 1660172207

The driver was accused of "kick[ing] up his feet" as he "sat in the shade texting, while police desperately tried saving Ryder the horse."

\u201cAfter beating his horse, carriage driver Ian McKeever kicked up his feet and sat in the shade texting, while police desperately tried saving Ryder the horse after he collapsed on #Manhattan street.\n\nTell @NYCSpeakerAdams to #BanHorseCarriages now: https://t.co/HwMJvOruaQ\u201d
— Voters For Animal Rights (@Voters For Animal Rights) 1660230632

According to News 12 New York, Ryder was able to stand after about 45 minutes and was taken to a "private horse stable to receive proper veterinary care."

\u201cHORSE COLLAPSES IN NYC: Animal advocates, including PETA, are rallying today in #Manhattan after video went viral of a #horse collapsing in Midtown - https://t.co/IUDrjKbJmG\u201d
— News 12 New York (@News 12 New York) 1660227322

New York City Council member Robert Holden used the opportunity to call attention to a bill he introduced last month that would replace horse-drawn carriages with electric carriages.

The Transport Workers Union, however, defended the practice of horse-drawn carriages in the city and claimed Ryder actually suffered from a "neurological disease caused by possum droppings."

\u201c@BobHoldenNYC The diagnosis of the equine veterinarian who examined Ryder is that he has EPM - a neurological disease caused by possum droppings. Please do not jump to conclusions before knowing the facts or talking to the carriage drivers\u2019 union. \n\nhttps://t.co/uiVao4YCAZ\u201d
— Robert Holden (@Robert Holden) 1660171795

Former Southwest Airlines flight attendant, fired for sharing her pro-life religious views, awarded $5.1 million



Southwest Airlines and Local 556 of the Transport Workers Union may owe over $5 million total to a former Southwest flight attendant who was fired for expressing pro-life views to the union's former president.

A federal district court jury in Dallas, Texas, sided with Charlene Carter in a lawsuit she filed against her former employer and former union.

Carter claimed in the lawsuit that in 2017, she complained to then-union president Audrey Stone that union members used union funds to travel to Washington, D.C., in March of that year to protest the anti-abortion views of Donald Trump, who was president at the time. According to the suit, the protest was sponsored by several abortion rights groups such as Planned Parenthood, which Carter opposes.

In a series of Facebook posts directed at Stone, Carter expressed her outrage about the pro-abortion march, reiterated her religiously-based pro-life stance, and reportedly shared videos which depict aborted babies. She also called Stone "despicable" and threatened that Stone would soon lose her position as union president.

One week later, representatives from Southwest demanded a meeting with Carter. At the meeting, Southwest showed Carter screen shots of her Facebook posts and reportedly demanded to know why she made them. Though she explained her reasons for the posts, Southwest must have found her reasons unsatisfactory because the airline fired her a week later.

Carter worked for Southwest for 20 years but terminated her membership with the union in September 2013 when she discovered that the union was financially supporting pro-abortion groups such as Planned Parenthood, while the practice of abortion violates Carter's Christian beliefs. Though she was no longer a member of TWU Local 556, she had to continue to pay union fees as a condition of her employment. In the lawsuit, she claimed that those fees helped finance the pro-abortion protest in which Stone and other Southwest employees participated.

Carter and her legal team ultimately argued that she had been fired for her religious and pro-life views, and the federal jury apparently agreed. The verdict issued by the jury orders Southwest to pay Carter $4.15 million and TWU Local 556 to pay $950,000.

“This long overdue verdict vindicates Ms. Carter’s fundamental right to dissent from the causes and ideas that TWU union officials – who claim to ‘represent’ Southwest flight attendants – support while forcing workers to bankroll their activities. No American worker should have to fear termination, intimidation, or any other reprisal merely for speaking out against having their own money spent, purportedly in their name, to promote an agenda they find abhorrent," said an excerpt from a statement issued by National Right to Work, the organization which provided Carter with free legal representation.

Southwest, however, disagreed and pledged to appeal the verdict:

"Southwest Airlines has a demonstrated history of supporting our Employees' rights to express their opinions when done in a respectful manner. We are disappointed with this verdict and plan to appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals."