Federal judge sanctions Southwest Airlines, holds in civil contempt | Texas

(The Center Square) – In an emphatic ruling referencing the biblical Garden of Eden and a wizard from the film The Lord of the Rings, U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr with the Northern District of Texas Dallas Division has sanctioned Southwest Airlines for failing to follow his court order. 

He did so in a lawsuit filed years ago by a flight attendant in a First Amendment case The Center Square first reported on last July. 

Last December, Judge Starr ordered Southwest Airlines to reinstate a former flight attendant, Charlene Carter, who had sued the airlines and Transportation Worker’s Union Local 556 after a jury ruled in her favor. He ordered Southwest to pay her back pay and other forms of relief after the jury delivered a verdict stating she was illegally and discriminatorily fired by Southwest at the urging of the TWU. 

The Center Square also acquired copies of emails sent by a union representative referring to Carter as a “cancerous tumor” that needed to be “eradicated when ever [sic] possible or it spreads.” The member also said she was “incredibly dangerous” and that he was “all about targeted assassinations.” 

TWU didn’t respond to a request for comment when asked if it supported what appears to be an incitement to violence against or targeted harassment of employees.

Carter initially sued, receiving free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation, after she was fired for opposing union dues being used for causes that violated her conscience related to promoting abortion. She alleged that Southwest Airlines discriminated against her religious beliefs, violating Title VII of the Civil Right Act of 1964 and the Local 556 violated the Railway Labor Act. The jury unanimously agreed and awarded her over $5 million.

Judge Starr later amended the award and ordered Southwest to comply with several actions, which the airlines did not do, he explains in his 29-page order issued Aug. 7. Instead of issuing a statement he instructed the airlines to issue, it instead sent out a notice, he says, “communicated that there’s nothing to see here—aside from the court’s bequeathing southwest a badge of honor for not discriminating (which the court did not do).”

“Not content with merely inverting the Court’s notice, Southwest also sent a memo to its flight attendants the same day, 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 those policies,” he continued, chastising the airlines for specifically doing the opposite of what he ordered.

After Southwest lost in court, it issued a notice to flight attendants stating it “does not discriminate” against employees for their religious beliefs, even after a jury unanimously found that it did. It also sent another communication stating employees should not engage in workplace speech similar to Carter’s, prompting Carter to file a motion with the court requesting it to sanction Southwest. 

Starr’s ruling includes a blistering rebuke of Southwest officials and its attorneys. He said, “It’s hard to see how Southwest could have violated the notice requirement more. Take these modified historical and movie anecdotes. After God told Adam, ‘[Y]ou must not eat from the tree [in the middle of the garden],’ imagine Adam telling God, ‘I do not eat from the tree in the middle of the garden’—while an apple core rests at his feet. Or where Gandalf bellows, ‘You shall not pass,’ the Balrog muses, ‘I do not pass,’ while strolling past Gandalf on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm.”

“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. So the Court GRANTS Carter’s motion and holds Southwest in civil contempt.” 

He then gave specific instructions for Southwest to follow “to set the record straight” and required its three senior attorneys, Kerrie Forbes, Kevin Minchey, and Chris Maberry, to take religious liberty training by Alliance Defending Freedom. They are required to receive a minimum of 8 hours of instruction that must be completed by Aug. 28, he said. The airline is also required to file a declaration with the court by Sept. 5, certifying that they attended the training and provide proof that Southwest issued the required verbatim statement he instructed the airlines to issue. 

In response to the ruling, NRWF President Mark Mix said, “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.”

Southwest confirmed with Reuters that it would appeal the ruling without providing any details.