Southwest Airlines Defends Firing Pro-Life Flight Attendant

Southwest Airlines is defending firing a pro-life flight attendant and appealing a judge’s ruling awarding the flight attendant an award for wrongful dismissal and a judge’s request that its attorneys get religious liberty training.

Southwest Airlines requested a new trial after a federal judge determined that the company discriminated against one of its flight attendants because of her pro-life Christian beliefs. The company requested a new trial in paperwork filed Jan. 2, claiming the federal judge and jury made mistakes when they ruled in favor of Charlene Carter last summer.

Carter worked as a flight attendant at Southwest for nearly 21 years. In 2017, she was fired after sharing her pro-life beliefs on Facebook and speaking out against the Transportation Workers Union of America (TWU) Local 556 spending members’ dues on pro-abortion activities.

In July, a federal district court in Dallas, Texas awarded her $800,000. The company also was also required to give Carter back her job and inform employees of their religious rights. But attorneys for Southwest argued in the filing that the company did not discriminate against Carter, and the ruling should be thrown out for “unfair management of the trial and other legal errors.”

But Southwest Airlines got even more hot water.

U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr said that instead of notifying employees of their rights against religious discrimination, as he had ordered Southwest to do, the lawyers penned a memo warning workers not to violate the company policy that led it to fire the plaintiff. Starr, a Trump appointee, gave the lawyers until Aug. 28 to attend an eight-hour training conducted by conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

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Starr on Monday said Southwest flouted that order by instead telling employees that “the court ordered us to inform you that Southwest does not discriminate against our employees for their religious practices and beliefs.”

But Southwest is appealing that decision and the judgment for Carter. Southwest in a memo drafted by the three lawyers – Kerrie Forbes, Kevin Minchey, and Chris Maberry – also defended Carter’s firing and said it would continue enforcing its social media policy.

The airline appealed the ruling against its lawyers, the $800,000 in damages it was ordered to pay Carter, and the fact it was made to reinstate her at the company after a jury sided with her.

Claiming the punishment of its lawyers had no direct positive impact on Carter, Southwest made a play to stay the ruling and prevent this from happening.

According to Reuters, ADF has stated its displeasure at Southwest’s protest. It claims religious groups should not be disregarded as valid, legitimate founts of legal counseling merely because they are religious. It said it would be

intolerant to suggest that people of faith cannot provide legal instruction simply because their religious beliefs might differ from their audience’s.

Carter’s attorneys at the National Right to Work Foundation filed their own motion in the case, accusing the airline of sending a “misleading” notice about the case to its 17,000 flight attendants. In the notice, they said the company wrongly claimed that it “does not discriminate” against its employees, even though the judge found otherwise.

“First, Southwest Airlines violated Charlene Carter’s rights by firing her at the union’s behest. Now, the airline is doubling down by misleading other workers about its wrongdoing in defiance of a federal court order,” Mix said in a statement. “Foundation attorneys will continue to defend Ms. Carter’s rights, and will ensure that Southwest’s attempts to dodge the requirements of the decision in her favor will not go unopposed.”

Carter v Southwest Airlines is on hold now until the end of the month when the judge will make his final decision.

Carter’s troubles began in 2013 when she decided to quit the union because of its support for pro-abortion political causes, according to the lawsuit. However, her lawyers said she was forced to continue paying union dues to keep her job at Southwest as a flight attendant.

Over the next few years, Carter said she began to speak out against the union’s politics, including its support for the pro-abortion Women’s March.

“I had a really hard time knowing that they went and spent our money … and when we voiced our opinion about it, we were chastised about it,” Carter said. “And for me, I was fired for it.”

Carter was fired in 2017 shortly after sending an email with her objections to TWU Local 556 Executive Board president Audrey Stone, according to the lawsuit.

Carter said being a flight attendant with Southwest was her “dream job,” and, until union disputes arose during the last few years of her employment, she thoroughly enjoyed what she did.

Being quiet about her pro-life views is not something she is willing to do. Years ago, she said she promised God that she would speak out for life after finding forgiveness and healing from her own abortion.

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