Religious-liberty training order likely violates lawyers' constitutional rights, 5th Circuit says
In-house lawyers for Southwest Airlines would “likely suffer a violation of their constitutional rights” if they had to comply with a judge’s order for religious-liberty training taught by a conservative legal advocacy group, a federal appeals court said Friday. (Photo from Shutterstock)
In-house lawyers for Southwest Airlines would “likely suffer a violation of their constitutional rights” if they had to comply with a judge’s order for religious-liberty training taught by Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal advocacy group, a federal appeals court said Friday.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New Orleans stayed the August 2023 order by U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr of the Northern District of Texas pending resolution of an appeal, report Law Dork, Law360 and Reuters.
The appeals court also found “a strong likelihood that the contempt order exceeded the district court’s civil contempt authority” because it is punitive in nature.
Civil contempt sanctions are remedial and designed to coerce compliance with a court order, while criminal contempt sanctions are intended to punish defiance of the court, the 5th Circuit said in its unpublished June 7 per curiam order.
“We agree with Southwest that ‘religious-liberty training’ will not compel compliance with the order nor compensate” a flight attendant who sued for violation of her religious rights, the appeals court said.
The judges on the federal appeals panel were Judge Edith Clement, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, and Judge Kurt Engelhardt and Judge Cory Wilson, two appointees of former President Donald Trump.
Alliance Defending Freedom is a conservative group that represented a cake baker and a website designer who did not want to provide services for same-sex weddings.
Starr had ordered the three in-house lawyers to attend classes with Alliance Defending Freedom for “inverting” the language in a court-ordered message.
Starr, a Trump appointee, had ordered Southwest Airlines to inform its flight attendants that the airline may not discriminate based on religious practices and beliefs under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
But the notice posted by Southwest Airlines says the court required a notice that Southwest does not discriminate.
The flight attendant, Charlene Carter, was fired after she posted and privately messaged photos of aborted fetuses in furtherance of her religious beliefs. The airline says Carter was fired for violating its civility policy.
Carter was awarded $5 million in July 2022 after jurors found that the airline violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Railway Labor Act for firing Carter because of her religion. The amount was reduced to $800,000, according to Law360.
The three lawyers ordered to attend the religious-libety training weren’t involved in the decision to fire Carter, and there is no evidence that they hold animus against her, the 5th Circuit said.
“Whether the training would benefit Carter is rather speculative,” the appeals court said. “The Southwest attorneys, on the other hand, would likely suffer a violation of their constitutional rights. The equities therefore weigh in Southwest’s favor.”
