Southwest Airlines Cannot ‘Sacrifice’ Workers’ Religious Rights on ‘Altar’ of Company Policy, Judge Rules

Charlene Carter holds her former Southwest Airlines flight attendant's uniform at her home in Aurora, Colo., on Aug. 30, 2022. Michael Ciaglo for The Epoch Times

A Texas federal judge minced no words as he denied Southwest Airlines’ request for a retrial in the free-speech case of a now-reinstated flight attendant.

Judge Brantley Starr chastised the airline for its “disturbing” and “hostile view of religious liberty” in the case of Charlene Carter, a Colorado woman whose anti-abortion social media messages got her fired six years ago.

“Southwest’s argument is this: Companies can sacrifice the faith of their employees on the altar of company policy because some employees dislike people of faith,” the judge wrote in his April 24 decision. Starr rejected that argument, and upheld a jury’s July 2022 verdict against Southwest and the flight attendants’ union.

“Southwest thinks its employee handbook trumps federal law ... the Court disagrees,” Starr said.

Starr said the airline “clumsily” argued its contention and cited no court decisions “that elevate a co-worker’s [potentially] offended feelings above an employee’s right to religious expression.”

The fact that no court has permitted such a breach of rights “should give every American great relief,” the judge said.

“If Southwest’s vision of religious accommodation in the workplace becomes reality, each citizen could express their religious beliefs at work only to the extent the most antithetical co-worker is willing to tolerate,” he wrote. “Most employees would be astounded to learn that their freedom of religion extends no further than their most sensitive co-worker’s threshold for offense. So would the Founders of this country.”

“The Court has difficulty imagining any religious expression inoffensive enough to withstand a co-worker’s challenge under the regime Southwest proposes,” Starr wrote.

A Southwest Airlines plane approaches the runway at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Va., on April 2, 2022. Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images

Double Standard

The judge said he found ample evidence that the airline treated Carter differently because of her religious views. The airline chose to “protect, embolden, and endorse other Southwest employees who carried political messages at a divisive and highly publicized political protest,” the judge said.

Those employees carried a banner with Southwest’s logo during the Women’s March on Washington in 2017, a protest sponsored, in part, by abortion provider Planned Parenthood. In contrast, Southwest used Carter’s years-old Facebook posts in an attempt to link her to the airline.

“The jury reasonably viewed this double standard—punishing an employee for privately posting her views while applauding others for publicly evangelizing theirs—as evidence of disparate treatment.

“Direct testimony from Southwest’s own employee confirmed that the company acted with at least reckless indifference to Carter’s known religious beliefs,” Starr wrote, slapping the airline for “utterly, demonstrably false” claims to the contrary.

A manager and 28-year Southwest employee who terminated Carter, Ed Schneider, “testified that he knows the definition of protected religious speech.” He also “testified to his view that Carter ‘crossed the line when she posted those videos, and pictures [depicting abortion], and sent them to a Southwest employee.’” That was why he fired Carter.

But Carter’s social media posts “were religious on their face;” thus, firing her for them was illegal, the judge said.

A ‘Scattershot Motion’

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTW), which represents Carter, lauded the judge for his rejection of the airline’s “scattershot motion” attempting to overturn a jury’s verdict.

Mark Mix, president of the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation in an undated photo. Courtesy of NRTW

NRTW lawyers “will continue to defend Charlene’s rights and the rights of any American who faces retribution for speaking against union coercion in their workplace,” the organization’s president, Mark Mix, said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times.

The Epoch Times has asked Southwest Airlines for comment.

After an eight-day trial, a jury found that Southwest and the Transport Workers Union of America Local 556 both violated Carter’s rights under federal laws. Both have taken steps to appeal.

Meanwhile, Southwest reinstated Carter to her job, under Starr’s order. Now 57, she returned to work last month at her previous 21-year seniority level, as The Epoch Times reported in a previous story.

Multimillion-Dollar Battle

In late 2022, the judge granted Carter $600,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, with Southwest and Local 556 each paying half. Jurors were unaware that the $5 million they voted to award Carter exceeded legal limits.

Starr also ordered Southwest to pay Carter $150,000 in back pay plus $60,000 in prejudgment interest. He sanctioned Southwest about $25,000 for failing to make a witness available.

NRTW is also seeking about $2.8 million in attorneys’ fees and costs. The organization accuses Southwest of contempt of court for the way the airline handled court-ordered notices about Carter’s reinstatement. A hearing on that issue is May 16.

As The Epoch Times reported, Carter, a married mother of two grown children, became a staunch opponent of abortion after suffering physical and emotional harm when she terminated a pregnancy at age 19.