Alaska Airlines spent years telling the world it stood for inclusion — then its own lawyer put it in writing that Christian employees have no right to their convictions.
Two women who questioned that in a company forum just found out what Alaska does to employees who disagree.
What a federal court found in the internal records is something Alaska Airlines never wanted anyone to see.
Alaska Airlines and the Union Both Worked to Fire Two Christian Flight Attendants
Lacey Smith worked at Alaska Airlines for six years with an exemplary record — a service pin for 50 passenger kudos and zero prior disciplinary incidents.
Marli Brown had eight years with the company and had never been written up once.
In February 2021, Alaska Airlines posted its support for the Equality Act on an internal employee message board and invited workers to share their thoughts.
Smith posted a single question: “As a company, do you think it’s possible to regulate morality?”
Brown posted a longer response asking whether Alaska supported “endangering the Church, encouraging suppression of religious freedom, obliterating women’s rights and parental rights.”
Alaska’s stated reason for terminating Smith: “Defining gender identity or sexual orientation as a moral issue” is “a discriminatory statement.”
A company VP testified that Brown’s use of the phrase “opposite sex” was grounds for discipline because — in his view — it implied only two sexes exist.
Meanwhile, inside Alaska’s legal department, a company lawyer put the company’s true position in writing: “Employees actually do not have the right to believe that LGBTQ rights are ‘immoral.'”
A colleague responded: “I 100% agree.”
Alaska Airlines Said Believing in Two Sexes Violated Its Religious Discrimination Policy
The union was supposed to defend Brown and Smith.
Instead, union reps fired up a group chat to celebrate their destruction.
One representative wrote: “Can we PLEASE get someone to shut down comments, or put Marli and Lacey in a burlap bag and drop them in a well.”
Union Boss Jeffrey Peterson wrote to union colleagues that Smith’s post was “reprehensible” and that there “should be repercussions.” He separately texted an Alaska pilot: “I hate her.”
Peterson called Smith’s beliefs “bigoted and misinformed.”
The union rep who suggested dropping the women in a well was then assigned to represent Brown at her disciplinary hearing — and wrote before the hearing: “I may hurl.”
The union still publicly claimed it would represent both women “fairly, in good faith, and without discrimination.”
Ninth Circuit Orders Jury Trial Over Alaska Airlines Religious Freedom Case
A district court judge sided with Alaska Airlines and the union, throwing out the case before it could reach a jury.
Brown and Smith appealed, backed by First Liberty Institute.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit reversed the lower court this week, ruling that a jury absolutely should hear this case.
Judge Daniel Bress — a Trump appointee — wrote the opinion.
“We hold that the plaintiffs have demonstrated a genuine dispute of material fact whether Alaska terminated them because of their religious beliefs and whether [the union] attempted to cause or acquiesced in their firing on this unlawful basis,” Bress wrote.
The court noted with damning precision that Alaska “created a forum for employee discussion on controversial issues, then fired Brown after she made religious objections of the kind Alaska anticipated.”
On Smith’s termination — triggered by a single philosophical question — the court found a jury could easily conclude the company’s stated rationale was “overwrought or inaccurate.”
“The Ninth Circuit’s decision today reinforces that federal civil rights laws protect people of faith from discrimination by their employer or their union,” said Stephanie Taub, senior counsel at First Liberty Institute. “You cannot be fired because your employer does not like your religious beliefs.”
Alaska Airlines Rewrote Its Own Rules to Punish Christians and Protected Everyone Else
Alaska Airlines invited employees to engage, then rewrote its own disciplinary rules overnight — scrapping a standing three-strikes policy to justify one-and-done terminations, but only for the Christians.
When another Alaska employee posted on social media that “any Christian that thinks like this should have their teeth kicked in” while using the Alaska Airlines logo as his cover photo, he received the lowest possible level of discipline: an oral warning.
Months before firing Brown, Alaska’s own in-flight magazine praised her “kindness and compassion.”
Two months before firing Smith, she received a 50-kudos service pin.
Alaska Airlines praised these women in public, eliminated them in private, and used policy as cover.
The airline built its case on policy language and HR paperwork — and a jury is now going to read every private message behind it.
Sources:
- Tyler O’Neil, “Flight Attendants Fired Over Equality Act Get Day in Court,” The Daily Signal, June 24, 2026.
- “Ninth Circuit Rules in Favor of Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants Fired for Their Faith,” First Liberty Institute, June 24, 2026.
- “Fired Flight Attendants Win Big After Alaska Airlines Canned Them For Their Faith,” The Daily Wire, June 25, 2026.
- “Alaska Airlines, labor union cooperated in firing flight attendants for biblical beliefs: lawyer,” The Washington Times, January 18, 2024.
- Brown v. Alaska Airlines, Inc., No. 24-3789, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, June 24, 2026.
