Major American companies are falling all over themselves playing for the Left’s political favor these days.
It’s rare anything short of massive consumer action ever takes the wind out from under their wings.
But a federal judge just dropped the hammer on an airline over the treatment of an employee who refused to muzzle conservative views.
A federal judge is taking the wind out from underneath the wings of Southwest Airlines after the company completely blew off one set of abundantly clear instructions.
The airline allowed itself to get pulled into a nasty court battle over its seeming stubborn insistence on punishing one conservative employee.
Charlene Carter filed a lawsuit against the airline after expressing her disgust with abortion and got the flight attendant fired.
Carter had never been a fan of the airline’s union, but she found herself in all kinds of trouble when she described the airline’s union President as “despicable” due to his attendance at the 2017 Women’s March in Washington, D.C.
A Texas jury determined that the airline was not only out of line when it fired Carter over the tiff, but also went as far as recommending that Southwest pay out $5.1 million in damages.
US District Judge Brantley Starr cut that number down to $800,000 along with requiring the company to let Carter have her job back.
When you won’t be muzzled it does sometimes work out
Starr also ordered the company to let flight attendants know that due to federal law it “may not discriminate against Southwest flight attendants for their religious practices and beliefs.”
However, it seems that Southwest is yet another company that’s drunk the woke Kool-Aid.
Instead of following the Judge’s orders, Southwest merely told employees it “does not discriminate” and reverted back to using the policies that got Carter booted out in the first place.
Now ABC News is reporting that Starr caught up with what the airline has been doing — and he’s furious.
“In an order this week that alternated between sarcasm and outrage, Starr ruled that Southwest ‘didn’t come close to complying with the Court’s order,’” ABC News reported.
“He schooled the airline on the definitions of ‘may,’ ‘does’ and ‘tolerate’ — complete with footnotes citing the Merriam-Webster dictionary,” the network added.
Time to get religion judge says
Now the Trump-appointed judge is forcing three of Southwest’s attorneys to take eight hours of religious liberty training.
Starr even went as far as to dictate that the training be completed with the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) as it is an organization “particularly well-suited” for the situation at hand.
No doubt that’s a move that has Leftists furious since the ADF is already deeply despised by the left with the Southern Poverty Law Center pronouncing it a “hate” group.
On top of that, the company will not be forced to explicitly spell out the right of flight attendants to be pro-life.
“The judge ordered Southwest to email a new, verbatim statement declaring that the airline may not discriminate against flight attendants for religious beliefs ‘including — but not limited to abortion,’ ABC News reported.
It seems no matter how aggressively the Left pushes its woke agenda, there are still elements within the Judicial branch who are loyal to the Constitution rather than some radical’s dystopian vision for the future.
Stay tuned to Unmuzzled News for any updates to this ongoing story.
