Real pushback: Judge slams Southwest Airlines for violating settlement terms of free-speech court case
Bring a gun to a knife fight: We now come to another chapter in the continuing saga of flight attendant Charlene Carter, who was fired in 2017 by Southwest Airlines because she had expressed opinions that were not liked by both the company and union officials. In 2022 a jury awarded her $5.1 million against the airline and the union.
In December 2022 the federal judge in the case, Brantley Starr, reduced the settlement award to $810,000 in order “to comply with federal limits on punitive damages.” However, he also approved the rest of the jury award, which required Southwest to rehire Carter as well as change its policies that violated the first amendment, and announce these facts publicly to its employees.
Only a month later Carter went back to court, demanding that the judge sanction Southwest for violating settlement terms of her court victory. Not only did the company not admit error to its employees, as required by the settlement, one company-wide memo slandered Carter again, calling her previous communications for which she was fired as “inappropriate, harassing, and offensive.”
Judge Starr yesterday responded to Carter’s demand for relief, slamming Southwest in no uncertain terms.
A judge has sanctioned Southwest Airlines, writing that the airline twisted his words and disregarded his order in the case of a flight attendant who claimed that she was fired for expressing her opposition to abortion. U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr found Southwest in contempt for the way it explained the case to flight attendants last year after losing a jury verdict. In a blistering 29-page order, the judge said the airline acted as if its own policy limiting what employees can say is more important than a federal law protecting religious speech.
On Monday, the judge ordered Southwest to pay the flight attendant’s most recent legal costs, dictated a statement for Southwest to relay to employees, and ordered three Southwest lawyers to complete “religious-liberty training” from a conservative Christian legal-advocacy group. [emphasis mine]
You can read his ruling here [pdf].
The shocking defiance by Southwest’s management and its lawyers to the judge’s earlier ruling is unfortunately very typical. It tells us the following:
1. The lawyers and management at Southwest are woefully ignorant about the law, and the fundamental rights as outlined by the Constitution.
2. The arrogance of these Southwest lawyers and its management tells us that they consider themselves above the law. If they disagree with any legal decisions against them, they apparently think they can nonchalantly ignore those decisions, and go their merry way, doing exactly they had been doing before.
In other words, they know nothing, but consider themselves all-knowing.
To address these two points, Starr’s decision specifically ordered Southwest’s three lawyers to attend religious-liberty training by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), that the training “last a minimum of 8 hours of instructional time and it must be completed by August 28, 2023.” His ruling is similar to another recent ADF court victory, in which the settlement required the offenders, three faculty heads at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, to take a similar ADF class on the first amendment.
In both cases these individuals arrogantly violated a person’s first amendment rights. The required classes are an attempt to refresh their memory about what America’s law stands for.
Will these classes change anything? Hardly. The lawyers and management at Southwest are not the exception, they are the rule. They illustrate starkly the attitude and knowledge level of most corporate leaders in America today.
Thus, these classes will be a pinprick when compared to the leviathan of modern public education and academia that not only is hostile to American values but refuses to teach anything positive about this country. Instead it produces lawyers and company heads who not only do not understand basic law, they re now ignorant of American history, its law, its Constitution, and its principles of free speech and individual rights. Instead, that education produces trained Marxists, whose goals are to squelch debate in order to impose a socialist/communist paradise.
Changing this corrupt culture back to an American one is not going to be easy. Certainly a few classes on the first amendment will not do it. Nor will new laws that “ban” the teaching of Marxism and its racist ideology. Both are a start, but both pale when you consider that this leviathan still considers itself above the law, and will do whatever it can to get around such bans in order to simply continue what it has been doing before.
Winning this culture war will instead require a sustained and determined effort by many — acting unmercifully with a take-no-prisoners attitude — to either reform utterly that education system, or to replace it entirely.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Bring a gun to a knife fight: We now come to another chapter in the continuing saga of flight attendant Charlene Carter, who was fired in 2017 by Southwest Airlines because she had expressed opinions that were not liked by both the company and union officials. In 2022 a jury awarded her $5.1 million against the airline and the union.
In December 2022 the federal judge in the case, Brantley Starr, reduced the settlement award to $810,000 in order “to comply with federal limits on punitive damages.” However, he also approved the rest of the jury award, which required Southwest to rehire Carter as well as change its policies that violated the first amendment, and announce these facts publicly to its employees.
Only a month later Carter went back to court, demanding that the judge sanction Southwest for violating settlement terms of her court victory. Not only did the company not admit error to its employees, as required by the settlement, one company-wide memo slandered Carter again, calling her previous communications for which she was fired as “inappropriate, harassing, and offensive.”
Judge Starr yesterday responded to Carter’s demand for relief, slamming Southwest in no uncertain terms.
A judge has sanctioned Southwest Airlines, writing that the airline twisted his words and disregarded his order in the case of a flight attendant who claimed that she was fired for expressing her opposition to abortion. U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr found Southwest in contempt for the way it explained the case to flight attendants last year after losing a jury verdict. In a blistering 29-page order, the judge said the airline acted as if its own policy limiting what employees can say is more important than a federal law protecting religious speech.
On Monday, the judge ordered Southwest to pay the flight attendant’s most recent legal costs, dictated a statement for Southwest to relay to employees, and ordered three Southwest lawyers to complete “religious-liberty training” from a conservative Christian legal-advocacy group. [emphasis mine]
You can read his ruling here [pdf].
The shocking defiance by Southwest’s management and its lawyers to the judge’s earlier ruling is unfortunately very typical. It tells us the following:
1. The lawyers and management at Southwest are woefully ignorant about the law, and the fundamental rights as outlined by the Constitution.
2. The arrogance of these Southwest lawyers and its management tells us that they consider themselves above the law. If they disagree with any legal decisions against them, they apparently think they can nonchalantly ignore those decisions, and go their merry way, doing exactly they had been doing before.
In other words, they know nothing, but consider themselves all-knowing.
To address these two points, Starr’s decision specifically ordered Southwest’s three lawyers to attend religious-liberty training by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), that the training “last a minimum of 8 hours of instructional time and it must be completed by August 28, 2023.” His ruling is similar to another recent ADF court victory, in which the settlement required the offenders, three faculty heads at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, to take a similar ADF class on the first amendment.
In both cases these individuals arrogantly violated a person’s first amendment rights. The required classes are an attempt to refresh their memory about what America’s law stands for.
Will these classes change anything? Hardly. The lawyers and management at Southwest are not the exception, they are the rule. They illustrate starkly the attitude and knowledge level of most corporate leaders in America today.
Thus, these classes will be a pinprick when compared to the leviathan of modern public education and academia that not only is hostile to American values but refuses to teach anything positive about this country. Instead it produces lawyers and company heads who not only do not understand basic law, they re now ignorant of American history, its law, its Constitution, and its principles of free speech and individual rights. Instead, that education produces trained Marxists, whose goals are to squelch debate in order to impose a socialist/communist paradise.
Changing this corrupt culture back to an American one is not going to be easy. Certainly a few classes on the first amendment will not do it. Nor will new laws that “ban” the teaching of Marxism and its racist ideology. Both are a start, but both pale when you consider that this leviathan still considers itself above the law, and will do whatever it can to get around such bans in order to simply continue what it has been doing before.
Winning this culture war will instead require a sustained and determined effort by many — acting unmercifully with a take-no-prisoners attitude — to either reform utterly that education system, or to replace it entirely.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Robert asked: “Will these classes change anything? Hardly.” I disagree with Robert’s reason.
A single class will not change anything. It does not have the necessary oomph or staying power.
When Lockheed was caught in a bribery scandal, half a century ago, the solution was not to send the culprits to a single class but to require that every employee in the corporation take annual classes in ethics. These have since evolved (devolved?) into Wokism classes, but the point is that the solution was seen as requiring repeated, continual ethics training for everyone, not just managers or supervisors. Keep ethics at the top of the priority list throughout the entire corporation, not just the sales force or the management.
In this case, the case of Southwest Airlines, it is a one-and-done deal that allows even the class attendees to quickly forget the importance of ethical behavior. Maybe they will remember next year, but probably not — it isn’t important to them. To the judge, it may have been important, but not to these immoral, unethical, shameless, unrepentant, unremorseful bawds. Even if the lesson sticks for these individuals, when they are replaced (attrition, promotion, retirement, whatever), their replacements will know nothing of ethics, either.
The reason that we have this plague of unethical treatment is that ethics has stopped being one of the values that the Democratic Party treasures. Instead, they behave like three-year-olds and demand everything that they want, and they want it now! Like Veruca in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
I suspect that it all started at Chappaquiddick, when saving the career of a favored Democrat Senator became more important than a young woman’s life or than justice. They got away with it then, and they got away with worse over the decades. Now, the Democrats are willing to sacrifice virtually everything and everyone in order to lord themselves over the population.
Edward: I am not sure where you disagree with me, since my following sentences essentially agree with your comment.
I wonder if Kelleher would have approved of SWA’s behavior?
I’m a health insurance agent. We have to attend training on ethics and compliance, and take a test – and, repeat that training and testing annually.
I really hate to disagree with you and the good judge but the Constitution is pretty clear on this:
First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Any company, any corporation is perfectly legal in restricting its employee’s freedom of speech. The only entity that is bound by the constitution is the government. If I was an employer the very last thing I’d want or tolerate is some zealot riling up everybody with THEIR beliefs or opinions. Shut up and do your job.
The only thing that Corp’s heed is the cash-flow.
The judge should have (if he could) just added three zero’s to the award, and told Ms. Carter to go forth and enjoy her life.
As Popehat said back when he was sane, “Federal judges always really mean it.”
Robert Zimmerman,
You wrote: “I am not sure where you disagree with me, since my following sentences essentially agree with your comment.”
Hmm. I think you are right. It seems that I merely recommended an alternate solution to the problem. Apparently, I had something else on my mind when I started writing and switched over to the different solution. Or maybe I just didn’t disagree at all, but I recall thinking at the time that what I wanted to say was different than what you said.
Well, some days just go better than others. That was not one of those days.
Now, if only I could remember what it was that I was thinking… Huh. Maybe today is also not one of those days.
Edward: I would definitely be interested in what you were originally thinking. Too bad it has gone the way of most early morning dreams.
Curtis, this isn’t a First Amendment issue, it’s a 14th Amendment issue that prohibits discrimination of protected classes. One of those classes is based on religion religion. And it applies to any business.