Two former Alaska Airlines flight attendants fired for their faith received a favorable ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Lacey Smith and Marli Brown are Christians who expressed their opinions about the Equality Act on an employee-only message board, as all employees were invited to do. The airline did not like their comments. The women oppose the bill, which hopefully will never become law. As Star Parker wrote in a column, the measure “would make the Religious Freedom Restoration Act null and void.”
Alaska Airlines called Brown’s and Smith’s opinions discriminatory, hateful, and offensive. The airline fired them — the flight attendants’ union did not support them.
The women sued the airline for religious discrimination, and the case reached the Ninth Circuit. First Liberty Institute, their legal counsel, announced on Wednesday that the appeals court ruled there is enough evidence for a jury to find that Alaska Airlines and the union discriminated against them.
If the airline wanted only one point of view, why risk opposing opinions?
“Indeed, Alaska was fully aware that some would object to the Equality Act for religious reasons,” the Ninth Circuit contended. “That Alaska created a forum for employee discussion on controversial issues, then fired Brown after she made religious objections of the kind Alaska anticipated, provides a further reason for regarding this case as presenting a genuine dispute of fact on the reason for Brown’s termination.”
The court wrote more of the same about Smith’s claims. A “reasonable jury could conclude that these descriptions of Smith’s post are overwrought or inaccurate…”
Based on the ruling, the Ninth Circuit sent the case back to the lower court on remand. Prediction: Alaska Airlines and the union will settle the case rather than argue in court again that religious discrimination against employees is justified.
Photo credit: By Sam Almo-Milkin – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, link
