Southwest lawyers ordered by judge to attend ‘religious liberty training’ after failure to comply with previous order

Three lawyers for Southwest Airlines were ordered by a federal judge to attend a “religious liberty training” course after the company failed to comply with a court order.

Texas federal Judge Brantley Starr issued the order on Tuesday, saying Southwest “didn’t come close” to complying with his May ruling, according to Bloomberg Law.

In May, Starr sided with a Southwest flight attendant who was fired in 2017 over social media posts which expressed her pro-life views on abortion. The flight attendant was awarded $5.1 million and was to be reinstated at work.

In addition, Southwest was ordered to communicate to employees that it “may not discriminate against … flight attendants for their religious practices and beliefs, including – but not limited to – those expressed on social media and those concerning abortion,” the BBC reported.

Instead, Southwest told their employee that simply that it “does not discriminate” and asked flight attendants to follow company policy.

In the latest 29-page order, Starr held the airline in contempt, finding their policy didn’t comply with his original order. 

In addition to ordering company attorneys to attend a religious liberty course taught by Alliance Defending Freedom, which handles many religious liberty cases each year, he ordered a new, verbatim statement to be sent to employees, and ordered Southwest to pay the flight attendant’s legal costs. 

His ruling even included the Merriam-Webster dictionary definitions of words such as “may,” “does” and “tolerate.” 

Southwest intends to appeal the latest ruling in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, according to Bloomberg Law.