Fifth Circuit Cancels Southwest's Flight To Bigot Island

And clips the wings of a Trump-y trial judge.

This week the Fifth Circuit stayed a lower court order requiring airline employees to attend a right-wing Christian propaganda session administered by a hate group. The three-judge panel, which included two Trump appointees, ruled on procedural grounds rather than on the absolute batshit insanity of forcing a party to participate “religious liberty” training with zealots who also happen to be frequent litigants before that very court. But at least the most activist right-wing court in the country reined in an out-of-control trial judge, so let’s take our wins where we can get them.

Workplace Harassment For Jesus

In 2017, Southwest Airlines fired flight attendant Charlene Carter for harassing her union representative at the Transport Workers Union of America Local 556. Carter, who had worked at Southwest for over 20 years, resigned from the union in 2013, claiming that her dues were spent on “political, ideological, and other nonbargaining spending,” that conflicted with her conservative beliefs. She did, however, continue to benefit from the concessions negotiated on her behalf by Local 556.

In 2017, Carter became infuriated by what she perceived as Local 556’s support for the Woman’s March protest of Trump’s election.

“[O]n January 21, 2017, some Local 556 members participated in the ‘Women’s March on Washington D.C.’ that protested President Trump’s inauguration and advocated for various political causes,” she wrote in her complaint, noting that “Planned Parenthood was one of the main sponsors of this protest.”

Southwest had shown solidarity with the protesters, lighting up cabins of planes headed for Washington in pink, and some Local 556 members, along with the chapter’s president Audrey Stone, had “posted pictures of the event on social media, and featured the event in the union newsletter.”

“[D]oesn't surprise me that our Union is at this March… and that we are paying them to be there,” Carter wrote on Facebook. “IT IS WRONG and I am SOOOOO TIRED of this CRAP from TWU and 556!”