Judge rules Southwest disregarded order in religious discrimination case

Southwest Airlines has been sanctioned by a judge for disregarding his ruling in a religious discrimination case.

The judge earlier sided with a flight attendant who said she had been fired for expressing opposition to abortion.

In a new ruling, US District Judge Brantley Starr said the airline had twisted his words and ordered it to send a new statement to employees.

He also ordered three of the airline's lawyers to attend a "religious-liberty training" course.

The course is run by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative Christian legal-advocacy group.

The airline appealed the original judgement in May when the flight attendant, Charlene Carter, was awarded $5.1m (£3.99m) and also got her job back.

Southwest and the union said Ms Carter wrote offensive posts on Facebook and harassed the union president in direct messages.

A jury in Dallas, Texas ultimately found that the airline had violated her right to religious free speech.

Southwest was ordered to tell 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".

In his highly critical 29-page order, Judge Starr said the airline "didn't come close to complying with the court's order" at the time.

He ordered a new, verbatim, statement to be sent to employees, and in his ruling included the Merriam-Webster dictionary definitions of "may," "does" and "tolerate".

The judge, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, said the company behaved as if its policy limiting what staff can say was more important than federal free speech law.

It was ordered to pay the attendant's legal costs.

Southwest said it would appeal the latest ruling.