Two Alaska Airlines flight attendants are fighting back in court after allegedly being fired for voicing their concerns about the Equality Act’s impact on women and people of faith.
First Liberty Institute, a non-profit public interest law firm, is representing Lacey Smith and Marli Brown because they say they were dismissed from Alaska Airlines for expressing their religious beliefs on an internal messaging board.
In early 2021, Alaska Airlines announced its support for the Equality Act on an internal employee message board and invited employees to comment.
As CBN News reported, the Equality Act sought to add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classes under federal civil rights law and mandated everyone comply with the LGBT agenda, despite religious or moral objections. The measure passed in the House in 2021, but did not advance in the Senate.
According to the lawsuit, Smith posted a question, asking, “As a company, do you think it is possible to regulate morality?”
Jeff Peterson, Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) union president, reportedly reached out to Alaska Airlines to complain about how he found the comment offensive, Live and Let’s Fly reported.
Andy Schneider, Alaska’s Senior Vice President of People, responded on the forum stating, “Supporting the Equality Act is not about regulating morality. It’s about supporting laws that allow our LGBTQ+ employees and guests, no matter what state they live in or fly to, to be protected against discrimination.”
In the same forum, Brown asked, “Does Alaska support: endangering the Church, encouraging suppression of religious freedom, obliterating women’s rights and parental rights?”
She continued, “This act will force every American to agree with controversial government-imposed ideology on or be treated as an outlaw. The Equality Act demolishes existing civil rights and constitutional freedoms which threatens constitutional freedoms by eliminating conscience protections from the Civil Rights Act. The Equality Act would affect everything from girls’ and women’s showers and locker rooms to women’s shelters and women’s prisons, endangering safety and diminishing privacy. Giving people blanket permission to enter private spaces for the opposite sex enables sexual predators to exploit the rules and gain easy access to victims.”
According to the outlet, in a private chat, union representatives mocked Smith and Brown.
“Can we PLEASE get someone to shut down comments, or put Marli and Lacey in a burlap bag and drop them in a well…” one representative reportedly said.
First Liberty says both clients were subsequently investigated, questioned by airline officials, and fired.
The legal group filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint in 2021 claiming both women were fired for religious beliefs “not tolerated by the airline’s homosexual-affirming union and upper management.”
In 2022, Brown and Smith sued Alaska Airlines and the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), a union for flight attendants.
The lawsuit alleged the airline terminated them because of their religious beliefs related to the Equality Act and claims the AFA failed to uphold its responsibility to defend the plaintiffs because of their religious beliefs.
“A corporation and employee union may actively promote and support social and political causes, but in doing so they may not discriminate against employees who are members of a federally protected class. To put a finer point on it, federal law prohibits corporations like Alaska Airlines…from discriminating against employees because of their religion, which includes all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as belief,” read the lawsuit.
In May, a federal district court dismissed the lawsuit by “incorrectly defining the scope of religious discrimination and misapplying legal standards to evaluate the evidence,” according to First Liberty.
Now, the legal group has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to reverse the lower court decision that dismissed the lawsuit.
“Americans are being fired for their religious beliefs, and it is chilling that a court of law would condone this. We are asking the Ninth Circuit to reverse the lower court’s decision,” said Stephanie Taub, Senior Counsel at First Liberty Institute.
“Disregarding federal civil rights laws that protect people of faith from discrimination, Alaska Airlines canceled our clients and the flight attendants’ union betrayed their trust,” she continued. “We will continue to fight for our clients until Alaska Airlines and the Association of Flight Attendants are held accountable, and American employees are safe from discrimination.”
CBN News has reached out to Alaska Airlines for comment. We did not receive a response at the time of publication.
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