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Susan Linehan's avatar

This case was all about a truly rabid anti-abortion woman who objected to SW Airlines Union folks paying for some officials to go to the Women's March in DC because the March was sponsored in part (not in full) by Planned Parenthood, and she then flooded the Union president with pictures of aborted fetuses and made many disparaging remarks on a Facebook page accessible to SW employees. She was ultimately fired for the harassments and violating policies about political content in posts where she can be seen as representing the company (and refusing to pay union dues, which under the Railway Labor Act (RLA) governing the airlines as well, she couldn't get out of). A jury awarded her over 5 mill on a retaliation claim.

Then she asked for sanctions because of the wording a communication the airline then sent out to its employees. I don't know about the "may" part--the National Right To Work Legal Defense folk's description just says that they asked for sanctions because the message said "does not discriminate" and the jury had found discrimination. Note that the discrimination happened in 2017 and the communication was in December of 22 and is in the present tense. Can't this be interpreted as "SW has learned its lesson?"

ADF may not have been directly involved in this suit, but its greasy fingerprints are all over the logic of the case.

I guess one might take comfort in the fact that the attorneys being sanctioned were all at one point 8th graders and I'm sure have memories of how one handles oneself in a class taught by someone they consider an asshole.

Please also see my comment on Chris's reply regarding the nature of the statement issued by SW.

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Ticki's avatar

So a judge ordered United States citizens to receive religious instruction? Because that’s the bottom line here.😾

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