June 20, 2024
Software vendor Workday is battling a suit over its artificial intelligence tools, Tesla is preparing for a sweeping race discrimination trial, lawyers for Southwest Airlines hope to dodge court-mandated religious bias training and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is defending its new pregnant worker rule. Here are four discrimination cases lawyers should keep an eye on in the latter half of 2024.
June 07, 2024
In finding Friday that an order for several in-house Southwest Airlines attorneys to undergo "religious liberty training" should be permanently placed on hold while an appeal of a flight attendant's Title VII trial win is pending, the Fifth Circuit said the district court had likely exceeded "the scope of the court's civil-contempt authority."
June 03, 2024
The Fifth Circuit on Monday seemed torn over whether it should "split hairs" between religious conduct and religious belief as it weighed whether to uphold a Southwest flight attendant's win in a wrongful termination suit over graphic anti-abortion messages she sent her union president.
May 31, 2024
A group of Republican state attorneys general will urge a federal judge Monday to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to block regulations implementing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and the Fifth Circuit will hear Southwest Airlines’ push to overturn an anti-abortion former flight attendant's win in her religious bias suit. Here are four June argument sessions discrimination lawyers should have on their radar.
January 30, 2024
Southwest Airlines Co. says it fired a flight attendant for her conduct rather than her beliefs after she sent a co-worker anti-abortion text messages, telling the Fifth Circuit on Monday she won the case because of incorrect jury instructions.
November 30, 2023
There's no reason to overturn a jury win for an anti-abortion former Southwest flight attendant who accused the airline of religious bias, or an order requiring Southwest's counsel to attend religious bias training, the ex-worker told the Fifth Circuit.
October 31, 2023
A union told the Fifth Circuit it shouldn't have to face a former Southwest Airlines flight attendant's religious bias suit claiming she was unlawfully fired after she sent pictures of aborted fetuses to her local union president, arguing that it had no say in the airline's call to fire her.
October 20, 2023
An airline industry group urged the Fifth Circuit to overturn a court order for Southwest Airlines to rehire a worker who sent pictures of aborted fetuses to a co-worker when protesting a union action, arguing federal law doesn't let workers use their religious beliefs to harass colleagues.
October 13, 2023
Amid its appeal of a Texas federal court ruling in favor of a flight attendant who claimed her firing was a Civil Rights Act violation, Southwest Airlines is also urging the Fifth Circuit to toss a district court sanction ordering three of its in-house attorneys to undergo "religious-liberty training."
September 26, 2023
A day before the court-ordered deadline for Southwest Airlines' lawyers to undergo "religious liberty" training in a flight attendant's suit, the airline convinced the Fifth Circuit to temporarily pause the sanction while the court considers whether to stay the decision pending Southwest's appeal.