A US appeals court has allowed two former Alaska Airlines flight attendants to pursue a religious discrimination lawsuit after they were fired over posts opposing the airline’s support for the Equality Act.
A three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals revived the case brought by former employees Lacey Smith and Marli Brown, who were dismissed after posting comments on Alaska Airlines’ internal employee platform in 2021.
The Equality Act would expand federal civil rights protections to cover LGBTQ+ people in areas including employment, housing, education, credit, public accommodations and federally funded programmes.
In response to Alaska Airlines’ post supporting the bill, Smith wrote: “As a company, do you think it’s possible to regulate morality?”
Brown posted separately, claiming the Equality Act would infringe on women’s rights, enable sexual predators, and was “endangering the Church [and] encouraging suppression of religious freedom”.
Alaska Airlines deleted the posts before issuing a statement saying the company supported protecting LGBTQ+ people from discrimination and expected employees to live by the same values.
The pair were later fired following an internal investigation, with the airline saying they had violated its anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies.
Lower court dismissal overturned
Smith and Brown first sued Alaska Airlines in 2022, alleging they were discriminated against because of their religious beliefs.
Seattle US District Judge Barbara Rothstein dismissed the case, ruling that the firings were not discriminatory because the posts were not religious in nature.
However, the 9th Circuit reversed that decision in June, finding there was enough evidence for a jury to consider whether the firings were motivated by the women’s Christian beliefs. The court also revived claims against the Association of Flight Attendants union, which the plaintiffs alleged failed to support them during the investigation.
Circuit Judge Daniel Bress, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, wrote that Brown did not need to support her post with “chapter and verse from an authoritative religious text” for it to potentially qualify as religious expression.
“Nor is the religious nature of Brown’s post undermined by the fact that more than one religion may share in the same underlying views, or that the beliefs expressed could be regarded as non-religious human values,” Bress wrote.
The decision does not mean Smith and Brown have won their case. It means a jury will now decide whether Alaska Airlines and the union broke the law.
Case highlights clash between workplace policy and religious claims
The case has become another flashpoint in the ongoing legal and political conflict between LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination protections and claims of religious freedom in the workplace.
Alaska Airlines has argued that it acted because the comments violated workplace standards around discrimination and harassment.
The plaintiffs, represented by religious freedom legal group First Liberty Institute, argue they were punished for expressing faith-based objections to the Equality Act.
For LGBTQ+ advocates, the case raises concerns about whether anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric can be reframed as protected religious expression, even when posted in a workplace environment.
For religious freedom advocates, it is being framed as a test of whether companies can discipline employees for expressing religious objections to corporate support for LGBTQ+ rights.
A jury will now be asked to decide where that line sits.
