Background
Plaintiffs Marli Brown and Lacey Smith, flight attendants at Alaska Airlines, were terminated after posting comments on the company’s internal network, Alaska’s World, in response to an announcement supporting the Equality Act. Brown posted a statement expressing religious concerns that the Act would endanger the Church and suppress religious freedom. Smith posted a question asking if the company could regulate morality. The district court granted summary judgment for the airline and the union, concluding the plaintiffs failed to prove discrimination and that state law claims were preempted by the Railway Labor Act.
The court’s reasoning
The panel held that the plaintiffs demonstrated a genuine dispute of material fact under Title VII and state law. For Brown, the court found that her post was facially religious, the company understood it as such, and a jury could find the termination pretextual given the company’s deviation from progressive discipline and disparaging comments by union leadership. For Smith, the court found a genuine dispute that the union attempted to cause her termination based on religious beliefs and that the airline’s stated reasons were pretextual. The court further ruled that the Railway Labor Act’s duty of fair representation does not impliedly preempt state law anti-discrimination claims against the union.
The dissent
What it means going forward
The case is remanded for further proceedings, allowing the plaintiffs to proceed to trial on their claims of religious discrimination against the airline and the union.