Southwest Airlines is back in court over firing of flight attendant with anti-abortion views

By KEVIN MCGILL
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Southwest Airlines is going back to federal court in hopes of reversing an $800,000 award to a flight attendant who says she was fired for her anti-abortion views. The airline also will seek to reverse a judge’s related order that Southwest lawyers must take religious liberty training from a conservative Christian legal group. Arguments are scheduled to be heard Friday by a federal appeals court in New Orleans. Southwest says the flight attendant was fired because she violated company rules requiring civility in the workplace. The airline says she sent “hostile and graphic” anti-abortion messages to a fellow employee. Her lawyers say Southwest violated federal law shielding employees from religious-based discrimination.