Faith, fetus photos, fired: How Title VII grounded a Southwest termination

"This is what you supported during your Paid Leave with others at the Women's MARCH in DC… You truly are Despicable in so many ways."

That's one of several messages Charlene Carter, a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, sent to her union president—this one accompanied by a graphic photo of an aborted fetus.

Southwest fired Carter for violating its Workplace Bullying and Hazing Policy and Social Media Policy. Carter sued, claiming religious discrimination—that she sent those messages because the union's support of "women’s rights" conflicted with her religious beliefs about abortion.

The jury didn't buy Southwest's argument that it fired Carter for policy violations, not her faith. It awarded her $800,000 and ordered her reinstatement.

The 5th Circuit just affirmed, offering a textbook example of how Title VII protects religious practices—even when they make people uncomfortable.

✅ Title VII protects not just religious belief, but religious practice—including expressions of faith outside the workplace.

✅ Employers must reasonably accommodate religious practice unless it causes an undue hardship.

✅ Southwest failed to prove that accommodating Carter's religious expression would impose substantial costs.

✅ The Fifth Circuit held that, even under the now-tougher Groff standard, Southwest's case didn't hold up.

The bottom line?

📌 Title VII doesn’t just require neutrality—it demands accommodation.

📌 "Uncomfortable" isn't the same as "undue hardship."

📌 A policy that chills religious expression? That's how you end up sued—and lose.

(And yes, this is the same case where the district court ordered three of Southwest's in-house lawyers to attend religious liberty training with Alliance Defending Freedom. The Fifth Circuit tossed that part. But the verdict? It still stands.)