In Carter v. Local 556, Transport Workers Union of America, (5th Cir., June 7, 2024), the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay pending appeal of a controversial contempt sanction imposed by a Texas federal district court against three attorneys for Southwest Airlines. (See prior posting.) Southwest had failed to adequately comply with a remedial Order imposed on it for firing a flight attendant because of her social media posts and private messaging featuring aborted fetuses to illustrate her religious objections to abortion. The district court, among other things, ordered that the attorneys responsible for non-compliance with the prior Order attend at least 8 hours of religious liberty training conducted by the Christian legal non-profit Alliance Defending Freedom. In staying the contempt sanction, the Court of Appeals said in part:
[T]here is a strong likelihood that the contempt order exceeded the district court’s civil contempt authority....
Civil contempt sanctions are “remedial” and “designed to compel future compliance with a court order” by either “coerc[ing] the defendant into compliance with the court’s order” or “compensat[ing] the complainant for losses sustained” as a result of the noncompliance.... Criminal contempt sanctions, by contrast, are used to “punish defiance of the court and deter similar actions.”... Generally, “criminal [contempt] penalties may not be imposed on someone who has not been afforded the protections that the Constitution requires of such criminal proceedings.”...
Law dork reports on the decision.At bottom, it appears that the district court sought, at least in part, to punish Southwest for what the district court viewed as conduct flouting its holding that Southwest had violated Title VII. But its punitive sanctions likely exceed the scope of the court’s civil-contempt authority.
