Two former Alaskan flight attendants who filed a lawsuit after they were fired for expressing their faith-based opinions could likely find a jury to rule in their favor, an appellate court decided.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit maintained that a jury trial may find sufficient evidence to rule that Alaska Airlines had discriminated against the employees’ Christian faith, First Liberty Institute, which is representing the flight attendants, announced in a press release.
Lacey Smith and Marli Brown were flight attendants for Alaska Airlines, which in 2021 announced its support for the federal Equality Act, a bill that would have extended favored rights to LGBTQ people. The company announced its support in an online forum and invited employees to comment on the decision.
Opponents of the bill say the Equality Act invalidates major parts of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act while prioritizing LGBTQ rights over constitutional religious freedom and free speech rights.
Smith, a Christian who had worked for the airline for six years, posted on the forum, asking, “As a company, do you think it’s possible to regulate morality?”
Brown, who had worked for the company for eight years, also questioned the company’s support of the Equality Act.
“Does Alaska [Airlines] support: endangering the Church, encouraging suppression of religious freedom, obliterating women’s rights and parental rights?” Brown asked.
“The Equality Act would affect everything from girls’ and women’s showers and locker rooms to women’s shelters and women’s prisons, endangering safety and diminishing privacy,” Brown said. “Giving people blanket permission to enter private spaces for the opposite sex enables sexual predators to exploit the rules and gain easy access to victims.”
The airline then investigated Smith and Brown before firing them, claiming their comments were “discriminatory,” “hateful” and “offensive” and violated Alaska’s antidiscrimination and anti-harassment policies.
In May 2022, the flight attendants filed suit against Alaska Airlines as well as the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA union (AFA), which they claimed failed to defend them, due to their religious beliefs. A district court sided with the airline, barring the case from reaching a jury.
First Liberty Institute appealed, and senior counsel Stephanie Taub argued before the appellate court in August 2025.
First Liberty Institute announced on June 24 that the court had ruled favorably, allowing the flight attendants’ case to proceed in a trial court.
“We are grateful the court recognized the clear evidence of religious discrimination against Marli and Lacey by both Alaska Airlines and the flight attendants’ union,” said Taub. “The Ninth Circuit’s decision today reinforces that federal civil rights laws protect people of faith from discrimination by their employer or their union. You cannot be fired because your employer does not like your religious beliefs.”
Judges wrote in their opinion regarding Brown that, “Alaska was fully aware that some would object to the Equality Act for religious reasons.”
“That Alaska created a forum for employee discussion on controversial issues, then fired Brown after she made religious objections of the kind Alaska anticipated, provides a further reason for regarding this case as presenting a genuine dispute of fact on the reason for Brown’s termination,” the opinion stated.
Regarding Smith, the judges stated that Alaska Airlines at first treated Smith’s comment as a legitimate question but then “changed tunes” and asserted that her comment as speech that “targets a group of individuals based on their legally protected characteristics.”
The judges asserted that a reasonable jury could conclude that Alaska Airline’s description of the post was overexaggerated or inaccurate and thus “pretextual,” as the airline had “invited employees to explore” their “differences.”
The decision did not establish that the airline company wrongfully fired Smith and Brown, but instead, allows the case to be heard in a jury trial for a decision. The trial is predicted to begin in a few months, Taub says. Smith and Brown are seeking compensation for loss payments and reinstatements to their positions.
