A judicial reform advocacy group filed a complaint accusing a Texas federal judge of misconduct by requiring three attorneys for Southwest Airlines to attend "religious liberty training" by a conservative Christian legal group.
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The head of the group, Fix the Court, accused U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr of violating the judicial code of conduct by assigning a sectarian organization to carry out the attorney sanctions he ordered in a religious bias case brought by a flight attendant against the airline.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative legal group, has brought cases challenging LGBTQ rights and the ability of women to secure abortions. ADF's chief legal counsel, Jim Campbell, called it "baseless and intolerant to suggest that people of faith cannot provide legal instruction simply because their religious beliefs might differ from their audience's." Starr, a former assistant Texas attorney general, was appointed to the bench in 2019 by former Republican President Donald Trump.
Southwest, which declined comment, is appealing Starr's order, which tasked ADF with training its lawyers after he determined they undermined an earlier decision he made in the case.