Alaska Airlines fired two Christian flight attendants for expressing opposition to the company’s endorsement of the so-called Equality Act, and while a district court rejected their lawsuit, an appeals court revived the case, giving them their day in court. The flight attendants, Lacey Smith and Marli Brown, both Christians, responded to Alaska Airlines’ announcement of support for the Equality Act in February 2021, making comments in an employee-only online network. Company management and the leader of the employees’ union, the Association of Flight Attendants, condemned Smith and Brown in internal discussions. After an investigation, Alaska Airlines fired Brown and Smith on March 19, 2021, claiming both flight attendants had violated the company’s anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies. Although a district court judge had ruled in favor of Alaska Airlines and the Association of Flight Attendants, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit resurrected the case and set it on the path toward trial, holding that Brown and Smith had presented enough evidence for a jury to find that the airline and the union discriminated against them because of their religious beliefs. “The Ninth Circuit’s decision today reinforces that federal civil rights laws protect people of faith from discrimination by their employer or their union,” Stephanie Taub, senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, who represents the flight attendants in court, said in a statement following the ruling Wednesday. “You cannot be fired because your employer does not like your religious beliefs.” Evidence of Anti-Christian Bias Judge Daniel A. Bress, an appointee of President Donald Trump, wrote the opinion for the 9th Circuit. “We hold that the plaintiffs have demonstrated a genuine dispute of material fact whether Alaska terminated them because of their religious beliefs and whether [the union] attempted to cause or acquiesced in their firing on this unlawful basis,” Bress wrote. The case traces back to Alaska Airlines’ endorsement of the Equality Act, legislation that would amend the federal laws barring discrimination on the basis of sex to also ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The law would require most companies, employers, and places of public accommodation to allow men in women’s spaces and vice versa, so long as the men claimed to identify as women. Internal company records show that Alaska understood that “the issue touches on religious freedom concerns for some.” Smith, a flight attendant who worked at Alaska Airlines for six years, posted, “As a company, do you think it’s possible to regulate morality?” Alaska management discussed Smith’s post internally. Andy Schneider, the company’s senior vice president of people, coordinated with the Association of Flight Attendants’ Master Executive Council President Jeffery Peterson, the union leader in charge of administering the collective bargaining agreement with Alaska. “Supporting the Equality Act is not about regulating morality,” the official response reads. “It’s about supporting laws that allow our LGBTQ+ employees and guests, no matter what state they live in or fly to, to be protected against discrimination. Our values are our guide, and we strongly believe that doing the right thing and being kind-hearted require us to support this act.” “We also expect our employees to live by these same values,” the company stated. “As stated in our People Policies, harassment and discrimination will not be tolerated.” In internal Alaska emails, company lawyer Taylor Ball wrote, “Employees actually do not have the right to believe that LGBTQ rights are ‘immoral.'” Peterson, the union leader, wrote of Smith: “Employees get to be bigots in their private lives and to express their bigoted and misinformed opinions while not at work—as horrifying as that may be.” He added, “the post is reprehensible and there should be repercussions.” Peterson separately texted an Alaska pilot, “I hate her,” referring to Smith. Peterson still informed his union colleagues that the union would “represent [Smith] through the grievance process fairly, in good faith, and without discrimination.” Brown, a flight attendant who worked at Alaska Airlines for eight years, wrote a more forceful condemnation of the Equality Act. “Does Alaska support: endangering the Church, encouraging suppression of religious freedom, obliterating women’s rights and parental rights?” she asked. “This act will force every American to agree with controversial government-imposed ideology or be treated as an outlaw.” The company launched investigations into both women. According to the company’s own report, Brown stated that she “loves her [LGBTQ] co-workers and that the company support[s] equity as it relates to them,” but she expressed her concerns about the legislation. She went on to express remorse for any offense and claimed she “had no intent to discriminate or create hostility.” The airline fired both employees, claiming their comments were “discriminatory,” “hateful,” and “offensive.” “Defining gender identity or sexual orientation as a moral issue” is “a discriminatory statement,” the airline said in its notice of discharge to Smith. Marli BrownDownload

Tuesday’s primary in New York saw a takeover of Democratic Socialists of America candidates and those endorsed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. “[This is] the Democratic Party’s accelerating leftward shift under Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and the influence of the Democratic Socialists of America, pushing things like abolishing the police and open-border-style policies,” Tony Kinnett, host of “The Tony Kinnett Cast,” said on Tuesday. On Monday, New York’s mayor used the terms “monsters” and “dark money” while criticizing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. “We’re talking about a status quo where children are being killed on a daily basis,” Mamdani said of Israel. He also made claims about an alleged Hamas sniper that was killed during an Israeli strike, describing him as “an Al Jazeera journalist, Ahmed Wishah.” When Mamdani spoke about AIPAC, he claimed the organization “has fought any attempt to actually deliver safety to people, not just in Palestine, but through much of the region, and that it is a status quo of immorality.” “When it comes to the way in which they defend the status quo, oftentimes they defend it through direct contributions, as we are seeing right now in New York’s 13th Congressional District. Oftentimes they also support the status quo through dark money,” he added. One of the top moments of the night for New York’s elections included Comptroller Brad Lander unseating Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman, one of the most vulnerable members in Congress. While both candidates are Jewish, the contrast on the topic of Israel is stark, adding a “weird” angle to the race, as Kinnett saw it. Goldman is supportive of Israel, while Lander has been highly critical and has accused the Jewish state of committing “genocide.” Lander received endorsements from Mamdani and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. In contrast, Goldman was endorsed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. “[Goldman] is still very progressive as a Democrat,” Kinnett told listeners of his podcast. “The reason a lot of people are angry about him existing is because AIPAC has donated money to him.” The congressman has had his public office vandalized and got into a public spat with Poetica Coffee in Brooklyn, which made clear on Instagram that they would have refused the congressman service had they recognized him. Another shift left involved the unseating of a five-term Democrat incumbent, Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who is also chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He was defeated by Darializa Avila Chevalier, a community organizer and member of the Democratic Socialists of America who has had past social media posts—such as using the American flag as a napkin—come back to haunt her. What about your hatred of America? https://t.co/Y3FiIELqO1 pic.twitter.com/P9bX9n1ie2— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) June 23, 2026 Immediately following the Oct. 7 attack that Hamas carried out against Israel in 2023, Chevalier was protesting Israel. She also is associated with Columbia University Apartheid Divest and has taken far-left views when it comes to abolishing prisons and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Claire Valdez, a member of the New York State Assembly for the 37th District, representing part of the Borough of Queens, also emerged victorious as the Democratic nominee for New York’s 7th Congressional District. Valdez has referenced calls to “free Palestine” and “abolish ICE,” and she is campaigning to “win Medicare for all, housing for all, and unions for all.” She also looks to grant citizenship and voting rights to illegal immigrants and supports using taxpayer funds to pay for transgender procedures. The nominees will almost certainly be serving in Congress next year, as the races are considered “solid Democrat” by the Cook Political Report. Watch “The Tony Kinnett Cast” here.

President Donald Trump made a rare visit to the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, where he demanded Republican Senators unite to pass the SAVE America Act and harshly reprimanded Republicans who have opposed him on the Iran war. “The president wants the SAVE Act, and that was the theme of pretty much the entire luncheon,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told reporters after a closed-door meeting, referencing a bill which would require photo identification and proof of citizenship in elections.  Kennedy added the president was “very upset” about a recent Senate vote in which the chamber voted to deprive him of his power to use military force against Iran. Trump was invited by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who for months has been championing the SAVE America Act. “I think we had a really great meeting,” Trump told reporters. “We’re very proud of the party. We like our leader, we like everybody, really, in the room. I don’t like a few people, but that’s okay. I think you know who they are.” President Trump after meeting with Senate Republicans: "I think we had a really great meeting. We're very proud of the Party. We like our leader. We like everybody really in the room. I don't like a few people, but that's okay." pic.twitter.com/mrZQ2svLHB— CSPAN (@cspan) June 24, 2026 Trump set the tone of the meeting before it even started by cancelling a scheduled signing ceremony for a housing policy bill that passed by overwhelming margins in the House and Senate. The president declared it “cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has argued the Senate lacks the votes necessary to pass the bill, much less the votes necessary to side-step the chamber’s 60-vote filibuster threshold. Thune has spoken in favor of the Senate’s focus on other legislation in the waning days before the midterm elections. Trump urged Republicans in the meeting to pass the bill by any means necessary, according to attendees. “The president was there to sell SAVE America—break the filibuster if you want to, if we need to, whatever it takes to do. He wants that to pass so badly,” said Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kans. Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., told reporters that he is personally “in favor of the housing bill, for sure,” but that he understands Trump’s desire to prioritize SAVE America over it. “He thinks that it’s really important that we move forward on SAVE America, and that’s his whole mindset,” Justice said. It was a mostly one-sided conversation according to senators. Asked if they had confronted the president on the housing bill, Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., laughed and told the Daily Signal, “Oh, we didn’t really make any recommendations during this conversation.” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., also laughed when asked if senators had chimed in, replying, “It was mostly the president sharing his views.” CORNYN readout of Trump meeting: “The president closed by preaching unity, but he spent the entire hour talking about things which were not exactly unifying” pic.twitter.com/5jumyw8bn2— Caitlin Huey-Burns (@CHueyBurns) June 24, 2026 According to multiple reports, the meeting blew up when Trump confronted Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., about having voted for war powers resolutions challenging his authority to use force against Iran. Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, recently lost his Senate primary to a Trump-backed challenger. According to Cassidy, Trump asked why anyone would vote for the resolution. “I said, ‘is that a rhetorical question?’” Cassidy told reporters he asked Trump. “He said, ‘I’d like to know.’”  Cassidy says he then “stood and said, ‘You have not told the American people what’s going on. [The war] was supposed to last four weeks. It’s lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved, and I want to know what’s going on.’” Cassidy says that’s when the shouting happened. Trump “did not particularly care for my comments, raised his voice, [and] I lost my temper. That’s not appropriate, it’s the Irish in me, but I, again, matched his tongue and his volume, and it went back and forth.” Multiple senators made sarcastic quips about how unifying the meeting was. “Quite a unity message,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, after exiting the meeting. Cornyn, who recently lost his Senate primary to a Trump-backed challenger, later added, “The president closed by preaching unity, but he spent the entire hour talking about things which were not exactly unifying.” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who announced his retirement last year shortly after Trump threatened to back a challenger against him, R-N.C., similarly joked it was a “great moment of fellowship.” Kennedy argues one should not look too far into the president’s bombastic style. “The president is very, very candid. The president exists loudly,” said Kennedy. “I’ve known him for 10 years, and I expect no less… He told us exactly how he felt.” Related Posts‘NATIONAL EMERGENCY’: Trump Cancels Housing Bill Signing Until Congress Passes Voter ID LawPresident Donald Trump said he will not move forward with a housing bill signing, which was scheduled for noon Wednesday, until Congress passes the SAVE America Act. “Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National…Trump Previews Closed-Door Senate Lunch on SAVE America ActPresident Donald Trump said that his Wednesday luncheon with senators will focus on ways to pass the SAVE America Act. “We have to get—we have to pass the SAVE America Act, which is voter ID, which is proof of citizenship, etc.,” he said Tuesday in response to a question from the Daily Signal. “We have…‘Why Don’t We Try?’: Vance Slams SAVE America Act NaysayersVice President JD Vance wants senators to go on the record about the SAVE America Act, which would require voter ID and ban mail-in voting. President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded that the SAVE America Act be attached to a vote to extend a key government spy power. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., responded…

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Wednesday called the House Budget Committee to his office for an impromptu closed-door meeting to plan the must-pass Reconciliation 3.0. With their deadline approaching, this could be the GOP’s last chance to eliminate fraud and wasteful spending, permanently defund Planned Parenthood, and pass the SAVE America Act. Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., described the Budget Committee’s meeting with Johnson as “a listening session.” He expressed the group’s overall “frustration” with the Senate regarding the SAVE America Act. Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, told the Daily Signal there were a lot of ideas thrown around. While “nothing was nailed down,” he said, “fraud is kind of the core of our thinking right now.” If leadership and the Budget Committee continue to work through Reconciliation 3.0—which President Donald Trump has also called for—this will be a smaller version of the One Big, Beautiful Bill that Republicans passed last July. They say their goal is to make life more affordable and eliminate fraud. “We’re still analytically working through the details [and] what, precisely, that would mean,” Gill said. “But, again, [fraud] is going to be the backbone, and I think most people agree on that.” He confirmed their goal is to pass the affordability bill before their upcoming August recess. The stage was literally set for Trump to sign the Bipartisan Housing bill. He canceled calling for the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act before he signs anything. Rows of empty seats for White House Senior Staff. @DailySignal pic.twitter.com/JPIxQDadTu— Virginia Grace McKinnon (@virginiagmck) June 24, 2026 Defunding Planned Parenthood Stutzman told the Daily Signal he brought up continuing to defund abortion providers. While Planned Parenthood was federally defunded for a year through the OBBB, that year is up on July 4, and hundreds of millions of dollars could be sent to fund Planned Parenthood once again. According to the organization, 38% of its revenue came from “government health services reimbursements and grants.” Four years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the historic Dobbs decision, throwing Roe v. Wade into the ash heap of history.I remain steadfast in my commitment to defending the sanctity of life and advocating for the unborn.Every life is invaluable and abortion simply has no… pic.twitter.com/feIJhNA1bt— Rep. Keith Self (@RepKeithSelf) June 24, 2026 “There wasn’t further conversation on that, but I did bring that up because we did do that in the Big, Beautiful Bill,” Stutzman said. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, another member of the Budget Committee present at the meeting, told the Daily Signal that he agrees they “ought to do it.” “Obviously, there are a number of folks that believe that, with the Planned Parenthood funding restriction [next week], we ought to do it. [It] ought to be a part of the conversation, and there’s a lot of people who feel that way.” While the GOP tried to defund the organization for 10 years in the OBBB, the Senate parliamentarian—the arbiter of what is allowed to be included in a reconciliation bill—determined they were only allowed to defund it one year at a time. Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., told the Daily Signal he remembers this rule making “no sense whatsoever.” Hey @LeaderJohnThune, get to work and renew Planned Parenthood’s defunding, sir. Since it was you who allowed ten years of defunding to be whittled down to one. If PP’s federal funding is restored on July 4th, it will be your and the Senate GOP’s scorecard, which neither of us… https://t.co/q56aFnURlQ— Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) June 24, 2026 “Some of us spoke to the president [and] vice president directly after the One Big, Beautiful Bill and said that parliamentarian is … biased and needs to be replaced,” he said. According to Brecheen, if Senate Majority Leader John Thune were to replace the parliamentarian, they would be able to include a lot more in Reconciliation 3.0, including the SAVE America Act. SAVE America Act Options As it stands, with the current parliamentarian, the full SAVE America Act would not pass the Byrd rule under Senate standards. The rules state that every line of a reconciliation bill must be budgetary in nature. BREAKING: Speaker Johnson proposes forcing the SAVE America Act into a reconciliation package that only needs 50 votes and JD Vance in the Senate"You have to put it on a reconciliation bill. We believe that if you create a grant program that ties it to reconcile the budget… pic.twitter.com/z2ApJDZ3AM— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) June 24, 2026 An option brought up more recently by Johnson is organizing a grant program to establish election integrity. Roy, an author of the bill, told the Daily Signal “that’s not the same as the SAVE America Act.” “Grant programs are what they are,” Roy continued. “They’re incentives. States who want to do it take the incentives.” “I am not saying I’m opposed to putting something like that on if there is a moving vehicle that’s otherwise moving in order to get some elements of election integrity done, but let’s not kid ourselves that it would be full SAVE,” Roy said.

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal senior contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal.   We’ve talked a lot about Gavin Newsom and California in particular. Apparently, Gavin Newsom will be running for president in 2028. I don’t know whether his slogan will be, “I will remake the United States in the way that I remade California.” Let’s hope not.  But he’s now, suffering some scandal allegations, and it’s intrinsic—or it’s no accident, given California is a one-party state. I mean that literally. Seven of 52 congressional seats are Republican—13%. Both houses of the legislature, Assembly and Senate, have super Democratic majorities. There has not been a statewide Republican for well over a decade. We have not had a Republican governor in 15 years.  The vast majority of superior, appellate, and Supreme Court appointees are now, left-wing—maybe even Democrat is an unfair characterization. They’re very hard Left. The point I’m making is there is no deterrence for illegal behavior in California, given the mass exit and odyssey of conservatives out of state, perhaps 10 or 12 million in total over the last few years.   So the population is increasingly left-wing, and it’s reflected in its politics.  Gavin Newsom had a problem. Dana Williamson was his chief of staff for years. She has just been convicted of mail and bank fraud. She was using campaign monies when she used to work for the, ironically, the would-be replacement of Gavin Newsom.   Xavier Becerra is running against Steve Hilton, the Republican, for the governorship of California, and she was draining his campaign fund for personal use.  And apparently, he is pleading that he didn’t have any idea this was going on. You can believe that if you would like.  In any case, the legislature is all left-wing. The government is all left-wing. So you have a uniparty, and there’s no oppositional press; there’s no oppositional money. Silicon Valley—$14 trillion market capitalization—all left-wing. Los Angeles Times, such as it is. San Francisco Chronicle—left-wing, etc., etc., etc.  The latest accusation, though, is really disturbing. In the last 10 or 15 years, the state of California has given $600 million plus to so-called nonprofit charities. If you examine these charities, they’re almost exclusively left-wing and reflect the political makeup of the California legislature and the recent governors.  And how it works is simply they pick out certain environmental, ethnic, political activist groups, and then they use our state money and endow them. And then those groups further the Democrat, left-wing control of the state by doing things like suing Republican developers or stopping the oil industry or trying to get subsidies for their particular favorite solar panel or wind project.   And then, of course, they give money back to legislators and the governor.  In Gavin Newsom’s case, the particular charge is he’s directly responsible for routing over $350 million in our taxpayer money to his favorite charities, which would be bad enough because some of those charities have donated back to him.   But his wife is associated with two charities, one of which she gets a salary of $150,000-plus a year, and some of the charities that he has routed money to have routed money back to her.  And then another case, a charity that she had has been the beneficiary of $4 million. So basically, Mr. and Mrs. Newsom go home at night, and they discuss how her charity should spend $4 million that Gavin gave. Gavin says to his wife, Jennifer, how’s my $4 million of the taxpayers’ money being used? Jennifer says back to Gavin, pretty well. We’re promoting left-wing causes, and we may want to donate to your cause for reelection. That’s how it works.  Is this criminal? He’s under investigation and may be indicted. Gavin Newsom is furious. He’s very, very angry because he says that this is lawfare.  Gavin, I wanna correct you. Lawfare was when Joe Biden was president, and he was aware of what you were doing and routing these state funds to your favorite charities, along with the legislature, and he knew that your wife was a recipient as a director of one of these charities and a director of another at no pay.   And yet no one investigated you because you were a left-wing governor in a left-wing state during a left-wing presidency.  Now there’s no cover, no exemption, and now you’re going to face scrutiny, and we have no idea whether these allegations are true or not.  I will add one final part—the end shot, Gavin.   You have a history of ignoring issues that are destroying this state. What I’m getting at is you shut down the entire state during the COVID epidemic, and you shut down K through 12, and you made the argument to us that this was an existential threat and that no one could leave their home. Even though children were not susceptible to a serious case of COVID, you kept them at home.  And then you went down to a sporting event in Southern California without a mask, and you were out in the public. You were caught with lobbyists in the ultra, ultra-exclusive French Laundry Northern California restaurant, violating the very terms that you imposed on us.  And what am I getting at? While you’re directing all of this money and you’re all over the country campaigning—and you’ve been campaigning for two or three years—and when your social media brags it’s going to hit [Donald] Trump in the mouth, and you’re going to do this, and it uses all these four-letter words, you’re not doing your job.  You don’t have any idea how we’re going to get out of this high-speed rail boondoggle that has spent $16, $17 billion without one foot of track.   We’ve been over a year of a tremendously devastating fire in one of the most historic neighborhoods in California, the Pacific Palisades fire. There hasn’t been any rebuilding. You have had no plan for that.  Under your directorship, we’ve had three or four existential forest fires in the Sierra Nevada mountains—no change in course.   We have the highest gasoline taxes and the highest gasoline prices. You’re bragging that you’re stopping oil and gas exploration and production in one of the wealthiest oil and gas states naturally in the country.   You’ve shut down the timber industry. You’ve done all of this, and yet you’re not even addressing any of the problems.  You have no solutions, and you’re campaigning when you’re under a cloud of allegations of rampant fraud. What’s your future? Will you still be a candidate for president?  Again, I’ll start where I finished. Your only slogan that you can run on is, “I will try to make the United States a new country just like I tried to make California a new state.”   And I think that’ll get you zero support when you’re honest about what your intentions are.  We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.