Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Colorado against United Airlines on behalf of a former pilot whose religious rights were violated when the company unlawfully refused to take part in the Title VII religious accommodation process and fired him over its 2021 COVID-19 shot mandate. The religious discrimination lawsuit stems from First Officer Christopher P. Gates’ religious objections to the use of aborted fetal cell lines associated with the COVID shots. Liberty Counsel represents Gates stating that United Airlines violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act by discriminating against him for not injecting himself with an experimental drug against his sincerely held religious beliefs.
The lawsuit comes amid speculation from CNN that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is now considering labeling COVID shots with a “black box warning”— the FDA’s strongest warning for drugs with major health risks. However, the FDA has not confirmed any decision on the issue.
Liberty Counsel is seeking a judgment that declares the airline’s religiously discriminatory actions unlawful under federal and state law. The lawsuit also requests a court order for United Airlines to reinstate Gates to a position comparable to his former position with full seniority or, in lieu of reinstatement, award front pay that would cover any future wages and benefits he would have likely lost because of the unlawful firing. In addition, the lawsuit requests back pay, damages for emotional distress, punitive damages, and reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.
This lawsuit, Gates v. United Airlines, is a separate case from the nationwide class action suit Sambrano v. United Airlines. In June 2024, a federal judge in Texas granted class action status to more than 2,200 United employees who had received some form of religious accommodation and who were put on indefinite, unpaid leave for choosing not to get the shot. Sambrano is one of the largest class action cases ever filed against a private employer. However, Gates’ Title VII case falls outside the scope of this class action suit because United Airlines refused to even consider his religious accommodation whereby failing to engage in the required interactive process under Title VII. United cited that Gates failed to timely file his religious accommodation request missing an arbitrary company deadline by six days, yet a federal court had blocked that deadline and United Airlines was never absolved from the Title VII process.
Gates was a United pilot for over 25 years, and before that served 11 years as a Naval aviator earning military Instructor of the Year honors. His record displays thousands of unblemished flight hours. In September 2021, Gates submitted his religious accommodation six days after United’s questionable deadline but still twenty-one days before he was required to be vaccinated. Later that month, United removed Gates from the flight schedule and fired him in December 2022 citing the missed arbitrary deadline. Despite an appeal from his union and the court injunction against the deadline, United Airlines refused to reconsider.
The complaint reads, “No one at United asked him about his religious beliefs. No one explored whether an accommodation was possible. And no one weighed his decades of service against six days…A decorated veteran pilot lost his career because somewhere, in a well-lit office, someone checked a box and moved on to the next file.”
“Gates had given United twenty-six years,” the lawsuit continues. “He had carried tens of thousands of passengers safely through the skies and never once failed United. But United failed him. When he came to his employer with a lawful request grounded in the faith that had sustained him through decades of service, United refused even to hear him out. Instead, the airline clipped his wings and fired him. Twenty-six years, thirty-five years of flying, a career of unblemished service, and Gates received less consideration than United gives a passenger requesting a seat change. The cost of United’s cruel indifference cannot be measured in lost wages alone.”
Under Title VII, employers have “an affirmative duty” to engage with employees and work in good faith when they receive notice of a conflict between a workplace requirement and an employee’s religious practice. United did none of these things and intentionally violated Gates’ rights, concluded Liberty Counsel.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “United Airlines violated a fundamental principle of employment law: the duty to engage in an interactive process to accommodate sincerely held religious beliefs. Instead of engaging in the interactive process required by Title VII, United imposed an arbitrary deadline, ignored a decorated veteran’s unblemished service, and terminated him for refusing to violate his conscience over an experimental injection. Employers cannot force employees to choose between their faith and their livelihood.”
Thank you for exposing this.