By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) – A gaggle based by a distinguished anti-affirmative motion activist on Monday sued Southwest Airways (NYSE:), alleging {that a} two-decade-old program that awards free round-trip flights to Hispanic undergraduate and graduate college students is racially discriminatory.
Edward Blum’s American Alliance for Equal Rights in a lawsuit filed in federal courtroom in Dallas alleged that the airline’s program violated federal civil rights legal guidelines by excluding non-Hispanic college students from eligibility totally free tickets.
His group alleged that consequently, two Asian and white college students who have been members of his nonprofit have been barred from making use of to this system. The lawsuit seeks an injunction blocking Southwest from utilizing its eligibility standards.
“Southwest Airways ought to instantly open this program to all college students, no matter their pores and skin shade or ethnic heritage,” Blum stated in a press release.
Dallas-based Southwest didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The lawsuit marked the newest in a sequence of instances Blum has filed in latest months difficult company range applications after one other group he based final 12 months satisfied the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court docket to bar the consideration of race as a think about faculty admissions.
Monday’s lawsuit facilities on Southwest’s ¡Lánzate! Journey Award Program, which launched in 2004 and is operated in partnership with the Hispanic Affiliation of Faculties and Universities.
To be eligible for 4 round-trip tickets, an undergraduate or graduate pupil should reside a minimum of 200 miles (322 km) from their dwelling and be Hispanic. Southwest says this system has helped greater than 1,500 college students.
The lawsuit alleged that this system violated Part 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, a Civil Battle-era legislation that bars racial bias in contracting.
It additionally claimed this system violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination in federally funded applications or actions. Federal funding Southwest obtained throughout the COVID-19 pandemic means the airline could be sued underneath that statute, in keeping with the grievance.
