US lawsuit challenges Southwest Air’s free ticket program for Hispanic students

By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) – A group founded by a prominent anti-affirmative action activist on Monday sued Southwest Airlines, alleging that a two-decade-old program that offers free round-trip flights to Hispanic undergraduate and graduate students is racially profiled. discriminatory.

Edward Blum’s American Alliance for Equal Rights, in a lawsuit filed in Dallas federal court, alleged that the airline’s program violated federal civil rights laws by excluding non-Hispanic students from eligibility for free tickets.

His group alleged that as a result, two Asian and white students who were members of his nonprofit were blocked from enrolling in the program. The lawsuit seeks an injunction that would prevent Southwest from using its eligibility criteria.

“Southwest Airlines should immediately open this program to all students, regardless of skin color or ethnic origin,” Blum said in a statement.

Dallas-based Southwest did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit was the latest in a series of cases Blum has filed in recent months challenging corporate diversity programs, after another group he founded last year convinced the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court to ban consideration of race. as a factor in college admissions.

Monday’s proceedings focus on ¡Lánzate! Travel Award Program, launched in 2004 and operated in partnership with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.

To be eligible for four round-trip tickets, an undergraduate or graduate student must live at least 200 miles (322 km) from home and be Hispanic. Southwest says the program has helped more than 1,500 students.

The lawsuit alleged that the program violated Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, a Civil War-era law that prohibits racial bias in hiring.

It also alleged that the program violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in federally funded programs or activities. The federal funding Southwest received during the COVID-19 pandemic means the airline could be sued under this statute, according to the complaint.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Matthew Lewis)